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Form over function?  This is an essential life question.  But let’s just look at this question in relation to your blog or website.  A website is a balance between form and function. You want it to look beautiful but you want it to be usable. If you cannot read it, can’t navigate it or can’t understand it, then what is the point?

Navigation is a key issue everyone talks about.  People have to be able to move easily around your site. They have to be able to find where they are supposed to go.  Selling products? They must be able to figure out how to buy.

Ads can clutter up a page.  We have all seen sites where there are so many ads we cannot distinguish the site content from the advertising content. 10 years ago that might have worked – to get people to randomly click ads as they were trying to find their way to the content they were looking for – it doesn’t really work now.  We are all much smarter than that. Most of us know not to indiscriminately click on ads in a web page and if we see a page that is so overrun with ads as to be confusing, we just leave.

Content is King. Ultimately, once people have figured out how to move around your site without being bombarded with ads, then your ability to convert your people into readers, subscribers, followers, fans, clients, sales, customers and colleagues is the quality of your content.  It must be relevant to your topic, informative and interesting. It must be written well and checked for grammar and spelling.

If you are an adult star you might be thinking, my content is primarily video and images.  The same rules apply.  The parts of your site that include text must have good text.  The part of your site that has images must have good images.

Images. Your images must come through. They need to be sized properly for fast loading and if they link, the link must be good.  A bonus you could add would be to write good alt tags, so that screen readers can read  a good description of your image to a blind viewer.

Frequency. Quantity is almost as important as quality. If your site is based on communicating information and you update sporadically you will not build a solid audience.  You need to be regular with your updates, even if the information is pictures or video.  Set a schedule.  If people know that you update weekly, three times a week, daily, twice a day, then they are more likely to come back to see your updates (here is where quality comes into play). This will build a loyal audience which can translate into a loyal customer base.  But they have to be able to rely on you before you can rely on them.

Though form is important, function will ultimately prevail.  Your audience will stay longer and come back more often if you provide them with quality content. If your site only has a pretty face then you might get someone who comes once, but they won’t come back.  A pretty face will get people to the door; it won’t deliver the sale.