Boost Your Blog // 4 Ways to Get Your Blog Ready for Summer

Summer is practically here but before you hit the beach for your vacation, consider cleaning up your blog a bit for a fresh new start this season.  A lot of the times Summer means more time on your hands, with vacations & what not, so while you've got time to check more blogs, so do others.  So give new readers a great, refreshing experience with these Summer cleaning tips:

Declutter your Sidebars // Any where you look for blog tips will tell you to declutter your side bars on a regular basis.  Sometimes your sidebars become a depository of random blogs or causes you support, links to content on your blog, awards you've been given, etc.  Consider consolidating your sidebars to only reflect the most current things you're doing with your blog.  Make a Causes or Blog Love page that houses all the buttons of the things you support.  If you link manually to your popular posts, consider revising your list or using a widget (I know Blogger has one) that automatically links to a set number of popular posts.  At the bottom of Five Sixteenths, I link to the 3 most popular posts on the blog at a given time through a Blogger Widget.  Just take out what you don't need.  While your at it, consider making all your sidebar images the same width for a streamlined look.

Clean up your Navigation Menu // Do you need all those links at the top of your blog? If you have a lot to offer your answer may be yes & that's no problem.  As with your sidebars, decide what is necessary at the top of your blog.  Is a link outdated & you haven't gotten around to taking it down? Remove it for a cleaner look.  Do you not have a navigation bar? Maybe adding one will make your blog easier to navigate for your readers.  Moving any navigation links from your side bar to a horizontal navigation bar will declutter your sidebars more!  Learn how to make a simple text navigation link with the free resource on the bottom of the blogging eCourse page

Think about a Redesign // Spring is all about a fresh new look.  Is it time to rethink your blog design? Perhaps you need a fresh design to go with the new direction of your blog.  A new design can mean a whole new experience for your readers & keep new ones around for the long haul.  Consider what you may be able to design yourself or find a designer to work with for a new look.  There are plenty of premade designs out there & resources to help you learn too.  Check out etsy for a great design or pop on by the Five Sixteenths Shop to see if you like anything.  

Clean up your tags // I am notorious for using too many tags!  Consider narrowing down your tags to be more specific for your own categorizing.  For example all my posts related to style (Trend Tuesdays & Outfit posts) are labeled with Style that way I can easily locate them when I want to link to them.  It will help you be more organized & help readers find your content better.

Thinking about tidying up the blog for Summer is getting me excited.  There are a ton of things I know I need to do on here on Five Sixteenths to make it better & there's no better time than the present.  Cleaning up my Tags is something I desperately need to do.  Maybe I'll do that....someday...

Some of these tips above I'll go into in the Blogging 101 eBook I'm still working away at.  It's been so fun thinking back on when I started blogging & thinking about what I would have wanted to know.  You all have been wonderful helpers too!

I get super excited sharing my blogging journey here.  I love creating things that help other bloggers!

What have you done to make your blog better? Do you have any Blog Cleaning tips to share?

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