Spring Cleaning: 10 Ways to Freshen Up Your Website

You know that feeling when, after months and months of telling yourself you should clean out your closet, you actually DO it? So satisfying, right? Well, spring is here and now is a great time to roll up your sleeves and give your website the attention it deserves.

Get your broom out because there’s a fair bit of sweeping involved here. We’ve found the most effective way to tackle a website makeover is to do multiple “sweeps” through the whole site so you can focus on certain aspects without getting distracted.

Here at Tummel.Me, we recently updated our website. We can’t say it was easy—we found more dirt and hairballs than we’d like to admit, and Grady sacrificed his weekend to update our portfolio section—but in the end, that clean-closet feeling made it all worth it.

So, without further adieu, here is our step-by-step guide to giving your website a spring makeover:

1. Revisit your website’s goals

When you first created your website, you (hopefully) came up with a few main goals that you wanted it to accomplish. Basically, what were you trying to achieve with your website? Take a few minutes to think about those goals before you dive into action. Perhaps they have even changed a bit since you last checked in with your website.

2. Rethink the navigation

Pretend you are a first-time visitor to your site. Take a good look at the navigation and ask yourself, “Is there any way I can rearrange the pages to make it easier for a user to accomplish the main goals?” It may be useful to ask a friend or family member to try this exercise, as well. You could be so familiar with your site organization that it will be hard to take a step back and view it from an outsider’s perspective.

3. Do an informational sweep

Chances are there are a few pages on your site that contain incorrect or outdated information. Find them and get rid of them, or update them.

4. Do a technical sweep

Go through your site and check all the links and forms to make sure they are in working order. The last thing you want is a frustrated user who is unable to accomplish the goals of the site.

5. Do a consistency sweep

You’ve probably been adding content to your website here and there for some time, or maybe different people at your organization update different pages. Sit down and read through your entire site, page by page, to make sure the text stands together as a cohesive unit and reflects your brand’s voice. Is the tone consistent? Is grammar and punctuation correct? If this seems like too daunting of a task, hire a copywriter who can help you communicate the benefits of your brand in a voice that’s consistent.

6. Do an image sweep

Visual content drives user engagement. Swapping in new photographs or graphics is an easy way to give your website a fresh, appealing look. But don’t jam your site with a bunch of random visuals—make sure they are top quality and in support of your brand. Consider hiring a professional photographer to take pictures of your products and/or your team.

7. Do a social media sweep

Take a quick pass through each page and make sure there are easy-to-find buttons that link to all of your social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Google+, Yelp, etc). If you are active on Twitter, consider adding a Twitter feed.

8. Update testimonials

Do you have a dedicated spot on your site for customer testimonials? If so, add a few more and make sure to include a date stamp so it’s obvious that they are recent. If you don’t have any testimonials on your site, there’s no reason not to add them. Ask a few recent clients for feedback. Not only will you get quotes to add credibility to your website, but you’ll learn a little bit more about your customers, too.

9. Create a plan for adding fresh content

As we covered in a recent post, it’s important to have a content strategy in place. The best way to do this is to schedule regular blog posts for your website and keep your social media sites active.

10. Set up Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a powerful tool. It can show you where and when visitors landed on your site, what they read, how long they stayed, what they were searching for, the browser they were using, where they live, and more. It’s easy to set up and free.

If you have any questions or need assistance updating your site, feel free to contact us. We are here to help!