Blog design affects how readers experience your content. Clear navigation, readable layouts, and consistent branding make posts easier to explore and understand.
The browsing experience can influence buying decisions. In a 2025 Clutch survey, 84% of consumers said website design affects whether they decide to shop, while 80% said they’d leave a site they don’t like, even if they want the product. Since an ecommerce blog forms part of that website, poor design can weaken trust and reduce engagement.
If you’re starting a blog or want to refresh an existing business blog, read on to learn what key elements go into great blog design.
Why care about your blog’s design?
Research suggests a positive first impression can be made within 50 milliseconds of visiting a website. Incorporate your logo, color scheme, and photography style into your blog to create brand cohesion across your website.
Use your blog to further establish your brand identity, educate customers, keep visitors engaged, and create a positive user experience. Blog pages are also a place to build conversion intent, capture email sign-ups, and send readers to other parts of your website via calls to action (CTAs).
Colleen Echohawk, former CEO at Eighth Generation, advocates for blogs to be a go-to resource for SEO.
“One of the things that we continue to practice quite a bit, even though we know they’re not read as much as they should, is blogs. We do a new blog pretty often because we know we’re getting all of that SEO content out there. So when British Vogue looked up native design or native artists, we came up,” Colleen says on an episode of Shopify Masters.
If you’re a content creator looking to make money from your website or make money blogging, design is equally important. The better your metrics, the more opportunity you’ll have to sell ads or generate sales through affiliate marketing.
Examples of great blog design
- Intelligent Change
- Le Puzz
- Crap Eyewear
- Wonder Valley
- Epic Gardening
- Graza (Glog)
- Chomps
- CAP Beauty (The Thinking CAP)
- Goop
- Mustard Made
Discover what makes a blog great by looking at this diverse range of ecommerce blog design examples:
Intelligent Change
Intelligent Change sells journals, productivity tools, games, and stationery to the mindfulness lifestyle community. Thumbnail images use cool, calming colors like blue and green, in line with Intelligent Change’s focus on wellness.
The blog page presents article previews in a clean and minimalist layout, with each cell containing a photograph, headline, text snippet, and “Read more” links. A search bar provides another way to dig into the blog.
On the blog post pages, footers contain a CTA asking readers to subscribe to Intelligent Change’s newsletter. This provides readers with an actionable next step.
Le Puzz
Le Puzz is an ecommerce game company that sells artistic jigsaw puzzles. The company runs a blog named Le Blog that has interviews, deep dives into how different puzzles are made, gift guides, and more.
Le Blog reflects the artistic and creative identity throughout the rest of Le Puzz’s website design. Bright visuals use the brand’s color palette of yellow, gray, and black and highlight the company’s emphasis on unusual design shapes. A playful-looking footer offers a sign-up link for the company’s newsletter.
Crap Eyewear
Sunglasses brand Crap Eyewear runs a blog titled Crappenings. The blog profiles different creatives, shares information on events and brand collaborations, and more.
The blog page shows two easy-to-use menus: At the top of the page, a navigation menu lets readers easily move to Crap’s ecommerce site. Below that, a lineup of content categories lets readers navigate to the type of blog content they want to read about.
Photographs are emphasized through ample white space. The high-quality images align with Crap Eyewear’s laid-back, nostalgic, and California-centric identity.
Images on Crappenings look like old-school film photographs, and many include quintessential California imagery (e.g., a shot of the LA cityscape, a skateboarder under palm trees, a beachscape). Other imagery—namely event posters—is fashioned in a vintage-inspired, graphic-design-oriented style.
Wonder Valley
Wonder Valley is an olive oil and bodycare brand with a focus on sustainability. The company is known for its beautiful packaging, and their blog is also aesthetically driven. Wonder Valley’s written content is split into two categories: recipes and education. The recipes page features thumbnails with vibrant food flatlays, and an animated GIF of oil being poured onto a dish stays rooted on the left while readers scroll. The education page has beauty and lifestyle photo thumbnails with a GIF on the left of a woman’s silhouette as she applies body oil.
