Making blogs more navigatable

I currently use a very simple custom version of a minimal blogger template; and though I like the design well enough aesthetically, I'm not sure it's good in terms of navigation.

I limit to showing 3 blog posts on my front page--as some have up to 14 or so shots, it would not be fun to have much more than that loading up. And I have a section way at the bottom that shows links to my previous posts.

I still feel like the page itself doesn't encourage clicking around and investigating deeper into the site.

In short, how is your blog site set up so that folks don't just skim down whatever is currently on the front page and then just bounce ?

I never liked to look through a bunch of just images on a blog, unless they tell a story. As an example, I might enjoy a "short description" then image, short description" then image, etc...if that makes sense. But just a bunch of images is a bit much (for me).

I changed my blog a few years ago to just use a thumbnail and a short description, basically the first 20 words or so as a highlight. This way a visitor may look around longer. Not sure if it really helps you of that's what your looking for.

Well--weddings are sort of like stories ! But, yes, I really ought to be raising my text:image ratio, though I'm not sure mine is uncommon for what I do.

I notice you have a 'you might also enjoy' widget below your posts. How does this function ? Ie., what method is it using to choose those posts ? I think it's a pretty effective method of improving flitting around from post to post especially because they're graphical and not just text like what I currently have going on (just a list of recent posts a la standard blog format).

That's totally helpful, Mike. Thank you.

Christopher Steven b wrote in post #14775136
Well--weddings are sort of like stories ! But, yes, I really ought to be raising my text:image ratio, though I'm not sure mine is uncommon for what I do.

I notice you have a 'you might also enjoy' widget below your posts. How does this function ? Ie., what method is it using to choose those posts ? I think it's a pretty effective method of improving flitting around from post to post especially because they're graphical and not just text like what I currently have going on (just a list of recent posts a la standard blog format).

That's totally helpful, Mike. Thank you.

I forgot about that...LOL!I use this: http://wordpress.shald​ybina.com …related-posts-thumbnails/

Christopher Steven b wrote in post #14774694
In short, how is your blog site set up so that folks don't just skim down whatever is currently on the front page and then just bounce ?

Hi Christopher,

Take what I say with a gain of salt, as I'm not a professional photographer and don't know much about wedding photography.
I had a quick look at your blog, http://www.blog.christ​opherstevenb.com/ and here are my input.

Your home page gives the user the whole post, so there really isn't anything else to click on. As a user I can just scroll down and see your post. I would think about maybe having a layout where there is a title, thumbnail, short description and a link that says something like "read more" that links to the full post.

The homepage is so long that the Recent post, Labels, follow and contact are at he bottom of the page so many people don't even see it. I would say more users won't even scroll down that far unless they are very interested in what you are doing.

For blog, I like two column layouts. So you have your post on 1 side, and then the important stuff on the other side. Basically if a user comes to your web site but doesn't like that they see first, but there is something else in your recent post that catches their eye, they will be more likely to click on it, than scrolling all the way to the bottom.

I would also say, too many images and too long to load them all. maybe if you like to put lots of images up, think about putting up thumbnails so when people click on it, it links to a larger image.