Your Blog Sidebar Remains Important, Don’t Screw it Up

Most blogs follow a pretty consistent layout.

When you land on the site you are typically presented with 3 major areas, the header, the main content area, and the obligatory right blog sidebar.

Notice I said right sidebar.

Those rebels with a left sidebar either like to mess with our heads or want to start a grassroots revolution.

There are also those that go full-frontal and expand their content all the way across the page, going commando with no blog sidebar at all!

But, 90% of the time you’re going to find that good ol’ right sidebar filling its traditional spot on your screen.

Now that we’ve established the most common location of the blog sidebar, and the fact that it is expected by your visitors, let’s discuss how to NOT screw it up.

10 Things to Avoid in Your Blog Sidebar

1. Too Many Ads

While this list is not presented in any particular order, this item should be looked at as the number 1 sidebar faux pas regardless.

Placing an abundance of ads in your blog sidebar comes off as spammy and, to be honest, a little overwhelming for your visitors.

Your readers have come to your website to read your wonderful content, not be inundated with advertisements.

Sure, there are blogs out there that simply want to make money and really aren’t in the game for the joy of blogging.

As a member of the Top Shelf Blogging community, you represent more than cheap ads.

I’m not saying you can’t have ads in the sidebar, just don’t go crazy with it.

We get enough ads thrown in our face, so please don’t fill your page with more.

Pretty please.

2. Ads That Have Nothing to Do With Your Message

Ok, once we’ve moved past number 1, and relent to the placement of some ads in the sidebar (not too many), please make sure they align with your message.

If I’m reading a blog related to search engine optimization, I don’t want to see an ad in the sidebar for male enhancement. Actually, I never want to see that ad.

If I’m on a travel blog, I don’t want to see an ad for a vacuum. It has nothing to do with your brand and frankly reminds me of what I’m trying to escape in the first place.

Many times bloggers simply throw up Google Adsense ads in their sidebar and hope the wizard behind the Google curtain can render the right ad.

Too many times Google screws this up. Suddenly your site has ads that make no sense.

If you do choose to put ads in your blog sidebar, you should make sure they match your message.

3. Forgetting to Tell Your Readers Who YOU Are

People want to connect with you. They want to know who is behind the wonderful site they just landed on.

Make sure you put a little blurb about yourself, preferably with a picture, so they get a chance to put a person with the content.

Your know/like/trust factor will get an immediate boost.

Think about your interaction on social media sites. When you interact with someone on Twitter or Facebook and they have their brand logo as their Avatar, you are less likely to enjoy that experience.

You feel like you are talking to nothing rather than an individual person.

Put some personality in your sidebar and start to make more genuine connections with those that visit.

4. Filling it With Your Social Feeds

The keyword here is “feed”.

I don’t want a live stream of your tweets or Facebook posts.

You can, and should, put ways for your readers to connect with you on your social platforms but you should not put the stream in your sidebar.

In many cases this slows your site load times down by having to interface with these external systems.

If I want to read your social media insight, I will visit those places.

While the intent may be to make it more convenient for your reader to catch up on those other posts, it really isn’t.

Trying to read the feed is usually far from enjoyable.

There really aren’t any good reasons to have the functionality in your sidebar. Just make it go away.

5. Using Word Clouds

I get the concept, I really do.

But Word Clouds, or Tag Clouds, should be avoided. Especially if they scroll all the way down the sidebar.

I came to your blog to read your content, not do a word search puzzle.

If you organize your blog correctly, you really shouldn’t need a word cloud. In fact, you’d probably be better off implementing a more structured menu system with submenus, for your visitors to find topical content.

Plus, word clouds seem so 2000. Haven’t we advanced as a society?

6. Too Much Stuff

Clean design is in. Clean…meaning less stuff.

Please don’t jam pack your blog sidebar with content, functionality, and every widget you get your hands on.

This reminds me of web pages in the 90s where you would put a visitor count, a clock, and maybe even the weather – just because you could.

Well, my friends, we’ve moved past that.

Don’t go crazy with widgets and throw all sorts of stuff in the sidebar.

Keep it clean and let the reader focus on what is most important.

7. Too Many Colors

This one goes along with clean design.

As a reader of your blog, I don’t want my senses overwhelmed by a rainbow glowing in the sidebar.

Try to stay consistent with your branding colors and have ads that align artistically.

I understand the use of color helps your blog by drawing the eye of the reader, but going overboard and throwing strong overbearing colors only confuses the situation and makes your readers shun their eyes.

8. Going Too Big

It’s a sidebar, remember that.

Don’t make your sidebar width comparable to your main content area.

Don’t place extremely tall images in the sidebar that extend down your page.

Sidebar items are meant to be smaller. Keep it that way.

9. Tetris Style Content

You know the game Tetris, right?

Where blocks of various size and orientation float down the screen and you have to manipulate them to put them in their place correctly?

Don’t make your readers go into Tetris mode with your sidebar.

Don’t use big buttons, small buttons, big ads, small ads. text ads, image ads, etc. etc. etc.

Keep your sidebar consistent. At least spend a little bit of time making everything the same width.

10. Too Much Functionality

The sidebar is for reference or a place for quick targeted actions.

Not a lot of time should be spent over there.

Grab your reader’s attention, get them to click on your call to action, then get them out of there.

I’ve seen some blogs with all kinds of actions for me to take.

Search, like, subscribe, connect on Periscope, learn more, download this, click here for that…enough!

Putting it All Together

Respect your blog sidebar and keep it clean.

Place quality content that engages your reader or lets them know more about you, then let them get back to the meaty content in the main area.

Take a look at your blog and revisit your own sidebar.

Unfortunately, it is one of those components of our blogs that is too often neglected by us bloggers. We set it up in the beginning and then forget about it as we move forward.

What are some of the things you hate to see in the sidebar? Sound off in the comments below.