The design of your blog is crucial to your blogs success. This is one of the most overlooked blogging tips in the online blogging world. Many people are under the impression that the more elaborate and exciting that their blog looks the more traffic that they will gain. However, it should be noted that a simple and clean design is much more effective for a blog.

Blogs usually come with ready made blog templates or designs which are actually pretty nice but customization is always a must. Customizing your site to fit your personality and the subject of the blog would help get readers in the mood to read as well as catching their interest.

Your header of your blog - do not use the standard headers that come with blogs, even if you have downloaded a free theme, get your own personal header done. If you are familiar with photo shop or other type of graphic editor use it to add your business name and logo.

Blog Theme

The overall blog theme should correspond with the niche you're blogging about. Don't confuse your visitors by going off target with pictures, symbols, or other visual aids that 'decorate' your blog but have no relationship with the niche you're in. Your blog theme is a subtle yet powerful component that reinforces your affiliation with the niche you're in.

Choose a clean and neat theme. Don't over-crowd your blog with too much clutter to avoid distracting your readers. Avoid using loud music that starts playing the moment your blog launches when visitors click on the web link to your blog. If your audience does not like the music, they will very likely move to another site despite your blog having good content.

Include a picture of yourself. Blogs are personal, even business blogs, and people who visit yours will want to know what you look like. It's also easier to built trust if your picture is visible. No, you don't absolutely need a picture, but it's strongly recommended. Sometimes people might think you are hiding something if you don't have one.

Don't use giant honking graphics when a smaller graphic will do. Exceptions can be made when your site is centered around images, in which case, your readers will know what to expect. For everyone else, though, make your post images clickable so people readers can choose if they want to see the larger image.

Content, content and more content. You will want to start writing your posts as soon as possible. You do not have to publish them all at once but just write five posts to start then set up auto posting for every other day or so. One of the biggest things that Google looks at, when ranking your site, is how often you have new content.

So, if you want a great Google ranking there are a number of things you must do. Three of the most important things are choosing relevant keywords with reduced competition, using a blog to get referenced quickly by the search engines, and having text on your site that is relevant to your business.