User experience is an incredibly important part of your website. Even with the best content in the world, a poor user experience will lead readers away from your website and can have negative effects on your blog’s growth.

Today I’m sharing 5 things your food blog needs to make sure your readers have a great user experience on your website. 

Easy to Find Search Bar

• Easy to find on mobile (don’t hide it in the sidebar which is hard to find on mobile)
• Have multiple search bars
• Built in wordpress search is NOT great, consider using something like Slickstream to really enhance the search experience

Organized Navigation

• Keep only the important navigation links. 
• Use the footer for the non-essential links
• Think about the most important content on your homepage and consider adding those categories or sections to your navigation

Limit website interruptions

• Defer pop ups so they are not immediate
• Limit pop ups to ONE per page
• Look for multiple pop ups (email, follow on social, GDPR or cookie consent, etc.)

Organized Content 

• Use lists to organize content
• Break up long paragraphs (this is great for your RPM too!)
• Use images as part of your content, like ingredient shots and step by step images
• Use styled Gutenberg blocks to help your content stand out (Also see Episode 31 of The Vine Podcast)

Provide a natural reader experience path

• Don’t rely on chronological organization of your blog posts
• Create pathways for people to dive into your content further
• Allow your readers to “choose” their path/adventure through the way your homepage and navigation are organized (See Episode 27 of The Vine Podcast for homepage tips)
• Remember how people land on your website and move through it (Listen to Episode 100 of The Vine Podcast)

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