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how to make my blog look like a website

How to Make Your Blog Look Like a Website (11 Expert Tips) 

Written By: author image Stacey Corrin
author image Stacey Corrin
Stacey has been writing about WordPress and digital marketing for over 10 years and on other topics for much longer. Alongside this, she's fascinated with web design, user experience, and SEO.
     Reviewed By: Turner John
reviewer image Turner John
John Turner is the co-founder of SeedProd. He has over 20+ years of business and development experience and his plugins have been downloaded over 25 million times.

Have you ever asked the question, “How to make my blog look like a website?”

Blogs have a distinctive and easily recognizable layout. However, as your business grows, you may want to give your blog a facelift and turn it into a fully functioning website.

Learning how to convert your blog to a website may sound tricky at first, but if you follow the tips in this post, you can make your blog look like a website in no time.

Can You Use a Blog As a Website?

The different purposes of blogs and websites can often be confusing. A blog is designed to showcase your latest blog posts in an easy-to-digest layout, whereas a website aims to educate visitors about your brand or business.

Some bloggers believe they’ll need to create a brand new website from scratch. But the truth is, you can take your existing blog and use it as a website with only a few easy tweaks.

Bottom line: yes, you can use a blog as a website without creating a new site from scratch.

Why Make Your Blog Look Like a Website?

There are many reasons for making your existing blog look like a website. Many bloggers transform their sites because they’ve outgrown a simple blogging setup and want to expand on the information they offer.

It could also be that when you started blogging, you didn’t plan on monetizing your website. A few years down the line, you may develop products that need landing pages, product pages, and other website features to promote them.

Similarly, you may start offering freelance services, such as copywriting, which will require an attention-grabbing homepage, service pages, and testimonials.

resume website example

Whatever your reason, turning your blog into a website is an excellent way to help your business stand out and grow in an ever-crowded marketplace.

How to Make My Blog Look Like a Website

If you’re asking yourself, “how to make my blog look like a website,” you’re in the right place. Follow the tips below to transform your WordPress blog into a modern and professional-looking website your audience will love.

1. Start With the Right Setup

The best blogs and websites start with a solid foundation:

  • A custom domain name
  • Fast web hosting

If you already have these for your WordPress blog, you can skip this tip, but we recommend reading this section if you haven’t.

Many people start blogging on a free blogging service like Blogger or WordPress.com. It makes sense because you won’t need to pay for any blogging features or to host your website, but it probably also means you’re stuck with a domain name like: yourblog.wordpress.com/.

Domain names like that look unprofessional, so we suggest getting a custom domain name if you want your audience to take you seriously.

The same is true for your website’s hosting.

Moving to a self-hosted WordPress solution gives you more control over your content and website setup. You’ll not only own your content, but you can also add more features to your websites, such as security, regular backups, email marketing, and more.

Luckily, many WordPress hosting providers offer website hosting and custom domains in a single package. Our favorite solution is Bluehost.

how to make my blog look like a website: use a fast hosting provider

Bluehost is an officially recognized WordPress hosting partner with domain and hosting packages for websites of any size. Their plans come with free SSL, CDN, 1-click WordPress installation, free domain name, 24/7 support, and many other powerful features to help you get started quickly and easily.

Check out this Bluehost review for more information.

You can also see these helpful guides if you’re switching from Blogger to WordPress or WordPress.com to WordPress.org.

2. Create a Logo and Favicon

After setting up the perfect foundation, you’ll need a high-quality blog logo and favicon. Your logo is the first thing people see, and it’s what will help them recognize your blog in the future.

how to make your blog look like a website: create a high quality logo

Similarly, your Favicon is an icon that helps users find your website when they have multiple browser tabs open. You can find favicons next to anything that identifies your website, including bookmarks, tabs, toolbar apps, RSS feeds, history results, and search bars.

favicon exmples

Even though favicons aren’t directly responsible for search engine optimization, they’re an essential tool for improving your rankings.

You can create a great-looking logo and favicon on a budget. There are many free tools, such as Canva, with customizable templates to help you get started. You can even sell Canva templates to monetize your site.

Expert Tip

Margaret Bourne, blog coach

“Eyes naturally gravitate to a site name. So, you need to focus on creating a blog logo that fits your blog’s focus and looks great.

The good news is that you can create a simple but beautiful blog logo in a matter of minutes, for free, or with a small budget.

My blog logo? It’s a Word logo, and it took me less than 5 minutes to make with a lovely font. This is my recommended approach for a simple but classy logo.”

Margaret Bourne – Blog Coach and Educator

3. Build a Professional Homepage

Creating a homepage is an excellent way to make your blog look more like a website. Instead of the typical blog feed and sidebar, visitors will see an attractive page with all the information they need about your brand.

website home page example

Most homepages have the following layout:

What you include on your homepage largely depends on your blog or business type.

Creating your homepage in WordPress is as simple as creating a brand new page and setting it to display as your website’s front page. You can also use a page builder to customize your homepage design without hiring a developer.

Here is a step-by-step guide on creating a WordPress homepage that covers both options.

4. Create an About Page

Building an “About” page is another sure-fire way to give your blog a structure that looks more like a website.

An about page is where visitors learn more about you or your business. They often go by various names, such as “Start Here,” “Mission,” and “Our Story,” but they all do the same thing: tell visitors who you are and why they should choose your business.

Visitors don’t know you when they first land on your website. With an about page, you become less of a stranger, making users more likely to read your blog posts, join your email list, or buy what you’re selling.

OptinMonster about page

An about page often includes:

  • Your business history and why you started
  • Why your brand is unique
  • Photos of your team
  • Your core values
  • Why users should choose you

Follow these step-by-step instructions to create an about page for your website.

