How to spruce up your website without a redesign

Let’s face it: website redesigns can be overwhelming and exhausting, especially if it’s not in the budget to hire someone (even then, that brings its own stresses!). If you don’t keep it in check, that Shiny Font Syndrome will have you spending more time tweaking your site than actually doing the work you should be focusing on.

But what if you really are unhappy with the way you’re presenting yourself online? Here are a few ways to spruce up your website without a redesign.

Update your copy

It’s amazing how the smallest change in copy can make you feel about your work. Take a few minutes to update your about page, services page, or even just your sidebar intro, and you’ll feel better about how you’re presenting yourself online. Even a little simple editing can make a huge difference. We often say more than we need to when we try to explain ourselves, and so revisiting the same content later with a fresh perspective can help you see how to get to the point more quickly. You can tighten things up in just a few minutes and feel that much more professional.

Change out your images

Images make a huge impact on your site and how you present yourself online. Admittedly, I am the worst at taking photos of myself (in fact, a few of you called me out on it in my last reader survey!). I’ll be honest: the photo on my about page is probably three years old, at least. If I weren’t in the middle of a redesign myself, that would be the first thing I’d change about my current website. As it is, it’s at the top of my list of things to do for my new website. People can get a much better sense of who you are through your images on your website.

Don’t forget your environment as well — sharing photos of where you work or some of your favorite places can help people see behind the scenes of what you do. If you aren’t a great photographer and don’t have someone to work with, you can look through free stock photography resources like Death to the Stock Photo and Unsplash to share imagery that speaks to you.

Clean up your existing design

Tweaking one aspect of your design can have a huge impact. Try swapping one of your fonts for something a bit more refined — maybe it’s time to pay for something premium. Scale back on the amount of design elements across your site and let the posts speak for themselves. Or, simply rethink your navigation and sidebar. Take a step back from your screen and look for any areas that seem cluttered — then do what you can to reduce the clutter.

After reading this post, you might be tempted to make all of these changes at once. But the point I want to make here is that you don’t have to spend all day tweaking your website to make an impact. These are simply a few ideas to get you started. Just identify a few small things and add one to your to-do list each day. Make a week of it, and start your day with one of those tasks. Or set a timer for an hour and do as much as you can, then leave it. Don’t spend so much time tweaking your website that you aren’t doing the work that puts money in your bank account.

Identify a few small website changes and add one to your to-do list each day.
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P.S. 6 small tweaks you might want to make to your blog design.

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