3 Easy Ways to Update Your Website on Your Own

Web Design

May 10

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For those of you that don’t already know, websites are a living breathing part of your business. They’re meant to grow and change with you over time and not meant to stay stagnant. Yes, when you work with a website designer our goal is to help you create something that you will be in love with for many years to come, but by no means do we expect things to stay exactly the same on your website as your business grows and progresses. Personally, my goal as a website designer is to give you a strong foundation for your website based on strategy and industry standards. From there, I encourage you to play around, have fun and shift things on your website as you see fit.

In the following blog post, I’ll share 3 easy ways you can update your website to make it look and feel fresh for your audience as your business evolves over time.

A Word Of Caution First

I wouldn’t be a good designer if I didn’t share this big disclaimer first. I always recommend backing up your work before performing any major website edits. This will prevent any headaches and tears that could occur if you accidentally mess up while working on your site.

For Squarespace users, I recommend copying the page you are going to be editing first so you have a backup of your page. I recommend editing on the copied page to ensure that your live site is not affected while you edit your site. Once you have finished your updates to your liking, I would then update the URL of the copied page with the URL of the old page and delete the old page. Deleting the old page and updating the links help ensure that your website’s SEO (search engine optimization) is not negatively impacted by the changes you made.

For WordPress users, I recommend taking a backup of your website before performing any edits. Depending on your hosting, you may already have automatic backups enabled on your server, saving you the hassle of having to manually create a backup yourself. Plus, if you need to revert back to a previous version of your site, you can do that directly from your hosting. If that is not the case though, you can use the plugin called Updraft WordPress Backup Plugin to ensure you have a copy of your site saved for your records prior to performing edits. Make sure to download your backup after performing a backup with Updraft. Those files will be integral to reverting back to a previous version of your site if your website edits do not work to your liking.

Update your Backgrounds

One easy way to transform the look and feel of your website is by updating the background images on your website pages. Depending on the complexity and style of your website this could be easy or a little bit more complicated. On Squarespace specifically, this is rather easy to do and I highly encourage you to try it out.

I recently helped one of my clients, Natalie Brite, do this on her website and it turned out amazing. Simply updating her background images changed up the style of her website dramatically and made it look almost brand new. This simple update had a way of really freshening up her site for her audience and aligned it with the shifts Natalie was making in her personal branding.

Update Your Imagery

Another thing we did on Natalie’s website was update the imagery she had throughout the site. Natalie had some brand photos taken during our web design project and those were incorporated into the site after it was already live. All we did was swap the original images on the site for new ones she acquired after the fact. This simple change took the site to new heights and ended up balancing beautifully with the updated backgrounds we incorporated as well.

I highly recommend you try this out as well. Simply switch out your website photos whenever you have new ones to incorporate on your site. Just make sure to compress them first using a tool like tinyjpg.com so they remain lightweight on your site. Also, make sure to use photos of the same dimensions when switching them out. For example, if you have a photo that is portrait style loaded into a specific area of your site, make sure to swap it out with another portrait style photo. Loading a horizontal photo in that area could affect your site design, which we definitely don’t want. Just be cognizant of the layout of your photos to make sure your site stays looking beautiful.

Update your Copy

The last easy way you can edit your website on your own is with your website copy. This is where you can really shine and start to embed your personality into your brand. Sometimes what we think we should say about our businesses is right for a certain period of time, but then we grow and change and those words need to shift with it. I highly encourage you to take ownership of your website copy and start playing with it as you see fit.

When editing your website copy, be mindful of how much text is being incorporated into different areas of your site. You don’t want to upload 3 paragraphs of text into an area where only 1-2 sentences were previously there. This, again, could affect the way your site looks visually. Be thoughtful with your words to create edits and changes to your site copy that really stand out.

Conclusion

Editing your own website can seem like a really daunting task, but honestly, it shouldn’t. It is in your best interest to take ownership of your site and learn how to use it. This will save you time and headaches when inevitably you have to make simple edits to your website. Website designers are not always available for minor edits and, furthermore, some web designers don’t actually perform site edits for their clients. Taking the extra step to learn how to use your site will give you the flexibility to be able to make live edits on your own when you need them and keep your website fresh, beautiful, and up-to-date.

In my web design process, I always ensure to teach my clients how to use their website after we create it. I create custom solutions for my clients and take the time to sit down with each individual and show them how their websites work. This is meant to empower them and give them the confidence to start playing with their websites themselves once we are done working together on a project.

Ready to take your website from drab to fab? Reach out so we can discuss the details of your project!