Landing page is a very essential part for any website, it does not matter if it is a website which run a business model or if it is just a simple blog where blog readers land from search engines result page. The landing page has to be catchy enough for your new visitors in order to keep them on your blog or website until they convert to a potential customer or subscriber.

Recently i noticed that many blogs are changing their blog template or theme. This change happened all in the same time. It seems like this is a skin changing season for blogs! While changing blog design always give a fresh new look to blog, it is also important to keep an eye on the blog’s single post page or blog landing page.

Optimizing blog with better landing page will definitely improve your subscriber number as well as returning visitors number. When a new visitor come to your blog they do not always land or come to your blog home page. 95% of the time they land on a single post or page. Which might be different design or layout than your blog homepage.

When a visitor comes to your blog landing page or single blog post page, they have a clear purpose which is to get their targeted content. Therefore, making that single page more content rich and filled with related content is always a good idea.

If you are aware of the latest change of my blog single post, you will see few changes due to this blog landing page optimization. Here is what i did so far:

1. Moved the related post block or widget right by the beginning of the article than putting it at the end of the article. This will encourage readers to read at least few of those related article which will increase visitors stickiness for your blog.
2. I removed many graphics from my blog including blog header image and even RSS icon. The reason is pretty simple, i want my visitors to notice my article not my blog header. And if reader like my post they will automatically look for my RSS news feed. I don’t need a bright eye catchy icon to attract readers who will stay subscriber for 1-2 days.
3. I also moved the search box at top. Search box at the top is a must for ALL WEBSITES and BLOGS. I will be surprised if you ask me why!.
4. I changed my hyper links color (matched to my content) so it will not distract my readers from my content. But it will still show a high contrast color once visitors move their cursor over the link.
5. I also removed the categories block or widget from single blog post because i think it is totally unnecessary for landed visitors from SERP’s.
6. Removed hyper link from post title and made it universal black with no link.

This is what i did so far to optimize blog landing page. I might change more in the future depending on my readers or visitors behavior. Let me know what you did to improve blog landing page?