How to rebrand your blog – A step by step guide
This post is sponsored by Font Bundles
I have been blogging for 10 years now and I think it is time to do a visual brand refresh. I am looking to redesign the look, feel and positioning of the blog to be more in line with what it stands for today.
This is not just a matter or a new logo and colour scheme. It is much more involved.
Steps to redesign your blog
One thing I am not doing is to change the name of the blog or the niches that I write about but I am changing almost everything else.
As with every project, I always start with a roadmap and write a to-do list. This is mainly just brainstorming what I like and don’t like and what is not working now. At the same time, I am also doing a bit of SEO tidying up.
If you are looking to rebrand your blog, these are the things to consider:
1. A new blog theme
The fastest way to refresh your blog is a new design. If you use WordPress, it is as easy as just installing a new theme.
I have been using Genesis themes on WordPress for many years. Blog designs were limited to available WordPress themes that were customisable. Unless you had a lot of tech skills, the amount of customisation you can do yourself is minimal.
With the advent of Gutenberg and drag and drop page builder themes, you now have infinite ways to design your blog. You can redesign your homepage using the easy built-in tools without any need for coding skills.
I have been experimenting with using the Elementor page builder using either a basic Genesis theme or the Astra theme.
The Elementor user interface is really easy to learn and simple to work with. Using drag and drop functions, you can easily build a page in real-time and make adjustments to the size, positioning and colours instantly. What used to take a bit of coding skills, uploading code files and refreshing pages is now history.
At this point, I am still undecided on the final layout but I am enjoying the whole creative process.
2. Colour Scheme
A coherent colour scheme will help you brand your blog in an instant. For blogs, the use of a colour scheme is aesthetically pleasing. I like to use this site that shows you trending colour palettes.
3. Typography
The choice of typography and what typeface you use says a lot about your brand. The general rule is not to use too many variations. Pick two complementary typefaces that match your brand, you can find ideas for font pairs online.
I also like to browse through the free font collection from Font Bundles. They have some lovely handwritten fonts that might work for my new blog design. If you sign up to their mailing list, they send you free fonts every week. Now I have a handy collection of fonts to use in new website builds and graphic projects.
4. Cleaning up some old stuff
Audit your blog content. If you have been blogging for years, you will probably have a lot of blog post and static content that is now irrelevant.
By doing a content audit, you can see which posts are not getting much traffic and the titles are now either out of date or don’t fit in with the theme of your blog today.
For the irrelevant posts, remove them and redirect the URL to a relevant category or another page with a similar topic.
For out of date posts, just delete them and redirect the URL. You must remember to redirect the URL or visitors will get a 404 error page which is not good for your SEO.
If you have used a lot of plugins on your blog, they might have left a lot of old and outdated directories in your backend. You can use a WordPress plugin to clean up any old leftover tables that are no longer required.
5. Adding new functionality
Now is also a good time to add some new functions to your blog. I want to be able to offer my blog reader content upgrades. This is where they can get an extended list of resources, special recipes, etc for supplying an email address. This is part of a list building strategy so that I can grow my email list.
6. Upgrade your photography
Over the years I have learnt so much about photography. When I started this blog, I was using a point and shoot digital camera. Photography was really just an afterthought.
I have been learning (and am still learning) about food photography and travel photography in the last few years. When I look back at some of my old blog posts, I cringe at the photos that I took then. But its also nice to see a progression of little improvements through the years.
Now is a good time to redo some of those old photos. If you are a food blogger. Your style might have evolved. You might want to consider taking some new photos for your recipes, both for the blog and for Pinterest.
7. Add a refreshed logo
I don’t have a logo on my blog. My header is just the name of the blog with simple typography. I am in the process of creating a logo to use on my social media platforms. I find online tools like Canva and Crello really helpful as they have templates that you can use as starting points for creating your own logos.
Are you thinking of rebranding your blog? What steps are you stuck on? Please comment below.
