Here’s Why Blog Sidebar Design Is So Important
A blog sidebar is part of your blog layout. Usually blog layouts contain one or two sidebars, but sometimes three or even four sidebars can be used. Sidebars are now columns and can be left, right or flanked by the widest column in the blog layout, where the content of the blog post (or blog page ) appears.
How is Blog Sidebar used?
Blog sidebars are used for several purposes. First, sidebars are a great place to post important information that you want visitors to have quick access to. Depending on the blog application and theme or template you use for your blog layout, you can customize your blog sidebars to display the same information on each page and post or other information based on different page and post layouts.
The top of a sidebar (especially the part that can be seen on top of a visitor’s screen without scrolling, referred to as above the fold) is important property. Therefore, it is a good place to put critical information. It’s also a great place to sell ad space if you’re trying to make money from your blog, because the space above the fold is more sought after than the space below the fold simply because more people will see it. The further a visitor has to move a page, the less content is published there, will be seen simply because people do not like to browse. Therefore, less important information should be placed further on your sidebar.
What should you design in your Blog Sidebar?
Your blog sidebar design can include anything you want, but always try to put your visitors’ needs and needs ahead of your own to create the best user experience. If your blog’s sidebar is filled with dozens and dozens of irrelevant ads and nothing else, visitors will ignore it or be so bad that they will never return to your blog. Your sidebar should enhance the user experience on your blog, not hurt it.
Use your sidebar to give your best content a longer shelf life by providing feeds to your most popular posts or posts that received the most comments. If you use a blogging program like WordPress , it’s easy to do so using widgets built into themes and plugins . Make sure you also have access to the archives of your blog in your sidebar. People who are familiar with reading blogs will look for links to your older content by category and date in your sidebar.
One of the most common things bloggers post in their sidebars is an invitation to subscribe to the blog ‘s RSS feed via email or their preferred feed reader. Your sidebar is also the ideal place to invite people to connect with you on the social web. Provide links to connect with you on Twitter , Facebook , LinkedIn and so on. In other words, your blog’s sidebar is a great way to promote your content in several ways and increase your online audience.
Of course, as mentioned above, your sidebar is also a great place to advertise. Display ads, text link ads and video ads can all be displayed in the sidebar of your blog. Remember, you can also include your own videos in your sidebar. If you have a YouTube channel where you publish video blog content , show your most recent video in your sidebar of your blog with a link to see more videos from your YouTube channel. You can do the same thing with your audio content if you publish a podcast or online talk show.
Bottom-line, this is your sidebar, do not be afraid to get creative with how you use it. While there are certain features that your audience will find in your sidebar, you can always test new elements, experiment with placement and formatting, and so on until you get the right content mix and layout to saturate your audience and achieve your goals. For more sidebar design ideas, read about 15 popular sidebar items .