5. Customize Your Blog Theme

You likely started your blog with a free WordPress theme, and it makes sense. Free themes give you everything you need to run a blog without worrying about costs.

However, free WordPress themes often lack the more advanced design features you’ll need to make your blog look like a website. That’s why it’s best to choose a premium WordPress theme or create a custom theme when you make the transition.

Creating a custom WordPress theme used to involve hiring a web designer with costs running into the thousands. These days, you can do the same thing with a page builder plugin like SeedProd without writing a single line of HTML code.

SeedProd WordPress website builder

SeedProd is the best website builder for WordPress. It lets you create custom WordPress themes, landing pages, and flexible website layouts without hiring a web developer.

You can start with a premade website template, then customize your theme visually with the drag-and-drop page editor, including your:

  • Header and footer
  • Static pages like about/contact/services
  • Homepage
  • Blog page
  • Sidebar
  • And more

Its versatile page sections instantly help you create FAQs, Calls-to-action, and Hero areas. You can also hide your website behind a coming soon or maintenance page while your website is under development.

You can check out this complete tutorial to create a custom WordPress theme with SeedProd.

6. Make Your Blog Responsive

Making your blog mobile responsive is another excellent way to make it look like a website. Because more people browse from mobile devices, they expect websites to adapt seamlessly to different screen sizes.

If your website isn’t responsive, potential customers may leave because it’s hard to navigate, which results in lost leads and sales.

You can combat that by using a mobile responsive WordPress theme and installing mobile-friendly WordPress plugins. These tools will improve your site’s user experience by adding features such as hamburger menus for navigation, larger button sizes, and layouts that adapt to different screens.

mobile responsive design example

If you’re not sure where to start, you can check out this guide on making your website mobile-friendly.

7. Add eCommerce Features

Selling products from your blog is another way to make it look more like a website but to do that, you’ll need to add extra features and functionality.

For example, you may need to create:

  • Product pages
  • Shopping carts
  • Checkout pages
  • Add-to-cart buttons
  • Customer account dashboards

It might seem like a lot of work, but it’s an excellent way to improve user experience and generate sales or passive income.

You can start small by adding a PayPal payment form to your site. Then, as your website grows, you can branch out and install advanced eCommerce features with plugins like WooCommerce.

You can also customize your WooCommerce pages effortlessly with SeedProd’s page builder plugin. It lets you add user-friendly features like recommended products, product grids, menu cart icons, upsells, and product ratings to boost order values.

seedprod upsell feature

For more inspiration, check out these blog layout examples.

8. Add Ways to Gather Feedback

Whether you sell products from your blog or not, you’ll need a way to learn if you’re giving blog visitors enough value. One way to do this is with a Customer Effort Score (CES) survey.

CES surveys are a popular way to measure customer satisfaction by asking them to rate the effort required to complete a specific task. In the context of a blog, you can ask visitors to rate the effort required to find the information they need or to complete a specific action, such as leaving a comment or sharing a post.

The easiest way to add a CES survey to your blog is with the UserFeedback WordPress plugin. It lets you easily add a survey to your blog without writing code or hiring a developer.

UserFeedback WordPress plugin for CRM

The survey forms popup in the bottom corner of the screen and comes with several templates to help you collect the most relevant information from your visitors. Here’s a guide to help you create a survey with UserFeedback.

9. Keep to a Consistent Design

Consistency is another massive factor in making your blog look like a website. A consistent design makes your website easier to remember, which is crucial considering how many websites there are.

For example, WPForms has the same orange color scheme throughout.

WPForms color scheme

Even though your website should have a similar design scheme, it should also stand out. Here are some ideas for tweaking your website design to make it look unique:

  • Create a different layout for your blog page
  • Change your website banner images
  • Use unique font combinations
  • Add eye-catching site navigation
  • Create custom sidebars for different pages

Check out these mobile-friendly website design examples for inspiration.

10. Add Lead Generation Forms

Creating a blog that looks like a website is an effective way to improve your lead generation efforts because if users have enough information, they’ll naturally want to learn more.

You can capitalize on your audience’s curiosity by adding forms strategically to your site. For example, you can add a contact form to your contact page, a newsletter signup form to your blog sidebar, and an optin-form to your homepage.

We particularly like this example from OptinMonster, which opens in a popup after clicking a lead magnet offer. Because users are getting something for free, they’re more likely to enter their email addresses.

optin form example

11. Integrate Social Media Features

Social media integration is another popular feature you’ll see on the most successful websites. It’s an effective way to boost brand awareness and promote content to your target audience.

There are many ways to add social media features to your website, but here are some of the most effective tactics:

  • Use social media sharing buttons for content promotion
  • Include social profile icons to boost your followers
  • Embed social media feeds to increase website engagement

The best way to embed social media content on your website is with Smash Balloon.

smash balloon social media feeds plugin

This suite of powerful social media plugins lets you add social media feeds for Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook directly to your WordPress site without code. You can choose from multiple responsive layouts and filter your feeds to show specific topics for your blog to keep users engaged.

You can even combine your social profiles into a single social media wall that updates regularly with fresh content.

social wall example

Follow this guide to add social media feeds to your website with a few clicks.

Next Steps

We hope this guide has helped you learn how to make your blog look like a website. You might also like this post on social media lead generation strategies to generate more traffic and leads and the best WordPress blog plugins.

Thanks for reading! We’d love to hear your thoughts, so please feel free to leave a comment with any questions and feedback.

You can also follow us on YouTubeX (formerly Twitter), and Facebook for more helpful content to grow your business.

author avatar
Stacey Corrin Writer
Stacey has been writing about WordPress and digital marketing for over 10 years and on other topics for much longer. Alongside this, she's fascinated with web design, user experience, and SEO.

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