Lynn Terry just blogged about building websites backwards and her advice applies to blogs also. When we build templates or use templates built by others, it’s important to look over the entire structure including single and archive pages. Remember, people may arrive at a page other than your blog’s homepage via the search engines or backlinks from other websites.
There are numerous blogs that I’ve frequented that have basic navigation principles overlooked. When designing your blog, or choosing a template, you would do well to realize that not everyone who visits your blog is a seasoned web surfer or blog reader.
- Make sure there is always a clearly marked link back to the home page. If you don’t have a text link or a direct link to the homepage, at very least, make sure your logo (or header image) is linked to the homepage.
- Display links to prominent articles or related entries that may be of interest to readers on that page.
- Invite your visitor to return. Ask them to subscribe to your feed, newsletter, or bookmark your site.
- Organize your posts in a logical way with categories or a tag cloud.
- Use descriptive link anchor text. This doesn’t just apply to your content link anchor text, but also the links that direct users to the permalink or an individual comment link.
