Keeping your website design fresh is always a good thing. It shows users that you’re engaged in building the site, builds trust that you’re still a reliable source (of products, information, or whatever else your site is about), and it can help draw attention to underserved areas on the site.
But keeping the design on your site fresh doesn’t have to be a big overhaul. In fact, it can be done in very small, manageable increments over time. Back maybe five or more years ago, this trend was quite the opposite. Websites would be designed, built to spec, launched, and then left to sit stagnant for a few years until they needed to be rebuilt. In recent web history, we’ve seen a sharp departure from this method, driven by a few key factors:
- The rise of Content Management Systems and the ability to make changes on-the-fly.
- Google’s search algorithm favors consistent and regular website updates (especially content).
- Stabilization of website platforms and technology and the ease of migrating between platforms.
Each of these things has contributed to the new, incremental way that we manage our websites over time.
So what should you do to start freshening up your design? Pick something small to focus on – your navigation, a section of the homepage that doesn’t get as many clicks, or even the focal point of your page. Think about what can you do to improve this section? A small animation, maybe update the color scheme slightly – talk to your designer or developer (even better, both!) to get some ideas of what they think could improve the section.
Here are some quick ideas to get you started:
- Add a transition, so the page elements fade in when they appear on the page (drawing more attention to them).
- Update the hover style and animation on your main navigation.
- If you have a large background image in a section, try adding parallax scrolling.
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