Podcast: 5 Easy to Refresh Your Website for the New Year

In this podcast, I discuss 5 easy ways to refresh your website for the new year. We have less than 60 days until 2019. And I know some people hire Web Designers to get their websites ready and some are doing their own. So these tips are useful for both the DIYers and if you’re hiring a Web Designer. Updating your website is helpful because people love seeing things that are new and fresh, so they’ll be more likely to check out your website when there are new things to see on it. Plus, you may have changes in your business over the last year, so you want to make sure those changes are reflected on your website.

Tip #1: Update your photos.

A new brand photo shoot can give your website a totally new, refreshed look! If your photos were taken a few years ago, things may have changed with your appearance or with your design preferences. So getting new, up-to-date pictures taken can make your site look new and fresh!

I recommend creating a mood board in Pinterest first, so you can figure out the look/feel you’re going for with your photography and your vision. You don’t want to go in blindly, not knowing what look you’re going for. The mood board will give you direction and you’ll be able to provide it to your photographer to make sure your site has the cohesive look that you want. Think of descriptive words that describe your brand and type those words into the search bar in Pinterest. This could be words like “bright,” “fresh,” “colorful,” “minimalist,” etc. and see what types of images come up and save the photos that appeal to you. It’s the same for objects that you may want to include in your photos, like food, a desk, notebooks, makeup, whatever! Do the research to figure out what you like and what fits your brand, so the photos can really elevating your image moving forward.

Related: Mood Boards: What They Are, Why You Need One, & How to Create It

Tip #2: Create new content.

Oftentimes, people ask me how to get traffic over to their websites. And one of the best ways to do it is to create helpful content for your audience. People love getting valuable free content, even if they’re not ready to buy yet, whether it’s a blog post, podcast, or video.

Creating content can help any type of business! Like it you sell clothing, you can create a fashion blog styling your products in the blog posts, helping people to visualize themselves with your clothes in their lives. And for food, you could share recipe tips, cooking hacks, etc.—anything to make cooking easier for your audience. And for me, I offer web design content to give tips to DIYers who aren’t ready to hire me yet and so people who are considering hiring me can see I actually know what I’m talking about. You can share your content on social media sites, too. Be sure to promote it multiple times on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. And don’t overlook Pinterest. Promoted pins get a lot of traffic to your site pretty affordably. And Facebook ads can help too, so offering free content or an opt-in incentive in your ad to get people over to your website is also a great strategy. And that leads us to tip #3….

Tip #3: Create a new opt-in incentive.

You may have created an older opt-in incentive years ago that was a hit, but maybe you want to do a new fresh one that would appeal to your audience in the new year. An opt-in incentive could be a free checklist, a free workbook or PDF, or a video email series, basically anything that you can offer to help your audience with a common problem will work! You’ll also be able to promote it on social media. But be sure to promote it on a regular basis. People usually have to see something multiple times before taking action.

Related: 5 Opt-In Incentive Ideas to Help Grow Your Email List

Tip #4: Update your about page, press features, and your portfolio.

Refresh various sections of your site that may have changed. If anything has changed in your bio, be sure to update your about page. If you have new features in the press, be sure to add those to elevate your image and help give you some credibility. And finally, make sure your portfolio is up-to-date with the best samples of your work, if you’re a service-based business.

Tip #5: Update your service or product offers.

If you offered a service this year that you don’t want to offer next year, remove it. Or if you have certain products that you don’t want to offer anymore, take those out of your store. Review your offerings to make sure you still want to do the same things in the future. If there was something that was a headache to you this year, don’t feel obligated to continue offering it in the new year. Or if you want to outsource it next year, instead of doing it yourself, consider doing that.

There could also be ways to update your products to make them better or to respond to customer feedback or to create some new packaged deals with products that were often purchased together. To get some direction in this area, review your purchase data and see how it can be used strategically for you to best serve your audience with what they want.

And that’s it! The best part about all these tips is that they’re all free, except the photography. LOL. But to me, photography is one of the best investments you can make in your business, with everything being so visual nowadays. You’ll be able to use the photos, not only for your website, but for social media and any future events you may be speaking at. :-)

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