» Its 2007, Why Are Blogs Still 800×600 Optimized?

This weekend, after looking at my web analytics I decided to expand my blog. Its ironic that right after posting about putting your blog on a diet, I go and expand the size of my blog but trust me, this decision made sense. As you can see in the screenshot of Google Analytics below, the percentage of users that come to my blog with only 800×600 capability is only 2.75%.

My blog was sized to fit into a browser window with no scrolling for users still stuck in the early 90s with their 800×600 screen resolution. I decided to make the jump to optimize my blog for 1024×768. Te end user experience as a whole should increase as I am now not wasting valuable screen real estate. For power users who are running 1680×1050 and higher resolutions, my blog will no longer look like a narrow twig down the center of your screen. It will now look like a fatter twig :) Hopefully not too far into the future I will be making a similar post announcing the change to a 1280×1024 optimized blog theme :)

Major Benefits

Expanding the width of my blog will allow the content area to hold larger screenshots and images so they’re alot easier to see. Previously I was limited to roughly 450 pixels width for images, but now the space allows for anything up to the 550-575 pixel range providing me with much more flexibility. For example, the screenshots I provided on my post about optimizing LinkedIn would have been much clearer had I posted them at 550 pixel width. This added width also allows my inline ad (a Google 300×250 block as of the writing of this post) to look a little better as there is more text wrapping around it. In terms of the sidebar, the added width there allows the text to look a bit less cluttered. I also open up some more room for future ad spots. I currently do not sell any ad spots on my sidebar, but when and if I do choose to go that route, again the space is much more flexible.

Should You Change Your Theme?

Before you go and make the change to your own blog or website, you should take a look at your analytics data. Whether you use Google Analytics, or another web analytics package, it should have details on the screen resolutions your users are capable of. If you see similar results to what I saw, then you should take the plunge and stretch your blog wider to use up more space. Your users will like it, and you will have more options in terms of posting items to your blog. If you are monetizing your traffic, you’ll love the added flexibility.

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