Have you ever followed decluttering queen Marie Kondo’s advice? Every January, I make a half-hearted start, usually with my kitchen draws. And yes, it can be very satisfying. If you would like to gain the same feeling in your coaching or consulting business, don’t start with your filing cupboard but with your website. Declutter your website!

Usually, content overload and a lack of usability are the main reasons why a website is underperforming. Here is a short decluttering list to get your website back in shape for the new year:

Declutter The Content

Less is more. Yes, you are right, “content is king,” but only in terms of high-value blog posts, articles, videos etc. Websites that offer real added value are the content kings. No one else! In case you haven’t thought about it yet: Content is of added value if it is helpful to a visitor from your specific target group.

Is your content educating, entertaining or inspiring with regard to your field of expertise? If not, remove it! Or at least move it out of sight. Don’t let outdated, spark-free content bury your high-value content.

If users can’t spot your best pieces immediately, that’s taking lots of great opportunities away from you. Your website should look very much like the ideal Marie Kondo cupboard!

Declutter The Navigation

When it comes to website navigation, limit yourself to the essential points. Over the years, your website has grown, and with each new content element, the navigation has expanded too. Or did you delete what does not spark joy anymore? Probably you just moved it further down, right?

It’s now time to think of the users who have to wade through lots of categories and subcategories before navigating to the content they actually want to see. Many of them will leave your website if it takes more than 2-3 clicks to reach a page.

Increase Your Website’s Speed

Underperforming websites usually have long loading times: And this is partly related to point 1 and 2. A lack of care in web design and content optimisation always has a trickle effect on the technical level.

In plain language: If you have overloaded your website with content, large background images, and heavy code, the page speed has slowed down considerably. And if a page does not load quickly, most users won’t wait. Google will dish out ‘penalty points’.

A low website performance equals to low traffic, and low traffic means low sales and less business.

Page speed issues are not so easy to tackle. But a good starting point would be a plugin to optimise the size of all images used on your website. Delete all unused (!) image files from your media library!

How are you going to declutter your website? Need help with anything? Please get in touch.