Your sidebar can make or break your blog. If you infest it with useless widgets, random buttons, and links to blog directories.. Whats separating you from a person that doesn’t care how their blog looks? Do you really care about how your sidebar looks?
Most templates now a days, have half of the screen to fill up with their content, with the other 40-50% going to the sidebar. So, If it is taking up that much of a visitors screen and it is filled up with useless information, your limiting your blog to half of your space – The content. If your content sucks, then you can kiss the visitor goodbye. However, If your content is good, but your sidebar is full, it distracts the reader that is coming back to read more. Here is an example of a cluttered sidebar.
The reason behind this is that your R.S.S buttons and top posts will probably near the top or otherwise known as,”Above the fold” (A crucial part of the blog that instantly needs to make an impression on a visitor that loads the blog.. This part is known as Above The Fold because it is the part of the blog that the user doesn’t need to scroll down to see) as then most likely the person will interact with the buttons.
If you fill that up with advertising or annoying little widgets, what does a viewer base their opinion of your site on. How important is the look of your sidebar to you?? Do you regularly clean it up? Or do you fill it up with as much as you can find…
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7 Comments
In addition to clustered sidebar, even animations definitely distract the readers.
OldSailor’s last blog post..Easy to Use Portable Echo Sounder or Depthmeter
I totally agree, Brad. Keeping it simple is about the most important part of a site’s design, in my opinion. You want to show all your stuff, but not amidst a bunch of clutter.
Luke’s last blog post..On Not Being Perfect
@ OldSailor – Oh I know what you mean!! I don’t even try to read blogs with animations on the sidebars.. theres millions of other blogs just waiting for a visit
@ Luke – Thats what I try to do here… Only show necessary stuff that the reader would benefit from.
Various blogging widgets are part of my core content, and they get featured because my readers could benefit from them. That isn’t universal, but many readers do benefit, and people from the communities I feature happen to be among my most regular readers, partially because I introduced regular readers to those communities.
Andy Beard’s last blog post..PicApp Isn’t Free For Bloggers To Use
But what I’m saying is, Wouldn’t it be better to get rid of the “Lastest BlogCatalog Readers” widget that does nothing but display a picture of the person and show how long ago they loaded your site?
Do you think that my sidebar is too cluttered?
John Smith’s last blog post..“Review My Blog” Widget
A sidebar is cluttered if it is infested with excessive categories, ads, and stats that are no use for readers.I hope mine isn’t