5 Ways to Refresh your Blog's Branding

If your blog is your business, and/ or you wish to gain and retain an audience on your site, it's important that the look and feel of your site is both appealing and tailored to your blog's niche. Getting the look and feel of your site just right is vital in order to draw in readers, gain followers and have people returning for more. Your blog is your brand and thus needs to look professional. It should be representative of your blog's identity and the standard that people can expect from it. 

Rather than completely redesigning your blog's niche and look (known as 'rebranding'), a 'refresh' can be considered in terms of giving it a virtual lick of paint; it's like DIY for your blog. You want to ensure that it looks its best and showcases just what your site has to offer. Here are five ways that you can refresh your blog's branding. 

Update your blog logo and blog theme.

Your logo helps your readers identify your brand so an appealing and attractive one that looks professional is a must. It helps individuals to instantly recognise your brand and in time they will associate it with the high quality content you provide. 

Remove the clutter

A cluttered webpage can be off-putting for readers. It's worth having a look at what you can lose from your homepage to make it look cleaner, clearer and easier to navigate.

Change the font

Having the right font for your site is important. It can not only affect the readability of your posts but also reflects the tone and style that you wish to portray. You can opt for traditional, straightforward and familiar fonts, or you may opt for sophisticated, elegant or creative fonts such as handwriting style fonts. Your readers may make snap judgements when they land on your page and if they see something they like, it can keep them on your site for longer.

Ensure consistency

While your homepage might look perfect, consider how posts on other pages look too. Have you kept the font style and size the same on each page? Are your images clear? Giving consideration to the look of each page and category of your site ensures the quality is apparent throughout.

Confidence

This is about having confidence in your brand and having a clear outlook on how you want it to be perceived to others. It's important to be confident in the content that you would like to share on your site, on its niche and the tone and style that you would like it have throughout.

• Content~ having a clear idea of the content you wish to have on your blog helps you to ensure your brand is identifiable and transparent. While it can be tempting to stray outside of your usual niche, particularly where you're being offered payment to do so, this can make your brand a little muddled. 

• Niche- Choosing a niche for your site helps you keep focused on the content that you're going to be putting out there.  You don't have to just stick to one niche; you could have a 'parenting and travel' blog or a 'food and home' site. Mixing one of two topics or having a more generalised niche such as 'lifestyle' will enable you to offer a wider range of topics and content whilst still giving your readers clarity on what it is all about. 

• Style and Tone- It's important to consider the tone of your site; for example, are you writing humorous posts? Are they more serious? Are they aimed at a younger or older audience? Being clear on your tone and who you would like your audience to be ensures that you will keep the style and tone consistent. 

*Disclaimer: this is a collaborative post.