New Search Engine Snark theme – you like? : Search Engine Snark

If you’ve been reading us, first of all thank you. Second of all, you may notice that things are quite a bit different. As much as I loved the Copyblogger Wordpress theme – further discussion momentarily - it was time to step into a unique look and feel rather than one that’s clearly already out there. Plus, since a healthy chunk of this experience has been to learn, it’s a cheap cop-out to call the basic alterations that I made to it a satisfactory dip into theme design and customization. And we here at Search Engine Snark are not about cheap cop-outs. We are about cheap shots.

Still, for those who are looking for a great base I can’t recommend Copyblogger enough. It’s a simple but strong design with SEO considerations largely taken care of. The code is clean, the CSS is easy to navigate, all in all a good theme as-is or for use as a base for customization.

The new Search Engine Snark is another Chris Pearson creation at its base, the 2-column Cutline theme. I originally chose its three-column cousin, but after some asking around and base comparisons (read: Asking my wife and colleagues which they liked best) found that people didn’t care much for the extra column, especially since I’d largely be using it for various links, two columns of which just drove readers nuts. That said, from there the customization began.

Confession: The Cutline coding and CSS is a lot more convoluted than Copyblogger’s. Granted, it’s set up a lot better for wider customization with its already floating central container and a natural spot for both header text and images. It has formatting already in place for images which automatically gives everything more breathing room.

The header tags, however, are all wrong throughout the theme and some of them are difficult to track down (still looking for the exact spot where the widget headlines are controlled – it’s not the inline H tag call, and the DIV isn’t referenced in the main CSS file. Anyone knows where this hopeless script kiddie can change this?). Annoying as hell. Given the chance, I might try again using Copyblogger as a base.

Nevertheless, by using code from both the 2 and 3 column versions and some trial and error (more tips on developing themes in a later post), I was able to give things a bit of a shift to make it mine:

Wider content container
Custom rotating header images
Background coloring
Various text format updates
H tags in more ideal settings
Shifting date / time information from side to under the headlines
Image spacing
Simpler sidebar menus
Moving search bar from the sidebar to the nav at the top of the page
Moving RSS from the nav bar to the sidebar, complete with additional text and email subscription
Custom navigation

…and of course translating in plugins like the Yoast Breadcrumb, Post Ratings and Sociable, as well as standard functionality hacks like the More tag target URL and such.

The result is more unique look and feel from the original Cutline and WAY more unique than the slightly tweaked Copyblogger theme. Think this also helps draw the eye to the content in a way that the wider stretches of white space don’t accomplish in Cutline and Copyblogger while maintaining a clean layout in general. Not overly complicated or complex, but hopefully a good first effort on the design front.

What do you think? Make your mark in the poll below, and let me know your thoughts in the comments if you have any opinions worth sharing. I know, I know, not likely, but may as well ask.

[poll id="2"]

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