20 Ways To Refresh Your Blog

Now we're coming more towards the end of the year, you might be thinking about what you've achieved blogwise and what your goals for the new year might be. For me I wanted to have a blog refresh at the start of the year, this meant changing up the appearance of my blog and throughout the year I have made slight changes in other areas too, like my social media and my photography style. It's weird how much difference it makes to how you feel about your blog once you've changed something up a little. When you get a spare moment, you might fancy refreshing your blog in a small or dramatic way and relight that spark of love you have for your blog if you've found yourself getting slightly bored of it. 

Here are 20 ways that you can refresh your blog and fall back in love again...

1. Create a new header - This is something I need to do, but if you've had your current header for a while and you're fed up of looking at it, perhaps it's time for a refresh. If you want to keep with the overall theme of your blog that you have now, then switch up the writing style or the colours. But if you're going all out, then ensure it relates to the new theme you've got in mind.

2. Change the font - Whether it's the colour or the font style, change it up! Even the smallest change can make a difference. I love to do this from time to time and always feel better for it.

3. Swap your colours - As you can see my theme is typically white, grey, pink and black. For a refresh, I might swap out my grey for a gold to switch it up a little. Again the smallest changes can make a big difference. Experiment and see what works best.

4. Change your profile image - If you have a sidebar image of yourself, then switch it up for a more recent snap!

5. Update your about me page - It's probably been a while since you last updated your about me page, somethings might have changed since you last looked at it. You might have had a birthday and grown another year older. You might have switched jobs or moved cities. Updating this regularly will give your readers the impression you want to keep personal with them.

6. Add a new page - You might be bored of the same old pages across your navigation bar, so why not add something new? A few ideas you could go for include a contact page, a press page, FAQ page, any special projects, guest blogger page, a blog roll, a wishlist page, a shop now page or an archive page.

7. Change your buttons - No doubt you'll have buttons somewhere on your blog that your readers can click on to go direct to any of your other online profiles. Again, the small changes can make a difference to the appearance of your blog. There's hundreds of free buttons out there to chose from, just go searching or be creative and create your own!

8. Add a new widget or two - Again like the buttons, there's so many widgets out there to chose from. Just ensure that they reflect your blog well and you don't over clutter your blog with them. 

9. Check for broken links - One that I am guilty for hardly ever doing is checking broken links. You can find free broken link checkers online  which will help highlight any broken links on your page and will give you an idea of what need's to be changed. This will help improve your SEO!!!!

10. Change your layout - Have a reshuffle of the way your blog looks! This might be moving your sidebar or rearranging your widgets. Just have a play around and see what works best.

11. Get a new theme - A major change to your blog would be to get a new theme! If you don't have the money to purchase one, then there are sites available that will provide you with basic blog themes like this one or you can create your own if you have all the right tools and skills. Alternatively you can purchase designs from places like Pipdig or Etsy.

12. Brainstorm new ideas - Not all your blog refreshing has to be done to the appearance of your online presence. It can also be done the old fashion way, putting pen to paper and having a good ol' brainstorm of some new content ideas. It's always good to have ideas to always refer back to when you've hit a slump or want to plan your content for the next few weeks.

13. Retake any old photos - We're all at least have a few posts from back in the day that we're not so proud of anymore when it comes to the photography side of things. Times changes. Trends come and go. But our photos always remain. But you can easily retake any old photos and replace them with new ones. This will ensure you're keeping your content current and updated!

14. Update social media profiles - This could include a range of things from swapping your profile picture and editing your bio(s) or being active on your social media pages and interacting with others. 

15. Create an editorial calendar - If you want to become more organised with your blog and follow a schedule, then creating an editorial can be a great place to start and give you that much needed refresh when it comes to your content. I couldn't live without mine!

16. Create a media kit - If you want to start working with brands more, then having a media kit on hand is always ideal. I have a full post on creating a media kit here. This will give your blog a new professional vibe to it.

17. Analyse analytics - I wouldn't recommend spending a lot of time on this, but there's no harm taking a look at your analytics and coming to conclusions of what's working best and what isn't working so well. This will help you make decisions about what you need to do next with your blog.

18. Update any posts - We've talked about updating any old photos, but updating the writing parts within your posts is also a good idea. Again it will help to keep it current, but also gives others updates. You might have also changed up your writing style since or fancy rephrasing some parts of it.

19. Take a break - It might sound like a bit of a non-obvious one, but taking a break from your blog and the blogging world is a great way to refresh! You'll more than likely come back to the game with a whole load of new ideas, a new found motivation and a passion to get back into it. 

20. Rebrand - If you want to make a huge change, then a rebrand is the one to go for. Change and switch up whatever you want to do. A good idea is to temporary close down your site, then once you've finished with your rebrand, relaunch your blog and get your readers excited for the new take on your blog.

How do you refresh your blog?

Lauren x