Once you click on a blog post, you see a large photo, the post title, and a short description of the article to come. Below the fold, posts are filled with colorful, high-quality images that break up text. At the top of each post, you’ll find related content organized in a bar.
Epic Gardening
Epic Gardening’s blog provides educational content on how to plan and maintain healthy gardens, while the ecommerce store sells essential gardening supplies.
Near the top of its blog page, trending stories draw attention to popular posts in a grid with photo thumbnails and headlines.
Below the list of trending stories, Epic Gardening has a CTA banner titled “Shop Epic Gardening,” which directs readers to the company’s ecommerce site.
Below that CTA banner, a roundup of editor’s picks draws viewers’ attention back to the blog.
Graza (Glog)
Glog is the blog of the olive oil brand Graza.
The company uses the same signature green color palette in its ecommerce website design, product packaging design, and blog design. Thumbnails with rounded corners and serif fonts complement bright colors and playful images. Graza uses their signature illustrations to complement photographs, and small details like checkerboard button shadows to highlight the brand’s playful personality.
Readers can choose from categories like recipes, culture, and education when scrolling for more articles. Graza’s product catalog includes olive oil, mayonnaise, and chips, and its recipes incorporate those products in unexpected ways. The culture section features interviews with notable names and “pantry portraits” of actual chefs’ pantries.
Chomps
Meat stick company Chomps shares recipes, product education, and nutrition information on its blog. Posts cover both evergreen and time-sensitive topics, like campfire snack ideas in the summer. The tone is approachable and friendly, aligned with the company’s general brand feel.
“If we’re able to put out really good creative content that people actually want to consume, that could allow us to build a brand much bigger than we ever could without leveraging that,” says cofounder Peter Maldonado.
Chomps’s blog design keeps fonts consistent between product packaging and product pages, which feels cohesive. Colorful photos mirror the rainbow of Chomps’s product line. Filters allow readers to find what they need, and links back to the online store show up in the header and last content design block.
CAP Beauty (The Thinking CAP)
Beauty and wellness company CAP Beauty’s blog is called The Thinking CAP.
Black-and-white thumbnails on the blog mirror the brand’s minimalist identity. Hover over an image, and it renders in full color. White font overlays each image, which link to individual pieces of content. This creates a clean grid.
Each blog post shows relevant products on the right side of the page, including a product photo and an option to “add to bag.” Titles are oversized in a capitalized, bold font.
Goop
Access lifestyle brand Goop’s editorial content by selecting “read” in the site’s top navigation bar. Switch between blog categories such as beauty, wellness, and travel using pill-style buttons.
The main content feed is organized chronologically, and each page has a CTA at the bottom to sign up for a newsletter. Hero images share similar color tones and feel cohesive, despite covering many different subjects.
Mustard Made
Modern typography and thoughtful design shape locker seller Mustard Made’s blog.
“Taking advantage of our blog and our about page and really customizing that and making sure that people know that we really do care, we really are what we say we are,” cofounder Becca Stern says on Shopify Masters. “We’re building something bigger than just a retailer of lockers.”
Mustard Made’s blog uses a clean, modern design. Lifestyle-driven product images are styled with nods to a mid-century aesthetic. Each hero image uses a Mustard Made product colorway as its focal point. Scroll down the main blog page, and you’ll see links to shop products based on color scheme.
What elements go into great blog design?
Design and user experience are closely related. Kevin Espiritu, founder and CEO at Epic Gardening, advocates for fun formats to keep readers engaged.
“It’s really just how valuable of content can you make and what formats can you put it in that your audience would enjoy, and just continuing to do that and get better at it over and over and over again,” Kevin says on Shopify Masters.
