< Reduce your clutter! : Reduce the clicks >
It's a good idea to redesign your website or blog from time to time. It helps to keep the site feeling fresh.Speaking of which...
Ben Barden dot com has just had a makeover, many thanks to my wife Lauren for doing the theme. Here's how it used to look:And here's how it looks now:
The sidebar has switched sides, the header is smaller, the colour scheme is much nicer and there's a photo of me in the header. What more could you ask for?!
There's also a brand new section where I've put some of my tutorials. New posts will be picked up if you subscribe to my site, so you won't need to hunt all over the site for updates. I think it's good to keep some of this stuff easily accessible to both new and existing readers of my site. Let me know what you think of the changes.
How often should you redesign your site?
Redesign too often and it may seem like change for the sake of change; redesign infrequently and your design can become rather stale. I think it's good to redesign no more than once every six months. This is a rough timescale; you may wish to redesign once every nine months or once a year.I'd say that any less than once a year is not quite frequent enough. You don't have to make huge changes, just a few tweaks to keep things current.
Of course, this will vary from site to site and I'd be interested to hear how often you redesign your site.
Theme changes
You could change your colour scheme, your banner, or the layout of your site. Look at what works and what doesn't work with your current design before you embark on a major overhaul. It's a waste of time if you end up with a design that's not as good as the previous one in terms of how easy it is to navigate, and how cluttered it is (or isn't, hopefully).Go for a unique theme
I have seen loads of blogs that use the default themes provided by WordPress and Blogger. Because I use my own system, when I first see a blog using one of those themes I don't realise it's a widely available theme - sometimes it looks quite good. Then I start to find more and more blogs that use the same theme.I know that not everyone can make their own themes, but you should try to stand out - having the same design as another site is not the best way to do this.
You'd be surprised how little you actually have to do to customise a theme to your needs. If you can find a fairly simple theme that has the layout you want, all you really need to do is go to iStockPhoto and find an image that you could use for a banner. Buy a version that's bigger than you need or you may end up regretting it. Then put some text on it and you're already better off than if you'd kept the default theme as it was.
If you aren't comfortable making your own images (and that's fair enough considering I haven't gone into any detail on image editing here), have a look at some of the graphic design services in the Entrecard Shop. Really, they're very reasonably priced and will give you far better results than using a theme that hundreds of other sites are also using.
Put related content in easy-to-find areas
Most blogging and website systems allow you to put posts in different categories or organise pages in sections. As I mentioned earlier, I moved several of my tutorials into a new section so they can be accessed much more easily.You don't have to put everything into its own section - some of your content will be better placed within the general area of your blog, i.e. the part that comes up when someone goes to your home page. But your readers will thank you if you can find a few related posts and put them in the same area. It will also take the pressure off your home page - a website can get pretty crazy when you've added lots of content to it.
Do the right thing - take a moment to organise your content.
What do you think?
How often do you redesign or reorganise your site?Does it give your site a new lease of life, or does it make little difference?
Do you keep a history of "before and after" images so you can show a timeline of previous versions of your site? Would you like to see some of my earlier site designs?
Did you like this post? Subscribe today!
Tags: redesign, restructure, reorganisation, organise your content, related content, graphic design, entrecard shop, istockphoto, tutorials, site redesign, new theme, unique theme
Posted by Ben on January 25, 2008 16:01 / Edited: January 26, 2008 14:15
Comments
I like this new design. Old header was too complex, if this is intent to be 'blogging and website tips without jargon'.
This new theme seems to be free from all disturbing factors and yet its unique. All in all, I think she did good job.
Thanks for the positive feedback. :)
Pinyo, that's great news!
Juha, glad you like it.
I do like the new theme, but your old header was memorable. I always knew when I had Entre-hopped into your web space.
I've been building my site (as you know). I'm trying to keep it minimal. I don't want ads taking over content. I want readers to want to return, not be too overwhelmed by clutter. I try to keep it simple, clean, and fun. That's my goal.
Great site and good writing...keep it up!
Thanks for the comment and praise, Jason. I felt it was time for a change - the old theme was set up when this was just a place to promote my music. When I changed the focus of the site, the theme didn't fit quite so well. Or so I thought! ;)
I also try to keep my site relatively clutter-free. I think you've done a good job of yours. :)
I really like the new theme much better than the old one---very clean, and I like the blue shades.
I think the header is very stylish. :)
Thanks for the positive feedback, Arachne. :)
Ben, I too like the new image. Very clean and not as loud. I have changed my site and I like to arrange my things differently every once in a while. Very interesting thoughts on this and other posts.
Thanks ettarose, glad you like it and thanks for the comment. :)
Hey - like the new theme. It's a good point, to redesign your site every now and then. Just not too often, lol.
If I can make just one suggestion? Your face in the header image. It's a little small and obscured, and could be made more prominent. Other than that, it's a great layout :)
Maybe Lauren should get into the template design business ;)
~ Wogan
Hi Wogan, thanks for the feedback. :) That's a good point about the photo of me. I'm not sure I want the pic to be any bigger, but it could be a bit lighter. I may include a larger version on my about page.
Lauren doesn't particularly want to do template design - it often takes a very long time to do if people want custom templates. Even if they're paying for the work, it's a thankless task. However, she will be building some templates for Majestic, which will allow people to try out a few different looks for their site and modify them as needed. The comments on my site are a good example of a template we'd like to include. :)
I think the change looks good Ben. I recently changed theme on my main blog. My reason wasn't aesthetic, but I felt that my old theme was holding me back SEO-wise. So far, I am looking about about twice as much Google search traffic after the switch. Pretty amazing.