By now, you’ve probably heard me say this a million times: as a website owner, your website is the most important asset. And when it comes to your website, looks do matter.

But, there are times when you might not be super happy with how your website looks. Perhaps it’s been a while since you’ve updated it or maybe you’re in the process of rebranding everything to match the new direction for your business. 

If that’s the case, the start of a new year is the best time to give your website a much needed refresh without a full redesign. Here are nine ways you can breathe new life into your website just in time for the new year. 

1. Update Any Outdated Info

The first thing you need to do is go through your website and update any outdated info. A good place to start is the copyright notice in your footer. Make sure the year is current and if you list your business information in the footer, double-check it to make sure it’s still accurate. 

A few other things to check include: 

• Your social media links

• Contact information

• Package/service names and prices

• Scheduler links

• Any dates that you might have mentioned on your about page or other pages (such as “I’ve been in business for 5 years…” etc. 

2. Check And Fix Broken Links

Nothing is more frustrating than clicking on a link and being greeted by a 404 page. But as frustrating as it is, broken links do happen. That’s why it’s a good idea to get in the habit of regularly checking your website for broken links. 

You don’t have to do it manually, though. Simply go to BrokenLinkCheck.com and enter your website’s URL. The tool will analyze your website and you can then go in and fix those broken links. 

The easiest way to fix them is to create a redirect in your Squarespace website. 

3. Update Your Website Photos

Another easy way to refresh your website for the holidays is to change out your website photos. This applies to photos of you as well as any other photos you might be using for full-width backgrounds, for your services, or in your blog posts. 

If right now you’re thinking: “But, Ana, I don’t have time to take tons of new photos!”, don’t worry — I hear you. The good news is that you don’t have to. One of the best things I’ve ever done for my business was to invest in a stock photo membership. This not only gives me an endless library of photos to use wherever I want on my website but it also helps me save time when I need to schedule my social media posts. 

My favorite stock photo membership is HauteStock. HauteStock has more than 7,000+ high-quality photos, templates, tutorials, icons, and more in their library so plenty of photos to choose from for your website. 

Trust me, they look nothing like bland stock photos that you might think of when you hear the word stock photos. You’ll find every type of photo you can imagine: from lifestyle images to laptop mockups to boho desktops, tons of Canva templates, and so much more to help you create a cohesive brand so do check them out. 

4. Evaluate Site Performance

While you’re making updates to your website, it’s also a good idea to check your analytics and see how your website is performing. This will give you an insight into what words people are using to search for your offers, what brings them to your site, where they’re coming from, what type of content is popular, and more. 

Squarespace analytics is a good place to start but if you want an even deeper look into what your visitors are doing on your site, take a look at your Google Analytics. You can also check your Google Search Console report to see more about how your content performs. 

A couple of other tips include: 

• Installing a heatmap on your website with a tool like Hotjar to see what your visitors are clicking on

• Checking your website speed with Pingdom Tools

5. Create An Editorial Calendar

By now, you’ve probably heard me say a million times that blogging on your website is the best form of marketing. December is perfect for mapping out your content plans for the next year. 

By mapping out your content in December, you can avoid the stress of having to create content on the fly. It also helps you avoid writer’s block and staring at the blank screen wondering what to write about. 

6. Review Your Calls To Action

Go through every page on your site and take a look at your calls to action — the words you use on your buttons and your links. Are they a little bland and boring or do they stand out and encourage visitors to take action? 

If you’re feeling a little blah about your calls to action, now is the best part to update them. While you’re at it, make sure that they point to correct pages on your website to avoid any broken links. 

7. Review Your Not Linked Section 

Okay, so I got this tip from Kerstin Martin’s SEO Plus course for Squarespace. Over time, it’s not unusual for your Not Linked section to get cluttered with pages. Some of those pages you might not even need any more. 

It’s good practice to delete those pages as Google and other search engines don’t like pages that aren’t linked to from any other pages or any pages that might be considered a duplicate page. 

If you’re on the fence about deleting a page because you might need it later, hide it from the search engines by going to page settings and then go to SEO and check the box to hide the page from search engines. Alternatively, you can disable the page instead of deleting it completely. 

If you want to learn more about Squarespace SEO in plain English, I highly recommend taking Kerstin’s course. It’s fluff-free, common sense, and super easy to implement.

8. Clean Up Your Sidebar

If you have a sidebar on your blog, now is the time to take a look at what all is in there and clean it up. Remove any unnecessary things, make sure you’re linking to relevant resources, and consider adding an email sign up form to help you grow your list. 

9. Upgrade Your Website Design

Lastly, if you’re still unhappy with your website look but don’t have the time, large budget or skills to embark on a complete redesign project, consider a new Squarespace template!

All of my templates come preinstalled in your account so there’s no need to waste time on doing everything from scratch. Simply add your content, replace your images, upgrade your plan, and launch your website. You can have a new website by the end of the week instead of wasting weeks or even months for a new redesign.

Final Thoughts

You don’t need to splurge big on a custom design or worry about hiring an entire team of designers and developers to get your website in tip top shape for the new year. The nine tips listed above are easy to do and don’t take up a lot of time. 

And with a Ley Design Studio template, you can refresh your website quickly and without any tech overwhelm. Browse the collection of templates to find the one that fits your brand and business best and you’ll go live in no time.

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