How does blog theme/template affect traffic to the blog?

Replies

• 

  Kaustubh Katdare

  Blog theme can affect traffic in several ways. Here are few major ones -
  
  1. Overall look & feel: A blog template with everything cramped into limited space may not retain visitors and directly affects the 'returning' visitors. Returning visitors is a major component in any site's overall popularity.
  2. A poorly written template loads the server: If the template isn't coded correctly, it may unnecessarily load the server. Excessive use of Javascript can make the site slower.
  3. A poorly coded theme makes it difficult to maintain the blog layout. It may make additions/subtraction of features difficult.
  4. Search engines do not like poorly written code. If a blog template can produce clean HTML - search engines love it. E.g: Wikipedia.
• 

  optimystix

  I absolutely agree with biggie.
  
  Badly coded pages are often punished by search engines on SEO front.
  
  A template should be such that it should take least amount of time for the page to load completely. Many internet users are still on very slow speeds and one can't expect them to keep staring at their screens waiting for the page to load. It often irritates such users (me included).
  
  A neat and tidy template along with less heavy elements is imperative towards helping drive more traffic to one's site.
  
  Web based tools can help a lot in this. I use the ones mentioned below to keep the sites in good health.
  
  Analyze - WebSiteOptimization.com (this one is very good, gives recommendations on site optimization too)
  
  Website Speed Test | Pingdom Tools