If your company is planning on jumping on the blogging bandwagon, you know that an important first step is choosing the right theme for your blog. If you’re using a popular blog hosting site like WordPress or Blogger, then you’ll be able to choose from hundreds of different designs, templates and colors, and choosing the right theme can become a difficult task.

Luckily, there are a few things that you can do to ensure that your business makes the right choice, and the following tips will help.

1. Know the purpose of your blog.
Before you can choose the right theme for your blog, you’ll need to know the purpose of your blog. Think about the topics and subjects that you’re going to write about. Think about who is writing, and also think about your target audience. Knowing all of this information will help you make the right choice. For example, if you’re blogging about wedding floral arrangements, having a blog theme that has a beach and sunshine in the background will just confuse your readers.

2. Stick with your current brand.
Another smart blog theme idea is to stick with the colors and designs of your company’s current brand. For example, if your main colors are blue and yellow, then you should try and pick a blog theme that is also blue and yellow. This way, when your customers land on your blog, it will complement your other branding efforts, and they will start to recognize the blue and yellow as belonging to your company. If you choose colors and designs that are completely opposite of what your current brand is, then your readers will not associate your blog with your brand.

3. Keep it simple.
If blogging is a new task for your company and if you’re learning as you go, you’ll want to stick with a design theme that is simple to use. For example, start with a theme that will give you the basics, such as the ability to blog, archive your blogs and talk about your company. Once you’ve gotten used to blogging or have played around with your blogging platform enough to be more comfortable, you can start adding new functionalities and design elements that are a bit more advanced.

4. Use easy navigation.
Some companies make the mistake in choosing a design theme that is different than most blogs, but what these companies fail to realize is that their readers prefer the simplicity of an easy-to-use blog, and this includes navigation. Make sure that the navigation of your blog is either on the left-hand side or across the top, and make sure that you use navigation headers that make sense to the reader. While creativity is always a plus, your readers will be more likely to click on a tab that they understand.

5. Do a test run.
When you’re starting your blog, you can always pick a theme and see how effective it is for a certain time period. If you’re not seeing the results you had hoped for, then feel free to make some changes. It’s very likely that you won’t find a successful blog theme on your first try, so make sure to test out all of your options.

Jessica Brown has been running a small antique shop for three years.  She enjoys blogging and created her business blog using a wordpress business theme.