Recently I wrote a post on four typography tips that enhance SEO. Here are four more ideas that will improve the reader experience on your blog or website – even though they have no bearing whatsoever on SEO.
I make a point of pointing them out for the following reason. Search engine optimization is worthless if people don’t like what they see when they get to your site. Web pages should be easy to read, easy to navigate, easy on the eye all the way around.
Four Ways to Make Your Readers Happy
Margins. Exceedingly wide or narrow lines of text are hard to read on a computer screen. I still think the margins are too wide on my non-blog pages – judge for yourself. My blog post margins seem just about right. Margins may seem like a marginal issue, but I know of cases where a correction of margin width correlated to a reduction in bounce rate. Oops … there I go talking about SEO again.
Color Scheme. As someone who has trouble getting his shirt and pants to match, I rely on design experts like Jesse Petersen to help me bring the right colors into my websites. It’s well worth the expense, because color affects our mood and our response to what we read and see. The science of color as it applies to web design is fascinating – depending on what you are selling or the audience you are cultivating, color selection can make all the difference between a thriving community and a ghost town. A horrible example of color scheme abuse can be seen on Twitter profile pages where people put dark fonts on a dark background, rendering the text unreadable. You’ll frequently see similar issues on blogs and websites – for example, light grey text on a dark grey background – which amounts to throwing roadblocks in front of your own readers.
Font Selection. Appealing to seniors? Don’t use small fonts. Appealing to a younger crowd? Small fonts are OK. Whatever you do, don’t mix too many font sizes and styles, because your page will begin to look like a kaleidescope. There’s quite a bit of disagreement as to which fonts are best for on-screen viewing. Here’s an excellent overview of font selection, and here’s a more specific discussion of serif versus sans serif fonts with research to back up the conclusions. In general, I find it best to play it safe with fonts and break new design ground in other elements of the web page.
Image Placement. Place images above or to the right of the text. The eye first goes to the images, and from there to the text – images so placed draw the reader in. This approach is very old school, by the way. David Ogilvy, in his classic Ogilvy on Advertising, exhorts designers to place images at the top of print ads every time. Strictly speaking, I’m not sure if image placement is a typographical issue, but I do know this. Poorly placed images (e.g., left of the text, over or undersized for the space) deter people from reading what you wrote.
Over to You
1. What do you feel are the strongest typography elements in your website or blog? 2. What do you feel are the weakest?
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Chicago based SEO copywriting, blog consulting, and content strategy consulting.
Brad, these are really good tips. I had a planned revamp for my own site that was put on hold but is now back on the boards. I personally like dark type, light background and find the light on dark hard on my eyes. I also like space which is one of the big reasons for my own redesign. I love the Word Sell design and enjoy coming here to read.
Hi Karen, Glad your new site design is moving forward – I’m sure it’s going to look fantastic. Dark type on light background is definitely the way to go – much easier to read, particularly on a blog like yours, where there is lots of text. Thanks for the feedback on my site. I did try to simplify, and now I’m wondering if the 3D effect on the sidebar is too much – what do you think?
Brad, I like the 3D sidebar, it’s like a sign so it makes the headings stand out. I also love that it is your design, not the typical one dimensional. I have actually spent a lot of time reading your entire site, which is one of the many reasons I am such a big fan of your work and talent.
Karen, Thank you so much. I appreciate the kind words and you’ve put my mind at ease about the design.
Excellent blog post Brad, it’s important to highlight the necessary elements that make a website attractive once someone lands on it. There ar many different blogs I’ve read on different typography and colour and I agree that it is a vital element to ensuring people return to a blog.
Think you’ve hit the nail in the head with this site Brad, great colour, typography and pictures all to back up the informative and well written content.
Brad,
Whether one is after romance, a multi-million dollar corporate client or just simply a new blog reader, first impressions count. With blogs, this means topography and everything which is above the ‘fold.’
Whoever put light grey text on a dark grey background seriously needs to get a clue. Whichever way you go (I like dark text and a light background), the text and the background should contrast for readability related considerations.
With regard to the picture. I am curious – I have always found it goes better on the right of the text, but I wonder if there is any particular reason why it doesn’t look so good on the left – do you know?
You ask about the positives and negatives of our own blogs. In my case, I would have to quite simplicity and orderliness as positives, but I would also probably site boringness and a potential lack of excitement or inspiration as negatives – plus the fact that I could use a better picture of myself. I have been thinking about giving it a ‘fresh look’ for the past six months or so, but haven’t gotten around to it and probably won’t in the near future.
Hi Jenny, Thanks so much for the feedback on my site – like I said, Jesse had everything to do with the design. Glad you like it!
Andrew, It’s been awhile since I read up on the issue, but I believe the image placement rationale has to do with how we read from left to right. When we come to a web page, we scan from left to right, so our eyes naturally gravitate to the photo and dwell there. The photo draws our interest and then we go back and start reading. If the photo is on the left, it stops us before we complete the scan and is unnatural. About your site – I applaud your honesty about working on it,
and I agree that images would enhance your design quite a bit, but it does take some time. I’m finding Apture to be a great plugin for adding links and images to posts – you might try that.
I’m with Karen, I like the 3D sidebar. It seems to push your eye back to the primary text.
Fred, Interesting observation about the sidebar. That’s a great reason to keep the status quo. Thanks.
Hi Brad – I don’t know that I have the right colour scheme for my blog. Blue would probably have been better but I really loved the idea of red and silver at the time.
The blogs I find hardest to read are those that use few margins, or worse still, none at all. It makes it almost impossible to read the text.
Hi Cath, Maybe you should give your blog a new color scheme – a change like that might make you feel like you have a whole new site! Sounds like you’re ready for a change.
Brad, you are so right about fonts! People rarely consider audience when they choose the size. As far as I am concerned, bigger is always better than tiny fonts. Even for younger crowds! We all spend too much time on our computers, or have long, hard days, or any other reason causing our eyes to hurt. At that time, a nice larger font will make us feel so thankful
Oh, and speaking of fonts, some look cool, but are hard to read…People should generally stay away from those overly complicated and enigmatic fonts!
Alina, what a great point about even younger eyes appreciating larger font. I never thought of that but how true. Thanks for the insight!
Alina, Exotic fonts are off putting – I agree. When researching this post I was interested to learn of the controversy between sans serif and serif fonts. It seems that designers are split on which is easier to read. What do you think?