How to Change the Design of Your WordPress Blog

You know that you have to write great content on your WordPress blog to be successful. Plus you have discovered all the SEO tips to get you on the first page of Google. But, you want more! You want change the design of your WordPress blog.

In order to blog with WordPress like a pro your blog needs to look clear, simple, readable, presentable and elegant.

One option you would have would be to purchase a professional theme from one of the big theme sites. I would recommend Genesis from StudioPress, Elegant Themes, Thesis or WooThemes.

However, if you don't want to go that route, or even if you do, here are some how to's for tweaking your blog's design.

Locate your theme files

The files in your WordPress package that determine the look of your site are called the theme files. They are stored in your WordPress files under wp-content/themes/[theme_folder] where [theme_folder] is the name of your theme. If you're not sure what your theme is called head over to Appearance > Themes in your WordPress administration area and see which theme is activated.

Inside your theme folder there will usually be just one file that determines the look of the website. This is a file usually called style.css. You can look at it and edit it if you go Appearance > Editor in the back end.

If this file makes no sense to you at all, don't worry! Read on and all will become clear.

Use Firebug and Developer Tools There are fantastic tools available to help you re-design your blog.

If you're using Chrome you can view Developer Tools (you can also use Developer Tools in Internet Explorer but I seriously recommend that you don't use that browser). In Chrome go View > Developer > Developer Tools (Cmd/Ctrl-Opt-I). And if you're using Firefox you can use the Firebugextension.

Both these tools will open a panel in your browser that will show you all the styles pertaining to any element on your site. You can make a change in this panel and see it take effect in your browser before you decide on the change and edit the style.css. This is a fantastic way to learn CSS.

Click on the cursor (it can be an arrow or a magnifying glass), click on the element that concerns you and then the styles and style sheet that is affecting it will show up in the Developer Tools or Firebug panel. So, if you click on a subheading you may see if it is controlled by the h2 element in your main CSS file.

For example you may see that the subheads in the blog post have a font size of 25px, a line height of 30 pixels with a 10 pixel margin above and a 20 pixel margin below. And on the right hand side you can see where this is stipulated: on such and such line of a file called style.css (9 times out of 10, that's what the CSS file is called).

For example, another CSS declarations for the headings may be "clear: both;". This means that the heading will always start on a new line and clear any floated images that may be to the left or right of it.

Finally, there are some more general styles that maybe affecting the heading. For example "color: #333;" means the text color should be a dark gray. "font-weight: normal;" means the heading shouldn't be bold. There should be no padding around the heading can be denoted by "padding: 0;" and no text decoration (underlining) "text-decoration: none;".

Now, the crossed out styles are the styles that are superseded by other styles. These are general styles that would be adhered to if another style hadn't been specified. The style takes precedence because it is more specific to what we are looking at. The style of the h2 ont size declaration will be accepted as the true size of the heading rather than the body style which is too general as it applies to the whole body of the website.

By the way, this is why it's called Cascading Style Sheets, because the style declarations cascade down from general to more specific declarations.

Design rules for your WordPress blog

Now that you know how to edit the CSS of your WordPress blog, here are some basic style rules to help you on your way. But first, here's a crucial tip for editing your theme files.

Always keep a copy of everything! Just before you start editing your style.css or any file in your theme folder, please, please, please back it up. Locate the theme folder using an FTP client such as Filezilla, locate the theme folder at wp-content/themes/[theme_folder] where [theme_folder] is the name of your theme and copy the file to your computer.

So, once backed-up, tweak your styles to your hearts content! Here are some important design tips to keep in mind:

Always make sure your text is readable! Not only should you pay attention to font size but also the color of the font versus the color of the background. If you are young with perfect vision, remember not everyone is as able as you to read the small text! This text is 15 pixels in size. I try not to put body text smaller than 14 pixels. The line height (or line spacing) should be 25% greater than the font size or more. So if the font size is 15 pixels; your line height should be 19 pixels or more. If the font size is 1 em; your line height should be 1.25 em or more. Line heights are especially important for headings as many theme designers never check to see what headings look like if they go over one line. Paragraphs should have a space between them and this should not be created with a double return. The space after each paragraph should be around half the line height. So, if your line height is 20 pixels, there should be around 10 pixels between paragraphs. This is usually done with either padding or margin on the <p> tag. In the WordPress HTML editor two returns equal one in the Visual editor! Look at the tab on the top right of the WordPress text editor where you write your posts, it will either say HTML or Visual. To create a new paragraph in the HTML editor hit return twice; to create a new paragraph in the Visual editor hit return just once. To create a line break (new line with no gap) in the HTML editor hit return once; to create a line break in the Visual editor go shift-return.

