Are You Considering a Website Refresh? Read These 3 Simple Tips First

Are you considering a website refresh? To increase the effectiveness of your website’s performance and therefore the user experience, you will want to periodically refresh your website. (A website refresh doesn’t mean a redesign. It’s mostly cosmetic—make it faster, cleaner; add some spark with some newer images, maybe new features—that sort of thing.)

3 Tips to Refresh Your WordPress Website

Here are 3 simple tips to refresh your WordPress website.

1. Typography

One of the first changes to consider is the fonts (typography) of the website. There are many instances where the more readable text actually gets read instead of only scanned. Often website owners abandon the content of the website in favor of creativity. Creative people need to be managed so that the function of the website—to help the sales process—isn’t sacrificed because a designer is more interested in aesthetics than in results.

• Use popular fonts like Google Fonts. If your WordPress theme doesn’t support using Google Fonts, use a free plugin such as Easy Google Fonts.
• Use 2 or 3 fonts at the most. Google Fonts has popular pairings for fonts, and Font Pair is a simple resource that helps designers pair Google Fonts together.
• Use darker or bolder colors for the headlines and a lighter color for the body content. Be careful not to sacrifice readability such as a grey font on a white background. Always remember that a darker text on a lighter background is easier to read than dark-colored text on a dark color background (such as a dark blue font on a black background).

2. Change the WordPress Theme and Colors

Themes allow users to convert the core WordPress product into anything they want. This is easily accomplished since WordPress gives you access to thousands of free themes that can enhance your site’s design and performance. It’s reassuring to know that themes are usually updated as technology changes, isn’t it?

Updating and refreshing the website is uncomplicated. And with so many WordPress web designers available, there will be a lot of people to assist you with your site needs now and in the years to come.

Because of its dominance and popularity in the Web design world, WordPress is going to be around for a long time. WordPress has a huge network of experts, making professional and affordable help available when you need it. And due to the platform’s openness and accessibility, an experienced web developer can create a custom solution for any need.

A question often asked is, “Is there a way we can incorporate changing theme colors into this section?” The answer is, yes. Canva, for example, has a Design Wiki with color combinations.

Today there are several thousand themes and plugins in the WordPress directory.  Chances are that whatever you need for your website, a solution is already out there.

3. Update the Content

But there is more to updating the site’s appearance and performance. There is also the message delivered through the content. This is where the fun begins!

Some sites are getting cleverer with delivering their content in a more artistic way, such as a technique used in online brochures, where there are many sections that highlight multiple topics per page.

Google loves fresh and relevant content and plenty of it. Updating your content and adding a sentence or more to a page registers with Google as new page content and gets Google to scan the page again.

Keeping the content fresh is not so difficult. Just read it aloud and think for a minute how you could say it better, or add something new to it.

If you have images, update the alt text with newer keywords that apply to the page topic. Perhaps a better Meta Description, or improving the headlines and sub-headings in the text would be appropriate.

Final Thoughts: Making the Website Refresh Work for You

Today’s design possibilities limit you only to your imagination and your customers’ responsiveness. And with so many options, it is easier than ever to experiment and test what works best. This is a vital and important part of growing your business online.

Test and document what is or is not working and attracting visitors. Apply more effort to what is working and craft the text to your customers’ liking.

Keeping your website fresh will encourage customers to visit your site more frequently. As they more frequently visit your site they will trust you more. The stronger the trust, the better likelihood of selling more services.

Need help? Our WordPress Web Design Service is the perfect starting point for small to medium size businesses. Call us at 602-633-4758 for a free consultation.