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My Communities
Top 5 blog usability tips
I have only been running this blog for a short time - I made my first ever post on 3rd March 2007. During this time however, I have learnt a lot - both as a writer and as a blog reader.
I have found myself becoming increasingly frustrated of late with usability issues on some blogs that can so easily be corrected, and I want to share these today.
I am hoping that if you find your blog doesn’t comply with these tips you will be inspired to make the necessary changes to enhance its usability.
1) Ensure your logo links to your home page
It is pretty much a standard convention now that your site’s logo should link to your home page. Almost every visitor to your website will click on your logo and expect to be taken to your site’s index. Don’t frustrate them by not following this convention.
2) Place the link to your comments form at the end of your articles
I seem to be coming across an ever increasing number of blogs that have the link to their comment form at the beginning of an article. This makes absolutely no sense - why would I comment on an article before reading it? The natural process of blog reading dictates that someone will read an article first, then decide if they want to submit a comment.
At this time, they will be at the end of your article. If the link to the comment form is not there, most will not bother looking for it let alone scroll to the beginning of the article on the off-chance it is there instead.
I often find that blogs with a low number of comments (particularly for their traffic levels) fail to have a link to their comment form at the end of their articles. Don’t make the same mistake!
3) Moderate comments quickly
If you have set your blog comments to ‘Moderate all’ then ensure you approve them quickly. Contributors do not want to see their time being wasted - if they submit a comment and it doesn’t appear to get published on the blog, the chances are they will not try a second time.
4) Respond to your comments
Comments are there to add value to your articles. It is in your best interests to foster a sense of community at your blog. You can do this by replying to comments left by contributors.
If you receive a huge number of comments on a daily basis, you shouldn’t feel obliged to respond to each and every one but you should take the time to reply to any questions or specific queries.
5) Make your ‘tab order’ logical
A lot of people fill in forms solely using their keyboards. These users will move between each input form by using the ‘Tab’ key - make things easy for these people by ensuring your forms (particularly the comment form) have a logical tab order.
Once the first input box is selected, every press of the Tab key should move the cursor to the very next box in the form - not two boxes down, or away from the form completely!
Your opinions
Does your blog satisfy my usability tips? What importance do you place on the points I have raised in this post? What are your own blog usability tips? Share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment below.
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August 7th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
5/5 from me. The one I’d add is “don’t make it necessary to become a member of anything to comment on a blog”. Wordpress users seem to be particularly guilty of this, and it’s infuriating to be made to jump through hoops to prove I’m not a spammer, just to be allowed to comment on someone else’s blog. Combatting spam is important, but it’s just as important to not alienate potential members of your community. (Where one draws the line between the two is a favourite soap-box of mine at the moment, so I’ll stop commenting now…
)
August 8th, 2007 at 2:29 am
Interesting point about comments at the bottom, when I installed my new theme it had comments at the top, but I think I am about to change that
August 8th, 2007 at 4:49 am
Very important tips…I HATE it when the logo doesn’t go back to the home page!
August 8th, 2007 at 5:41 am
Well im guilty of not having my logo link to the homepage. I will get around to it one day!
August 8th, 2007 at 6:09 am
These are all great tips. Luckily, I think I’m doing all of them — but that’s only thanks to the talented author of my theme.
My pet peeve is bloggers humoring themselves with their sidebar. Why should a MyBlogLog widget be above a link to your About page?
A good general rule is to order sidebar content in order of use to your readers. In an ideal world this would apply to advertising, too
August 8th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
Biddy - You make a good point; I have lost count of the number of blogs I have been interested in submitting a comment to only to find I need to register in order to do so. Needless to say, that blog ends up not getting a comment from me. It is also evident that others feel the same, too.
Webd360 - PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE change it! It drives me crazy, and I am not the only one that gets infuriated when there is no link to the contact form at the end of an article!
Anthony - Why wait? It only takes a few seconds! Get onto it now and it’ll be done, and you will be making your site’s users far happier.
Skellie - I agree. So many people forget to focus their website on usability. Visitors are the most important asset of any website. Every single detail should be focussed on making the user experience the best it can be.
August 9th, 2007 at 6:54 am
This article doesn’t apply to me but thought I’d say I think your blog meets these standards atleast.
I especially wanted to comment regarding the ‘tab’ thing. You have no idea how frustrated I get when I’m filling out a form, press “tab” and it goes across to some random button or doesn’t work at all.
I cleared my cache etc earlier so I’ve just had to re-fil my details above and used the tab key nice and smoothly; the way I like it!
August 9th, 2007 at 11:32 am
Smiley - Well I could hardly write my top five usability tips without observing them myself, eh?!?
August 10th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
[...] Community Building provides a list of the top 5 blog usability tips. [...]
August 11th, 2007 at 7:49 am
Very simple but very important points Martin. No comment link at the bottom of the post is one of my peeves too.
It’s also important to have your name on the post so people can address you when they comment. Otherwise it’s like “Hey you, great post!” haha
August 11th, 2007 at 10:23 am
Shane - I often find the things that are most important when it comes to usability are often the simplest to do. People who commit such slip-ups really have no excuse!
I agree that not having the author’s name on a post can be a little annoying; even worse are people that leave comments using the name of their site and fail to include their name anywhere!
August 16th, 2007 at 11:10 am
Good post. It seems like common sence, but I’m always surprised when I run across a blog that doesn’t employ basic usability.
August 16th, 2007 at 10:57 pm
Brad - Thanks for your comment; very often it’s the simple things that make all the difference!
August 31st, 2007 at 6:45 pm
You have some excellent tips in this blog entry! I especially agree with the fact that you need to quickly moderate user comments and actually respond back to them.
September 2nd, 2007 at 9:30 am
Paul - I am glad you found this article useful. I am having trouble keeping up with comments the past few days as I am currently abroad touring Iceland. Normal service should resume shortly, though!
November 19th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
[...] your logo to your homepage: Community Spark’s number one tip for blog usability is to “ensure your logo links to your homepage.” If [...]
November 29th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
[...] your logo to your homepage: Community Spark’s number one tip for blog usability is to “ensure your logo links to your homepage.” If you [...]
April 14th, 2008 at 3:39 am
I do love these tips. If I comment on a blog without a response from the author, I feel like perhaps the author doesn’t care all that much about his or her readers. Responding to comments will make readers feel invited and comfortable while they’re at your blog. This encourages return visitors! Thanks for the great article!
April 15th, 2008 at 10:57 am
Bare - I agree with you. I have commented on a couple of blogs where I am a long term reader, often with what I consider to be highly constructive comments. The lack of a response makes me wonder whether it is worth the effort of contributing. Not a good way of developing a community!