Remember, make your site easy to read and you visitors will reward you!

Are You Wondering: "How Do I Create a Website With WordPress?"

Many people ask themselves "how do I create a website?" when they first decide to do business on the World Wide Web. After all, everyone knows that it is essential to own a website if you plan to do business on the Internet. Otherwise, it is impossible to reach potential consumers so that you can promote your products and/or services. The good news is that there are all kinds of ways to create a website no matter what your budget might be. One of the most cost-effective and successful ways to create a presence online is by using the WordPress platform.

So now you might be thinking "Well great, but how do I create a website with WordPress then?" and the truth of the matter is that there really is not much to it! You can always hire someone to handle all of the details for you which is of course the most expensive yet least time-consuming and labor intensive way to go about it. But setting up a WordPress website is such an easy thing to do that you can get it done all by yourself.

What Exactly is WordPress?

WordPress is an open source platform that is used by millions to create blogs, websites, and other forms of online presences on the Internet. This platform can be easily set up within your own website hosting account, especially if your service provider features a CPanel administration system for your hosting account.

The platform allows you to implement website templates to create your site and offers many features to personalize the way your website works for both you and visitors. Templates can be purchased if you are looking for a totally unique design (which is highly recommended) but no worries, these are usually pretty affordable. You can always use one of the thousands of free templates out there too, if you are comfortable with that.

Many people develop cool plug-ins to use with the WordPress platform that will help to create a unique website that will not be found anywhere else online. Once you learn how to use the administration functions of WordPress and you customize the look, feel, and function of your site, you can easily upload any content that you want your visitors to see when they find you.

Once your content is added, simply publish your site and it is ready to meet the World! There are lots of great guides, resources, and tools on the Internet that can help you to make this a positive experience from beginning to end so don't get frustrated if you find yourself stuck, just look for some help and you will find it.

Answering "How Do You Make A Website?"

There are plenty of resources online to help anyone answer the question "how do you make a website?" One of the quickest and easiest ways to set up an online presence is by using the WordPress platform. This makes a quick and simple site that is basically just a blog. The variety of themes that are available will give it a very slick and professional look. This may not be the best choice for those with extensive knowledge of coding or who need a site with more features.

One of the first questions to discuss is "how do you create a website using WordPress?" Those with some computer experience will be able to handle this part, but others will need to get help from an experienced web professional. While using the WordPress platform is not especially challenging, it does need to have a place to post content. This means having a domain and a host. There are some hosting services that offer all in one packages that handle everything for a monthly fee.

To save some money, it is not that expensive to register a domain. This is the name of the site where all the content will be posted, so this is an important step. Having a memorable name or one that is highly related to the name of the company makes the most sense. Once the domain is registered, no one else can use that name as long as the payments are kept up. The next step in learning 'how do you create a website with WordPress' is to choose a hosting service.

The hosting service saves the code for the website on their servers so visitors can view the content. This makes it a simple process to update the site with new information as well as offering an easy to navigate site for visitors. There are some special considerations for those who want to know "how do you create a website for business." It is important to keep a very clean and straightforward design to make it simple for visitors to get the information they need. Having the right links to help them make purchases will pay off in the long run.

Checking out a "how do you create a website for business tutorial" will make it a lot easier to see the exact steps that need to be taken to put the site in place the right way. There are many ways to upload content and organize it on servers, but this is a lot of work and takes time. Even those who are using a publishing program will have to invest significant time and effort and the results are sometimes unprofessional. The best solution, especially for those with limited experience, is to take advantage of the superior WordPress resources.

