4 Early Warning Signs That Your Blog Needs a Redesign

As technology consistently evolves, there are always new developments and new releases every other day of the week. Whether it’s for the latest iPhone app update or the latest web design application that forces us to update constantly, we have to consistently learn to adapt.

This is no different in regards to the design of your blog. Like most things in life, your blog requires maintenance every now and again. Sometimes your blog needs a complete overhaul whether it’s for personal or business reasons. Even if some readers may not know much about design, you could be at risk of losing them due to the outdated look of your blog.

There are many reasons to redesign your blog. Some reasons might be because of changing and advancing technology, your business and services are moving in a new direction or just because you feel the need for change.

Here are some things to look for when trying to decide if the time is right for you to start redesigning your blog, which includes bad design, out of date information, new identity and services and a loss of visitors.

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Bad Blog Design

Does your blog look like it was designed in 2001? If your answer to this question is “Yes”, then there is no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to redesign your blog and you need to start now.

There is nothing more off putting to a web designer than an ugly website design which means if a designer hates it then the visitors are definitely going to hate your site.

The look of your site is the initial thing that gets visitors to stay and look around for a little while. There are many things that make for a bad blog design. If your background is an unbecoming color, a color that makes reading the text so hard that your eyes start watering, then you need to take care of this.

Some ideas to fix this are to use blurred background, a large photo or a simple textured background with low opacity so that it looks natural.

Crowded and small text is not only hard to read but also illegible, try to use a standard font instead of the more fancy based typography.

Pixilated graphics and graphics that take too long to load or are seemingly out of place are also good indicators that you need to change your blog’s design.

Out of Date

You’ll probably need to go check out your blog to tell if it’s out of date in regards to the design but generally if you can’t remember when the last time your blog had an overhaul or even a slight modification then that’s a red flag something needs to be done.

Your blog could currently be using out of date plugins that constantly crash and cause your site to load slowly.

Other areas that need to be checked include everything from graphics to your content. Sometimes there are factors that keep you from updating your blog but if your business is undergoing major changes then your blog’s current information needs to reflect that.

It’s quite easy to see for the most part what is out of date in regards to your blog. Read through “contact information”, “online resumes”, “about me” sections and all your other pages to make sure that the content as well as the grammar is correct.

Make sure to be on the lookout for any pages that may be appearing funny or not at all i.e., 404 pages. You’ll need to go through the navigation menu as well to check the content there, if you don’t have a navigation menu you need to get one.
Features and functions that you no longer use or have need for should be removed to reduce clutter and confusion for both yourself and your visitors. Also if you find that you’re having a hard time updating your blog and managing your content, you should consider looking into a good CMS program.

This will allow you to easily maintain and manage the content on your blog. Another big thing to look at is the copyright footer; make sure that it reflects the current year.

Changed Services and Identity

Whether you’re using your blog for personal use or for your business, you’ll have inevitably changed a few things that could be new branding materials or even new services. Unless you make those changes to your blog no one is going to know about them.
A changed service is generally content-based issue but also includes the growth of your business. If your business is introducing new products, you’ll want your blog to reflect that. Redesigning your site can easily make the new brand become more noticeable. Any form of rebranding should definitely yield a new website design.

Loss of Visitors

Having an out of date and visually unappealing blog can and most often at times correlate to the amount or rather lack of visitors that your site is generating.

This isn’t always the case but generally when you see a lack of visitors it tends to be one of two things, poor marketing or a badly designed site. If you have access to analyzing data which will show you the number of visitors to your site and see that you are getting visitors but they aren’t staying then you clearly have a high bounce rate.

High bounce rates occur when a visitor comes to your site and quickly leaves it. Lack of functionality, unappealing design and even a confusing setup can be the cause of all this. If you see that you’re getting high bounce rates, changing the design of your blog may be able to fix that.

Are there any faults with the design of your blog?

Check out your blog and see if it could do with a few modifications, if not a complete overhaul, you might be surprised at what you find out.

Are there any other “signs” that we might need to look out for? Please let us know in the comments below.

Rahat Bashar is a Graphic Designer who writes awesome articles that make you take action. Be sure to visit his Design Blog and say hello.