It’s a brand new season and another month! If you’ve been procrastinating on your plans to revamp your blog, this is your sign! If you have no idea where to start, I got you! In this post, I will share 5 easy ways to improve your website.
Now, if you don’t wanna tweak your blog, I still recommend you browse through as you may find some tips you may pass along, otherwise, let the points below guide you (1) to give your readers the best possible UX and (2) to give you that (sense of fulfillment and) pride to share your thoughtfully-designed blog on your socials.
So, let get to it one by one.
5 ways to give your blog a new look
1. Change your web design template
If you know the basics of HTML and you are using Blogger platform for your website, changing your blog template can be a piece of cake!
There are many resources online, from paid ones to free licenses. Sora Templates and Envato may come in handy if you are on the look. If you are just starting and experimenting on the designs, use Sora Templates.
What I like the most about Sora Templates is its vast arsenal of template categories. Whatever your niche may be, you will find a template that suits your preference.
The templates can be installed for free too. But if you want lifetime technical support and also own the license, you may purchase the theme. It is affordable for just less than 10 bucks or around Php500 one time payment!
If you need help on template installation, you may contact me. You can hire me to change your template if you are using any of these platforms: Blogger, WordPress, Wix or Joomla, you can do that too. Just get in touch!
2. Apply a nice color scheme to your blog
After you have chosen a new theme for your blog (or even if you wanna use your current template), you can customize the CSS to give it a facelift.
What I used to do is to first check out some sites that I liked the palettes then inspect the particular element and then find that color code and check Colorhexa to create a palette for my design. It’s a bit of a work!
The easiest way to do this however is through Canva. I am telling you, it can be done after a few clicks and also, if like me, you are subscribed to Canva Pro, you use any photo and automatically get a scheme suggestion from it.
For example, I created a few palettes from spring photos I got from Canva’s premium stock photos. If you find a palette you like, you may freely use it!
There are so many other things you can do with Canva Pro, but let me discuss that in another blog post.
Going back, after you picked a palette, apply the color codes to your CSS or directly edit your HTML.
Always remember to consider the visual feels the colors would exude and NOT make anything straining to look at. Think of what is comfortable for you when you read a blog or check a website. You want to feel the personality of the site but at the same time you don’t want it to be an eyesore like to have very bright, overwhelming colors, or difficult to read contrast. You get the idea.
3. Declutter your home navigation and sidebars
I just did this because MY BLOG IS TEEMING WITH ADS that are underperforming and widgets that hurt instead of making my site work.
Check your mobile and desktop view. If there are annoying pop up ads or responsive ads that you think is not strategically placed (look at your GOOGLE ADSENSE AD UNITS AND CHECK EACH UNIT’S PERFORMANCE), better to remove them. One of the things that users dislike about sites they visit is being bombarded with ads.
Of course, I cannot tell you how many ads should your page have but I think it is ideal to have them placed neatly across your page utilizing the header, sidebar, and footer sections.
Check their sizes too. If they are on the sidebar, it won’t look good if they resize to 728 x 90 megapixel, and not redundant. Imagine if you have ads on your sidebar like three consecutive widgets are just ADSENSE ad units, I don’t think any user will be attracted to clicking all of them. Most likely, the saturation would put the user off.
Just remember the more ads you have, the less focus those ads have with your content.
4. Update your post widgets
This will not only give your blog a new look, if done correctly, will drive more traffic especially to articles you want people to check out.
That said, I recommend you use blog templates that have label widgets that appear on the home page. My template I got from Theme Forest has this feature and so I can just change the “tags” or “labels” I use to showcase some posts.
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| This thumbnail posts can be changed to showcase posts and also to give my blog a new look |
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- Pro Tip:
- As you do this, make sure to also pin the article to Pinterest. This SEO platform is non-discriminating, awesome venue to drive users to your blog through attractive PINS. If you wanna learn more about this, check out this post.
5. Bring old posts back to life
Speaking of showcasing previously published articles, make sure to also update them.
For example, during this pandemic, a lot has changed especially when it comes to traveling. Check out the old posts you have (start with the ones that receive the highest traffic), update the posts. In my case, I updated my airport and bus fare guide accordingly. I also called the tourism office to update fees and travel requirements. Only by doing this can you make bringing old post back to life work for your site!
Parting Words
While how your site looks shouldn’t be entirely your focus, updating your theme and organizing your contents improves your readers’ user experience and thus improving your influence and blog rank on search engines. If tweaking your blog HTML seems like too much work for you, hit me up and let me help you. Nonetheless, I hope you got something useful from this post. And if you do, make sure to pass it along to others who may need it!
