My blog: BESTpedia

[SrikanthR56]

Hi all.
I was wondering if you all could have a look at my blog.
It's called BESTpedia, the url is http://bestpedia.in

It's about Public Transport in general.

I'm considering changing my theme, so any feedback is welcome.

 

[vishwa]

It's about Public Transport in general.

I'm considering changing my theme, so any feedback is welcome.[/QUOTE]

I like your website content. Its really good. For a good WordPress theme I recommend you to use themes from Mythemeshop. I also suggest you to interlink your blog posts to engage readers within your site.

 

[gerald88]

Indeed, your content is very nice. I think it is better to use more images an choose another theme.

 

[SrikanthR56]

I like your website content. Its really good. For a good WordPress theme I recommend you to use themes from Mythemeshop. I also suggest you to interlink your blog posts to engage readers within your site.

Thank you.
I prefer themes that are available on Wordpress.org because those are less likely to screw up my page layout.

Snapshots of all previous themes are available on Archive.org.

I mostly link older articles to newer ones where required, I don't want to overdo it.

Indeed, your content is very nice. I think it is better to use more images an choose another theme.

Thank you. I restrict my posts to maximum of 4 images. Some posts, especially in Fiction and News, don't have images

 

[tdadkins]

Good content, but a little boring in the back ground! all white and black made me yawn. you dont need to pay for a premium theme, I like THE NUCLEARE THEME. Lots of nice color without being too dark.

 

[SrikanthR56]

SrikanthR56

Thank you for the suggestion. I'll have a look.

 

[thakurblogger]

Hi SrikanthR56
You have good content on your site, need to change theme to make its layout more attractive.
Thanks

 

[ulterios]

I agree with the others, that the content is good but needs some visual work.

What type of layout/theme type were you thinking about?

Going by the type of content, I think a magazine type theme would work nicely. Colormag by ThemeGrill would be a recommendation for a magazine theme. It's available in the free & paid/pro version, both are great. Lots of different options, setups, etc. and they will give free support for free and premium on their forum pages. They are extremely helpful and can give some tips, guidance and help you out with some customization if you need it (free & premium).

 

[SrikanthR56]

I don't understand what people mean by making the layout more attractive.
To be fair, it is a blog, not a magazine.

 

[ulterios]

ulterios

It means the way is looks visually. It looks very dull and basically the only color that's seen is the social icons. Basically add more colors, some images or video clips or anything else to make it look nice and visually appealing.

Just because it's a blog, that doesn't mean it has to look like a boring and uninteresting site. Unfortunately many people will judge a site by how nice it looks, along with the content. Make it look visually appealing and people will like it more.

Take a look at some of the top blog sites out there, they are not just basically black and white. They have some color, images, etc., to liven the looks of their blogs up.

 

[SrikanthR56]

I understand. My initial posts are full of images. My current posts are image-less because I'm trying to see if it improves the look.
Page 2 or Page 3 will show you a different layout.

 

[ulterios]

ulterios

I saw that, but removing the images will hurt the visual appeal and more than likely its seo as a result.

When you first go to the site there is only a plain looking site. In order to make it more visually appealing you should have something dressing it up at the top of the site when you first go there as well as throughout the site.

I'm not saying it's a bad blog, just dull looking. Dress it up to make it look as good as your posts are and it will help. You have real nice posts/articles now you just need to make it look just as nice.

I have always noticed with my sites and other have told me the same, that they better their site looks then the more people will like it. It doesn't sound logical but people like pretty sites.

 

[Ron Killian]

I have to agree with what's already been mentioned, don't know why so many people are saying to change the theme. That an easy out reply. And not that helpful.

It's the content that could use some dressing up. Most theme's will look boring if the content is not spruced up. Not just a "change the theme" thing here. I think the theme looks nice, clean. Course I kinda of like minimal myself. Also think it tends to allow visitors to focus more on the content. Just my opinion.

I agree though, that others have said, the content could use some visuals. Thing is it doesn't always have to be images. For example, I use a plugin called Intense for most of my blogs. It gives me a bunch of shortcodes I can use in my posts to make them look nicer. Such as quote boxes, icons, tabbed content, colored boxes, colored style elements, ect. There are a bunch of plugins like that. It can make your posts look much better. Just a thought.

Even just using bold here and there, or colored text here and there could make it nicer. No?

Other thing I noticed, and maybe it's just me, but there looks to be quite a bit of big blocks of text. That's not exactly fun to read, it's like work. Even on a sub-conscious level. But that might just be my peeve

I think it looks good over all though!

 

[Hawker]

Hmmm I thought the name implied it was a general knowledge site or something else that goes with those "pedia" type of sites.

I'd have never thought it had something to do with public transport.

I also think you need to look at the theme of your site.

Right now you have far too much scroll on the homepage.

Maybe you should try condensing your posts to include read more links under each top paragraph.

That would increase CTR as well. You also need to work on your Footer area maybe split that into horizontal boxes as opposed to under each other.

And do look into adding your social icons to your social pages, FB, Twitter etc etc on your site too.

Maybe add a form for people to subscribe to also.