Here are the components of great business blog design:
| Element | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Headers | Headers add structural integrity to the blog design with bold typography and sizes to convey hierarchy. |
| Logo | A professional logo gives brand consistency to the blog. You can either use your business logo or create a unique logo for your blog. |
| Navigation | Navigation buttons, commonly placed across the top of a page offer menus and categories for navigating the site. This can streamline the customer experience. |
| Negative space | Negative space (also known as white space) is the use of generous margins and gutter space around text blocks and visual design elements to let the layout breathe and shine. Themes like Shopify’s Horizon have white space built in, so you won’t need to manually add it. |
| Thumbnails | Thumbnails are visual elements that accompany blog post headlines. They add visual interest to what would be an otherwise text-heavy table of contents. These are often photographs included in the blog post. |
| Related links | These links to other, similar blog posts are added to blog pages, offering visitors the opportunity to explore and spend more time engaging with the site. The more visitors explore different pages on your blog or website, the more your bounce rate improves. |
| Typography | Font choice and pairing set the tone for a blog, signaling whether a brand feels playful, editorial, or premium. Consistent, clear typography also makes long-form posts easier to scan. |
| Color and contrast | Eye-catching visuals and a deliberate color palette can reinforce brand recognition across blog posts. Strong contrast between text and background keeps content legible. Sufficient contrast supports accessibility. |
TIP: Website builders like Shopify make it easy to move around blog elements without coding. Creating a website mockup can also help you conceptualize your blog’s design before you start building it.
Tips for great blog design
- Craft a branded header and footer
- Make navigation easy
- Add a featured post
- Make titles stand out
- Add compelling thumbnails
- Break up text with visuals
- Make posts skimmable
- Include CTAs
- Add commenting features
- Prioritize responsive design
Developing your own business blog design begins with clear goals and a sense of your target audience. The kinds of stories you’ll share can guide the blog’s design.
Here are some website design tips for creating a standout blog for your brand:
Craft a branded header and footer
Blog headers typically include the blog’s name and make it clear to visitors that they’re on a blog, not the regular ecommerce site. Match the blog’s title to your regular website branding to maintain brand consistency. Consider using a color from your brand color palette or a title font from your brand guidelines.
At the bottom of your blog, add a footer that maintains your branding and includes links to other important sections of your site, like your Contact or About Us pages. If you have a newsletter, include a sign-up form for your email list.
Make navigation easy
Allow readers to switch between different sections of your blog with navigation buttons or a search bar at the top of the page.
Create a simple path for viewers to exit your blog and enter your ecommerce site. For example, add a clickable logo at the top of blog pages that directs readers to your shop page, or include your regular ecommerce site navigation bar above blog-specific navigation.
Add a featured post
A featured post at the top of your blog page can help draw readers’ attention to a particular article you want to highlight. It can also break up the grid format of the rest of your page. Emphasize your featured post with large title text and a large image, and consider using an eye-catching background color.
Make titles stand out
On your blog page, use clear font styling for titles. Ensure these are easy to read by using a text color that contrasts with the background color. You can also place titles over thumbnail images, but be careful to ensure the font is still legible.
In addition to titles, some blogs include a brief article description, byline, or publishing date to accompany thumbnails. Opt for descriptive titles and thumbnail images that preview the post’s content, and consider adding a description only for featured posts.
Add compelling thumbnails
Add thumbnail images that grab readers’ attention while hinting at the contents of the post. For example, if you’re posting a recipe for roast chicken, use a photograph of the finished chicken dish as your thumbnail for that post.
Align these thumbnails with your visual identity. Feature a certain brand color in your images, use a signature photography style, or edit photos to maintain a specific color palette.
Break up posts with visuals
On your article pages, guide readers through written content by adding high-quality visual content. Engaging visuals can include photographs, illustrations, charts, graphs, videos, flashy animations, and infographics. Pull quotes can also help to break up long-form content.
Aim for one image every few hundred words. Ensure they relate to and enhance the topic. When used well, visuals can prevent reader burnout, encourage readers to stay engaged, extend dwell time, and improve user engagement.
When you’re using images, make sure you have the right to publish them. This means you’ll need to find pictures that come with commercial use licenses. Find images in a stock library like Shopify’s Burst, or take pictures yourself. Add alt text for accessibility and ensure the proper website image sizes.
