From a new wardrobe to a fresh coat of paint, everything requires a little updating now and then. Websites need periodic updates to look and feel fresh, but many website owners put these updates off. Thankfully, there are easy ways to update the look and feel for WordPress websites. These improvements can be manual touch-ups or you can choose to use technology to keep your site looking updated and relevant with very little hands-on effort. These are the top 5 ways to keep your website looking fresh.
Spring Cleaning
A lot can change over the course of the year. If you’ve moved, changed hours, or added a new product or service to your business, it’s important to update your website with that information. You’ll also want to make sure that all pricing is up-to-date and that any important call-to-action links are still active and working correctly. Make sure to check the main pages as well as all page footers for information that needs to be corrected as those tend to be forgotten.
If you have made a major change in your business, like a rebranding, merger, or added a new product, you may want to hire a web developer to help make these changes for you.
Add in Social Media
With the popularity of social media, some business owners find that having a website is more of a formality than anything else. They connect with and share information to their customers on social media. Social media allows business owners to share information quickly and from their phones, but having a website helps to establish credibility with new customers and offers a variety of functions that social media does not.
Website owners who prefer social media should embed social media feeds into their website. This will allow the website to continue to feel updated by sharing the newest posts from social media right on the site. WordPress websites make this easy with a variety of ready-to-go plug-ins and site owners can choose which social channels to display.
Consider Feeds and Plug-ins to Reduce Work
If you’ve got an e-commerce website and already upload your products to a marketplace like Shopify, Etsy, or others, you may be able to connect your shop there to your website via a feed or WordPress plugin. This will save you from having to do the duplicated work of also adding it to your website, increase the exposure of your for sale products or services, and keep your site looking updated with the most current product information.
If your website is more in the business of creating content, rather than a physical product, you may also want to implement the ability for users to subscribe to your content via RSS feed. This simple feed will send your newest content to your subscribers as it is posted and is another way to stay connected to your website.
Get a New Look
Changing the look of your website is one of the fastest ways to keep it feeling fresh. Web design best practices change, so even if your information is still accurate, it’s a good idea to do a refresh every few years. WordPress website users can easily do this by uploading or updating the site theme through the WordPress admin panel. It’s important to note that theme customization can be lost during this process, so it may be a good idea to hire a WordPress web developer to help you with this so you don’t lose anything.
If your website layout is still visually appealing and functioning well, another option is to change the images on the page to provide a new look. Changing images allows you to promote new products or services or to stay current with the seasons.
Blogging
Blogging is a great way to keep your site feeling fresh by adding new content. Blogging can include articles about your product or service, background or additional information that helps your clients understand your industry, or multimedia collections like photo galleries, quizzes, or even music playlists.
Blog posts allow site owners to share new information and updates without having to change or adjust the main layout of a website. Blogging helps improve the search engine rankings of a website by increasing the amount of new and unique information on the site, as well as allowing sites to rank well for specific keywords.
