Want more people reading your blog posts? These Blog page examples from 3 popular websites show you how it’s done.
What’s that one page on your website you thought you didn’t have to worry about?
Right, your Blog page.
You hit “publish”, and poof! – your newest creation appears on your Blog page, featured right on top with a shiny thumbnail. You scroll down, and you can see all of your blog posts nicely placed there, one by one, without you lifting a finger.
Aahhh… Could you ask for more?
Oh yes, you certainly could!
Quick question:
How long does a website visitor need to scroll down your Blog page to get to the post #5?
You see, that’s the problem with a typical Blog page: An average website visitor will see only a couple of titles and featured images. If they didn’t find anything related to their current problems or interests, they’ll just leave.
“Wait! But you haven’t seen that blog post I wrote two months ago that would answer all your questions!”
Yeah, about that…
Bad news: Nobody is going to scroll past 2 months of your blog posts.
Good news: There are ways to make it easier for your readers to find blog posts they like on your Blog page (and keep them on your website longer).
Here are 3 of them.
How to Supercharge Your Blog Page: 3 Real-life Examples
Blog Page Example #1: Blog focus + sign-op form + featured posts
Here’s a really easy one:
- Tell your readers what you blog about.
- Feature the posts you want to get more people to see next to each other in a row so that your readers can see more posts without scrolling.
- If you feel like it: Add a sign-up form, give them a compelling reason to opt-in and set the expectations for your newsletter.*
* – The sign-up form isn’t essential to this Blog page example. Adding a sentence about your blog’s focus and several featured posts is what makes it work.
See it in action on Orbitmedia.com
Why is this better than a typical Blog page?
When somebody decides to check out your Blog page, they don’t necessarily want to read more of your Blog posts. They are probably trying to learn more about you, especially it’s a first-time visitor who clicked on a “Blog” navigation menu from your homepage.
Maybe you don’t have Services page. Maybe your homepage was not specific enough. Maybe they want more details.
Clicking on that “Blog” link in your navigation, your readers are trying to find out more about your expertise.
So don’t make them scroll through the endless blogroll trying to connect the dots. Tell them right away what you blog about, for whom and what’s in for them.
Now, when they stopped wondering about it, your readers will be more likely to read your individual posts (or may even thank you for being so considerate by subscribing to your blog).
Blog Page Example #2: Featured topics
List selected categories (not more than 7) giving your readers an idea what you blog about and increasing the chances of them finding something they’d like to read.
See it in action on EnchantingMarketing.com.
Why is this better than a typical Blog page?
The featured topics section kills two birds with one stone:
- A group of 6 clear topics does the job of the blog focus section: It implicitly communicates to the readers what the blog is about.
- The links to several broad topics increase the chances that a reader will find something of interest fast and will keep reading.
On her website, Henneke Duistermaat takes it one level up and links not to the automatically created post category pages but to the dedicated landing pages she manually created on every topic (with illustrations!).
As a reader of her blog, you can’t but get impressed by how much thought Henneke has put into each page just so you can find what you are looking for.
#aw #follow #subscribe
Plus, it must be ranking well in search, too.
I use this approach to my Blog page, and I can clearly see how my readers are using the featured topic (see the heat map below):
Pro tip: Add a search box to your Blog page to make it even easier for your readers to discover relevant content.
Blog Page Example #3: Categorize everything
Offer your readers a complete overview of your posts and organize all of them by topic.
See this blog page example in action on Susangreenecopywriter.com. But to be honest, I’m not a fan of the “about me” section on the top and all the banners in the sidebar Susan Greene uses on her Blog page (more on this in a minute).
Why is this better than a typical Blog page?
If you organize all of your blog posts into bite-size sections by topic, your readers will have a full picture of your expertise and an easy way to discover more of your content. And you will have total control over what posts to draw your readers’ attention to.
This works especially well if you don’t blog regularly anymore. But even if you’d like to make sure your regular readers won’t miss your latest posts, simply include a “Recent Posts” section.
3 Blog Page Examples That Will Make More People Read Your PostsClick To TweetImportant: Don’t make this mistake
Just because you can add all possible stuff to your Blog page, doesn’t mean you should.
Keep in mind that when your visitors click on your Blog link in the navigation they clearly want to see what you are blogging about.
So, add additional information to your Blog page only if it helps your visitors achieve this goal (or at least doesn’t interfere with it).
For example, a short paragraph about your blog focus or a selection of featured topics makes it easier for your visitors to browse through your blog post.
But adding a huge “about me” section on the top of your Blog page or other self-serving content that has nothing to do with your blog posts may backfire.
Final words of wisdom
Your Blog page is one of the most visited pages on your website. Go beyond a typical blogroll and use this opportunity to move your prospects further down the know-like-and-trust-you lane.
What if your recent blog posts don’t resonate with them?
Don’t let them leave empty-handed. Offer your readers a better way to explore your content. They’ll get their questions answered, and you’ll get to grow your loyal audience and a chance for more client inquiries.
