Simple Blog Design: Why Less Is More When You’re Just Starting Out

I used to think the more beautiful my blog looked, the better it would perform. So I spent weeks trying to make everything perfect. I bought premium themes. I added plugins for sliders, social feeds, pop-ups, animation. My homepage looked stunning. But behind the scenes? My site was slow, bloated, and barely getting traffic. Turns out, all that polish was hurting me. If you’re just starting out, let me save you the struggle: a simple blog design will take you farther, faster. Here’s why.

Design Doesn’t Equal Growth

We’ve both been blogging for over a decade, and we’ve seen this play out time and time again. The blogs that look the prettiest aren’t always the ones getting the most readers. In fact, some of the most successful sites we’ve seen look… well, kind of ugly and plain.

They don’t have fancy sliders or curated animations. But they rank. They get traffic. They convert readers into subscribers.

Because here’s the truth: simple blog design loads faster. Simple blog design is easier to navigate. Simple blog design leaves space for your content to shine.

We Learned the Hard Way Why a Simple Blog Design is Best

When we say “don’t overdo it,” we say it from experience.

Victoria once installed a beautiful premium theme just to make her site look exactly how the marketing gurus said it “should.” The result? Slower speed, constant tech issues, and hours lost trying to fix things that didn’t actually matter.

Francesca? She spent over a year (and thousands of dollars) trying to fix a site that had become too bloated to maintain. Eventually, she wiped the entire thing clean and started over.

And honestly? That fresh start was the best thing she could’ve done. We’ll talk another time on how you can do that if you have an existing blog that is not performing and need a fresh start.

What a Simple Blog Design Looks Like

A clean, functional blog isn’t boring. It’s smart. You add design where it’s needed and not more.

Here’s what you actually need to start:

A homepage
A blog page
An about page

That’s it. Keep your layout clean. Your menu easy to navigate. Use a light theme (we recommend Kadence). Avoid loading your homepage with pop-ups, moving pieces, or oversized graphics.

It doesn’t have to win design awards. It just needs to be readable.

If you want to know more about what to install and what to leave out, we go through that in our step by step guide on how to start a blog in 60 minutes.

Why It Matters More as You Grow

Simple design doesn’t just help you start faster, it gives you room to grow without breaking things.

As your blog gets more traffic, you’ll need to install tools for speed, analytics and security. And if your site is already bloated? That becomes a nightmare.

You don’t want to hit 50,000 monthly views and realize your blog can’t handle the traffic. Or worse, that it’s being slowed down by your obsession with design flourishes from year one. And now you’ll have to go back and edit everything one by one!

Start light. Save the complexity for later, and only where it’s actually worth it.

Final Thoughts

We know it’s tempting to add everything. To make it gorgeous. To prove that your blog is polished and professional.

But the best blogs start with what matters: clear content, clean structure, and a plan to grow.

So keep it simple.

Your future self (and your readers) will thank you.

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