How to Keep Your Site Looking Clean and Organized

Over time, it is extremely likely that your site will grow, with both new articles and areas added to your site, ranging from advertisements to other areas that are intended to help promote specific areas of your site. While more content isn’t necessarily a bad element, it might be time to change your layout or focus on promoting different pieces of content through a new approach.

Now, by now if you are a blogger or spend a portion of your day online, you know what a cluttered site looks like versus a “non-cluttered” site, but I’ll give you a quick run-down of what to look for:

• Very little white space. All areas of the site make use of advertisements, banners, or other elements, which ultimately detract form the visual appeal of your site.
• It takes a long time (approaching or exceeding ten seconds) to load your site. You want to make sure that your content loads ahead of your sidebar content and other areas that don’t mean as much to readers.
• Your hosting plan gets suspended or you notice a spike in bandwidth (costs increase), due to the sheer number of images and content on the main page.
• Finally, and worst of all, readers comment on how you should clean up your site.

Remember that there are no clear, defined principles on how to design a website or blog – much of the “defined” principles rely on how people view your site and your approaches to optimization. When you deal with code, that is a whole other story, but for now, we’re just looking at the front-end view.

Maintaining a site following a minimalist’s views, you will have no problem with the above aspects, but most people are unable to do this. You have to be prepared to “overhaul” your site when it comes the time that you don’t have any room to add another widget.

Some of the main benefits of keeping an optimized, clean page include:

• Faster navigation between pages and posts for readers – increasing their level of satisfaction (which then translates into more readers, traffic, and return-visitors).
• Your hosting won’t cost as much and you won’t need to upgrade later on.
• You’ll find it easier to maintain your site than with hundreds of sidebar widgets.

One of the keys to maintaining a clean site vary depending on the type of site you run, how many daily visitors you have (you don’t want errors appearing), and how much time you are willing to devote to the task.

Let’s take a look at several different approaches.

1. Consistently Clean - You are able to focus on the design aspect of your site at least once per week, therefore you are able to rearrange objects and focus on optimizing click-through rates and where visitors are viewing and/or clicking. When it comes time to add more elements, it is easy, as there is plenty of space remaining.
2. Time for an Overhaul - Using this method, a variety of sidebar widgets, advertisement blocks, and random (unnecessary) content has accumulated. In this case, it would be best to start fresh with a new theme and brand new sidebar content.
3. Occasional Optimization - You make noticeable improvements between every month to half-year, depending on how often you plan on “refinishing” your site. This approach surely takes more time over a blog’s lifespan, but while you are utilizing it, there is less work to be done.

Finding a perfect balance between a cluttered site and one that contains too little content is a delicate balance to maintain; only people that have experience knowing what their users want can determine this fine line. Once you do, you will be able to tout a sleek, fast-loading, and optimized website – beneficial to both you and your readers.