Make posts skimmable
Encourage visitors to skim and browse. Make it easy for readers to find what they’re looking for by avoiding tall and wide walls of text that are difficult to process.
Add article layout elements such as:
- Headers for important sections
- Subheaders for sections within sections
- Anchor links for navigation to particular sections
- Easy-to-read typography
- Bulleted lists to quickly convey important information
- Bold or italicized text and colors to draw the user’s eyes toward important concepts
Include CTAs
For each blog article, add a CTA. A CTA can be as simple as prompting the reader to explore related articles or subscribe to your newsletter.
There are a few ways to include a CTA in a blog post. Include a CTA button at the top or bottom of the page, add one in the middle of your post, or hyperlink copy to create an integrated CTA.
Here’s an example of the latter option from Crap Eyewear. The brand includes a hyperlinked CTA that reads “Shop their collection here,” which makes contextual sense with the surrounding content.
Add commenting features
Businesses use blogs to connect with existing and potential customers, so many choose to enable interactive elements like commenting on their posts. A commenting system gives readers a voice.
Moderate the comment section to keep the spammers, scammers, and trolls at bay, and write back to show your readers that you value their thoughts and aim to build a community around your brand. If you use Shopify as your platform, you’ll have access to built-in blog comment management.
Prioritize responsive design
Adapting a blog to different devices and screen sizes will maintain a consistent user experience across desktop and mobile browsers. Choose a responsive design template to attract all visitors, whether they’re using a phone, laptop, or tablet.
Ensure responsive design by choosing to design your website with a platform like Shopify. Shopify’s Horizon theme block features 10 responsive themes to ensure a readable user interface design across all screen sizes.
Optimize your Core Web Vitals. Aim for low load times, fast input responses, and visual stability.
Blog design trends
Blog design trends often change. Stay ahead of shifts by researching and updating your blog regularly.
For example, to keep their content up to date, Epic Gardening reviews blog posts at a specific cadence.
“We’ll also go backward year-over-year and look at stuff and say, ’Do we need to refresh that one? Let’s go ahead and take a look and see if we’re still accurate there,’” says founder Kevin.
Below, find a few key blog design trends for 2026.
| Design trend | What it is | Why it matters for ecommerce blogs |
|---|---|---|
| Naive design | Organic style that embraces rough, doodle-style, hand-drawn images | Kittl says this intentional imperfection can add character and warmth. |
| Bento grids | Modular page layout inspired by Japanese bento boxes | According to Studio Meyer, bento grids have become the default, not the exception. |
| Bold typography | Loud, bold, oversized typography | Figma lists bold typography as a storytelling mechanism for 2026 graphic design. |
| Dark mode | Light text on dark backgrounds | Dark mode is a popular design choice and research shows it may reduce eye strain in certain circumstances. |
| Maximalism | Saturated color and immersive, sensory experiences | Maximalist web design creates a unique and memorable experience for readers and pushes a brand’s personality forward. |
| Collage | Retro, cut-and-paste scrapbook style made digital | Introduces playful, memorable elements and can help tell a story through design. |
Blog design FAQ
What makes a great blog design?
A great blog design includes clear headers, consistent typography, use of negative space that reduces clutter, and user-friendly navigation. Include responsive design elements so even mobile and tablet users can easily find the content they’re looking for.
How do I design my blog?
To design your blog, choose a responsive template layout from a website builder like Shopify, create a branded header, add navigation buttons, choose appealing thumbnail images, and draft blog content.
Aim to include white space and eye-catching visuals, and consider creating a space for featured content to draw attention to a particular post. Within blog posts, break up text with images, and make copy skimmable with elements like pull quotes and subheaders.
What does a blog layout look like?
Many blog layouts look like a grid with thumbnails and titles that serve as previews for individual blog posts. Once readers click on a preview, they’re directed to a full-length article page.
How do I structure my blog?
Blogs use a simple structure consisting of the main blog page, individual blog posts, category menus, and a footer. Posts feature bold, clean headers, short paragraphs, high-resolution visuals, CTAs, and social sharing icons.
