Blog Design Matters

Last week I asked the question – ‘Does Blog design Matter?’ I asked it because my own blog’s redesign was just around the corner and I was interested in the impact it would have upon my blog.

A number of people have asked me about the change and the impact that it has had on traffic levels to this blog.

It is probably too early to tell (its only been a few days) but the initial indications are that Blog Design does make a difference – at least it has to this blog. Here are some brief reflections on why:

1. Traffic levels have increased from an average of around 260 unique visitors per day to around 500 unique visitors per day (I’m yet to track this over a full week).

2. RSS feed stats from Feedburner are understandably lower at this point but have risen already to 70 per day.

3. I noticed a maked jump in votes for my site in the Business Blog Awards category that I am nominated for. Before the redesign launch I was tracking at 19% of the vote –today its up as high as 32%. Thanks to those who are voting – appreciate the support especially considering the high quality of others nominated.

4. This past two days has seen 4 potential blog consulting clients approach me completely out of the blue. In a couple of the cases I’m probably not the best person for the job but I have referred them on, but a couple of interested opportunities have arisen already without me doing anything but change design.

As I say its too early to tell the impact of the design, part of the reason for increased traffic is that a number of people linked up to me announcing the changes (thanks so much for that) but the initial response has been very positive in terms of traffic but also perhaps credibility, trust levels and first impressions.