Pumped up to supercharge your Blog page?
Make sure you answer these 5 questions before making any changes to your website.
Today there’s only 5 blog posts on my site, so scrolling to find everything is not a problem 🙂 BUT I am already making sure I’m categorising posts to make it easier to group them in the future. I’m bookmarking this post for that time in the future. Great tips. Thanks Gill.
Most readers of a Blog article land there from a Google search page or social media platform, they never see the rest of your site…
That would be really sad if that was true, Edwin. Because it would mean you’re wasting your time writing all those blog posts. Why do that if people leave your site right after they’ve read your article?
Unless it’s an affiliate marketer who lives off the ads inside the blog posts, many businesses blog to attract their ideal clients and make their prospects curious about their services and products so that they check out the rest of the site (especially the homepage and service / product pages).
For example on my site, it’s quite common for my prospects to land on a blog article and end up checking my services. That’s literally how I get new clients.
Hi Gill,
Thanks for your reply. What I mean is that most blog readers don’t land on an article through your website hierarchy, which means that it’s not important how your blog article is shown on your blog page. But you are right that the game starts there, to keep them on your website.
When Hubspot learned that only 5% of website visitors came through the homepage, they completely rearranged their site. People that landed (through Google or social media) on an individual article were then ‘fed’ new articles about the same subject until they became customers. You can do this with tags, people that land on a blog article on my website can see other blogs about the same subject very easily. Like the visitors of your website, some will become customer.
Hi Edwin,
> …which means that it’s not important how your blog article is shown on your blog page.
May I ask you how you reached this conclusion?
16% of my homepage visitors go straight to my Blog page. Almost 2% of overall visitors check out the Blog page, too. I can’t find the current heatmap, unfortunately, but here’s an older heatmap of the upper part of the Blog page that also shows how the visitors use the categories in the changed layout:
Besides the improved click-through rate compared with the simple blogroll, this structure also gives me insights on what topics my visitors are more interested in, but it
Also, you’ll find many famous websites using more than just a blogroll on their pages (it actually would be hard to find one that uses a simple blogroll).
For example, Orbitmedia uses the blog structure #1 (blog focus + signup + featured posts). Ahrefs uses a lot of categories, and HubSpot uses something a custom structure that’s also different from a blogroll.
Websites like these A/B test things, and if they don’t use a simple blogroll, I’m sure they use it because their current structure works better.
So, I won’t go so far and say it’s not important how the articles are presented on your Blog page. And if no one is checking out your Blog page, I’d rather try to understand why it is the case and try to fix that.
Because if you’re attracting your ideal clients and you write great articles, one of your goals should be to also get them to read more and check out your Blog page to get to know you, and, thus, like and trust you faster.
Hi Gill,
What Hubspot noticed (as well as I) is that most readers of a blog article don’t see the homepage or the blog overview page at all. They search for a keyword (phrase), see the article in the search results and then land directly on your website. No homepage needed… nor a blog overview page. Or they are scrolling the timeline of a social media platform and click a link. Directly to the blog…
Of course Hubspot has a homepage and it has a blog overview page, but it’s just for the 5% of the blog readers that use this route to get to a blog article. Their focus is on the journey after reading the blog, not the journey before.
I’m afraid I don’t see how this is an argument against restructuring your Blog page, Elwin. Why can’t one pay attention to all aspects of your customer’s journey, both before and after they read a blog post?
Sure, every website is unique, and if you for some reason think this won’t be beneficial to your website, in this case, you know best. But generally speaking, to me, it’s very clear.
Restructuring your Blog page (for ex., using one of the structured presented in this article) can only benefit you:
There are people looking at your Blog page. So why not take an hour and revamp it to enjoy the benefits without lifting a finger from thereon?
I did it on my website, and I saw clear benefits. This fact alone contradicts your opinion that it’s not important how your Blog page looks like. Many websites out there are doing it too, which is a strong indicator that they’re seeing the benefits as well.
So, I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree on this.
Hey Gill!
You are right, most visitors to a blog will skimp through the blog and see if they can see something they really want to learn more about. This is why it is important that you track everything.
It is extremely important that you create an Avatar from your target audience. You want to identify that one person you want to help online (in your niche) – and always create your content to help that one person (avatar).
Chances are, there are millions of other people just like that one person. This is how you create a successful blog with content people actually need.
There is an important quote I learned from a successful blogger I met a long while ago, he said; “when you try to help everyone, you help no one. When you try to help someone, you can help everyone.”
This is so true. Focus on your one person that needs the help and the rest (just like that one person) will follow.
Thanks for sharing!
Cheers! 😀
Hi Freddy. Thanks for stopping by. Of course, no blog will succeed unless you know who your target audience is. Yet, identifying your target audience is just the beginning. If your website is poorly designed and offers bad UX, the fact that you know your target audience isn’t going to help you.
But even if your web design is ok, there is always room for improvement 🙂 And this is what I suggested in this post – a simple way to make more people from your target audience read your blog.