First of all, we have to say that we are not talking here about design in general or the visual design of each element (like the buttons, the different columns, the top of the page and the footer …) of your WordPress site. We speak only of the general layout style from the main part of your homepage, which contains the links to your articles.
WHY IS THE LAYOUT OF YOUR MAIN PAGE IMPORTANT ON A WORDPRESS BLOG?
In many cases, visitors find your WordPress site from a link contained on another web page of another site, or from a response to a query on a search engine. Indeed, we assume that we are talking here about a blog, and that visitors came to your site related to a particular topic. This is how on a blog,every page is very important. If the visitor likes your content, he will continue the visit by going directly to the main page, and this is where he will decide whether or not he will linger on your site or not.
THE MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENTS FOR A WORDPRESS BLOG
The homepage of a blog has the primary role of inform the reader about the main theme conveyed through the different pages. However, there is no point in write a text of several hundred wordsa few tens are enough. Of course, this text must be keyword rich and follow the main rules in SEO.
But the most important part is the links to the different pages of your blog WordPress. THEthe reason for being a blog is indeed contained in these different pages, which convey different subjects on a specific theme. The homepage must therefore contain links that point to these different pages, more precisely the most important. Usually, the last new pages are listed first, but this is not an absolute rule.
It is important to focus on readability and ease of clicking on each item. In general, it is important to highlight them to allow visitors to quickly click on them. You can also attract visitors through link-titles that speak, but you can very well put summaries or pictures. This association title – summary – image is indeed very used and appreciated on WordPress blogs.
3 BLOG LAYOUTS THAT YOU CAN USE IN WORDPRESS
Of course, you have the Right to arrange and design your homepage according to your wishes. But here we present 3 types of themes, among the most used, which take up the association title – summary – image mentioned above.
-
Arrangement in lists of messages
A list remains the simpler and easier to read. A layout based on a list is usually a simple vertical succession of blog posts, which includes their titles, featured images and short excerpts from each. Each item in the list usually occupies the entire space between the two columns “left” and “right” of the page. This style may seem basicbut it offers lots of benefits.
A WordPress homepage based on a list:
- Is easy to read and facilitates navigation. The reader can quickly browse articles (mostly sorted in chronological order).
- Respect the tradition. Yes, everyone is used to this style of navigation. In addition, it is very suitable for mobile devices.
- Suitable for any screen width. Which is a more important since readers today use a multitude of screen resolutionsranging from small screens of mobile devices to large computer screens.
This style is used by many blogs. And “The simplest is often the best”. On the other hand, using this style of layout, there are fewer problems with updates of WordPress and its components.
-
Layouts based on grids or maps
For Grid or map layouts are modern and allow you to display many more messages on one page. How is it? Maps or grids are presented side by side on the homepage using a title, an image and a small excerpt.
A WordPress homepage based on a grid:
- Offers more space. The side-by-side approach allows readers to display multiple tickets on the main page when compared to a list.
- Offers more possibilities for customization. You can not only play with the design of the cards, but also that of the background and the interaction of the grids on it.
It’s important to specify that a layout based on grids works more with a logic : draw the reader’s attention by the pictures. Which is slightly different with the list style where the title (and sometimes the excerpt) prevails. it is only a logic based more on a habit than on a real logic. Just note that you should not put too many texts (extracts) in the cards to avoid overloading the presentation. This is how it is normal to focus a little more on images.
-
Masonry of cards
Arrangements in masonry style cards are becoming more common nowadays. It’s about a variant of the grid design. However, this time, the cards have different sizes. The first row is arranged in the same way. On the other hand, each card of the second row is placed where the cards above stop. So that the cards of the second row are not placed on the same line. In the end, we have the impression that the cards are arranged in the manner of a brick wall, hence the term ” masonry “.
A WordPress home page based on a masonry style:
- Is simply very beautiful to see (regardless of the general design of the site)
- Gives the reader a “modern” impression for your site. Indeed, this style abandons the idea of the classic that can offer a grid for example.