 

[SrikanthR56]

SrikanthR56

Hi, thanks a lot for your feedback.
The theme right now is the biggest hurdle. It is visually appealing, except all the menus land up one after the other at the bottom, which is kind of annoying.

As far adding social icons, I don't have a FB page for my blog, so I haven't put up any.
Thanks for the feedback. Will keep it in mind for future posts and theme changes.

 

[ulterios]

ulterios

Actually most people won't find it visually appealing. Perhaps you are misunderstanding what we have meant. By visually appealing it's basically meaning pretty or nice to look at. Yours might be visually appealing to you but most people won't see it the same way. The thing is it's basically mostly all gray with the exception of that incredibly large social bar that shows up at the bottom of the screen when you first get there.

Your sidebar areas are just gray with no kind of color or something to dress it up a little. People like things that have some color and that includes sites.

 

[SrikanthR56]

SrikanthR56

Even if the sidebar was on the side, like it was earlier, it only includes links to categories and recent posts. The sidebar is currently at the bottom of the page.
By visually appealing, I meant a clean interface. Fancy links on the side would be too cluttered no?

I'm working on the new theme, which will feature the Sidebar back on top with a little more colour. Till then, I might replace this with a stock theme.

 

[ulterios]

ulterios

You idea of visually appealing is different then most people then. The interface would be more of a functionality feature than it would be a visually appealing feature.

When people see nothing in the side areas of the main content area it gives an impression that there isn't much to the site, the site has thin or shallow content, plain looking or something else that isn't positive.

Yes putting a bunk of links on the side will not help but you can add something to make things look better. Some bold and colored text, some widgets that are more than just text with a line underneath them before the links, some images or some other visual stuff.

Take a look at some of the top blogs out there. They will have some colored bold text, some images, other widgets that serve a good purpose and so on. It will be hard to find a top blog that is as plain looking as your is.

Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to put your site down but just to help you improve it so that more people will like it.

 

[SrikanthR56]

SrikanthR56

Thank you for your feedback. It really matters and I'm taking every word of it seriously.

 

[Sandra]

I agree with the others. The content looks good, the environment looks too sterile. I would start by taking the black border out, change the title by a logo with some color. And I would add some images on the side, views of the city, ads, images linking to certain articles (useful information, something), so there is not so much white space.
I think you might get away with this theme following that route.
The other thing is that you are posting the full articles in front page. You could post just a snippet and an image (this is not necessarily better, just something to try), so there is not so much need to scroll and there is not so much white space.

 

[SenseiSteve]

I do agree with Sandra here. The content is excellent, but the blog in general lacks eye appeal, especially above the fold.
By Ron Killian

Other thing I noticed, and maybe it's just me, but there looks to be quite a bit of big blocks of text. That's not exactly fun to read, it's like work. Even on a sub-conscious level. But that might just be my peeve

This is not just isolated to you. I, too, when looking at long blocks of unbroken text tend to avoid them. There's a reason why newspapers write in short columns and break up content.

 

[SrikanthR56]

Why is a blog being compared to an newspaper?
It's meant to be a personal blog, not a commercial venture.
That's why there aren't any ads as well.


As for posting the entire post. I had temporarily set up posting only the first paragraph on the main page. The result? Bounce rates shot up. People didn't click the Read More option.

 

[SenseiSteve]

Why is a blog being compared to an newspaper?
It's meant to be a personal blog, not a commercial venture.
That's why there aren't any ads as well.


As for posting the entire post. I had temporarily set up posting only the first paragraph on the main page. The result? Bounce rates shot up. People didn't click the Read More option.

You misunderstood the newspaper analogy. Sorry. The purpose of a blog is to convey information that you'd hope your visitors would both find interesting enough to read AND be formatted in such a way that it visually encourages them to read it.

From dailywritingtips[.]com

There are, of course, practical considerations in determining paragraph length. Readers of newspapers and other publications with narrow columns of text are more likely to read paragraphs that dont extend vertically more than a couple of inches. Similarly, websites are easier to read when paragraphs are brief. Care should be taken, likewise, in book manuscripts to avoid paragraphs that extend for more than half a page.

My rule of thumb in editing is, when working in a Microsoft Word file, to break up paragraphs of more than ten lines in 12-point type with a six-inch column width for print publications and to limit online copy to five lines (as I’ve done here), though results will of course vary depending on the point size and column width of the particular text.

The best with your blog.

 

[jordyjl]

Your blog has been created very nice, i've searching on your site but I missing a design or just add at least a background to your blog to make it more stylish in images. Its look now very default but overall does it looks awsome!

 

[brianlee1982]

No logo? Or Banner? Design seems a bit simplicity. Paragraph too long that I don't feel like scrolling down even longer. A snippet would be better and with the small picture at the snippet.

 

[Alex July]

Why don't you remove META widget from Sidebar? Does it provide value for me (I am your visitor, btw)? No, it doesn't! Remove it, add sign up form, start building your list

 

[Buzzgrain]

The content is unique which i like but i am curious to know how many hits you get? I would love to make a blog with really unique content but i just don't see the demand for it