Reasons to Use WordPress for Website Development

There are a hundred different ways to go about creating a website for your business or for personal reasons online. However, they are not all as effective as they could be so it is important to know what you are getting in to before you commit to a specific technique or method. If you are looking for a cost-effective and easy way to create an online presence, you may want to consider using the WordPress platform.

Using WordPress for website development has quite a few benefits that you will not get when using any other option out there. Following are some of the most popular reasons people decide to use WordPress for website design over other services and products available on the market:

Affordability

While some people choose to spend money on a professional designer to set up their WordPress website for them, this is not necessary in the least. In fact, many people set up their own WordPress website without the need for a lot of startup capital at all. For the cost of a domain name and hosting account you are ready to go. Compare this to the thousands of dollars it can cost to hire a website designer for your site, and you can see the value in WordPress.

Ease of Use

Even if you choose not to implement and manage your WordPress website yourself, you will love the fact that you can easily make updates and changes without the need to know any programming or HTML. This makes it possible to set up a website from beginning to end even if you don't know anything about websites in the first place. Ease of use makes it easy to keep things fresh and updated too, which will help to attract more visitors.

Flexibility

Because of all the plug-ins that have been developed by skilled programmers out there, you can customize your WordPress website to fit your exact needs and to accommodate the most number of visitors. Whether you are creating a blog, an e-commerce site, a resource center, a membership site, or an affiliate depot, the options are virtually limitless.

Options

When it comes to WordPress for website design, you will love the thousands of templates out there that you can use to customize your site. You can even have a unique template designed for your site that nobody else has, at a rate that you just can&rsquo;t beat when you compare the service to other design options out there. You can even find some great free templates on the market if you just don't have a unique design in the budget right now. You can always change your design at a later date.

Organic Rankings and Site Speed

There are over 200 quality factors used in determining how to rank the result of a search. One of these factors is the time it takes to download a Web page. Slow page load times will cause the Ranking for a Keyword to be downgraded by the Search Engines. Slow load times may also cause a Web page to timeout and be excluded from the Search Engine index.

As network traffic increases, with no end in sight, fast load times are becoming increasingly important for SEO. If your Website is slow, don't expect to be on the first page of the Search Engine results. And this applies to all the Search Engines.

No one likes a slow Website

Most importantly, visitors react badly to a slow Website. Slow load times will result in a high bounce rate, when visitors are too impatient to wait - and a high bounce rate can negatively impact Rankings. The sales conversion rate will be low as the visitors will not stay long, if they even bother to remain at all. And of course, returning customer rates will also suffer.

A positive user-experience is important. Visitors prefer fast Websites, and impressed visitors are more likely to become customers who will spend more.

Server Processing

Some of the reasons which could cause a delay in viewing a Web Page are:

A slow database connection or lengthy database processing A slow or busy Server, with slow DNS and Connect times Excessive Server processing

Asynchronous processing can significantly reduce Server related delays

Web Page Size

The size of the files that is being downloaded can be large due to:

A large View State when using ASP.Net, especially the Menu control. Many and large sized Images Use of sound, JavaScript, Java libraries, plug-ins or Flash Large CSS style files.

Reducing Download Times

The construction of the Web Page needs to be simplified to reduce the file size.

Use Minification to reduce the size of files like CSS CSS files should be split by function, i.e. print, menu, etc - and loaded asynchronously. Use a Master file to reduce the number of file downloads. Make sure that all images are compressed optimally for the optimal image type (.tif,.gif,.jpg,.png, etc). Depending upon the composition of the image, any file type may produce the smallest size with the best quality. So try them all. Reduce the size of the image file as much as possible - but don't rely on setting the Width/Height to do so. It doesn't reduce the downloaded file size. Use Thumbnails for large images. The visitor will be quite happy to wait to see the full image detail, when they request it. The visitor will be less than happy if they have to wait before seeing anything. Ensure that all images are cached for a few weeks. Ensure that downloaded files are compressed.

Web Sites can still be attractive without having lots of graphics and fancy gimmicks. Simplicity and good performance go hand in hand.

Monitoring Page Load Times

The download speeds of all of the pages in a Website need to be regularly monitored. Each page should take less than 5 seconds to load - 3 seconds is the ideal.

Use the free and excellent performance tool from Pingdom to analyse the different components that make up a Website's download time.