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website changes
  • Organization

Website Redesign & Update

Katie WellsJul 22, 2019Updated: Jul 29, 2019
Reading Time: 5 min

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Wellness Mama » Blog » Organization » Website Redesign & Update
Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
  • Wellness Mama Design Time Capsule
  • Blogging Tips?
  • My Blogging Resources

You may have noticed that WellnessMama.com recently got a slight website redesign this past week. I seriously dislike updating and redesigning, as the process always takes longer, costs more, and is even more mentally exhausting than expected. One of the things I’ve learned since 2006 (when I first started blogging) is that I’d almost rather go through labor then redesign the blog, but sometimes it’s a necessity. And this redesign was no exception. It’s been in the works for over a year!

Although I liked the old design, I decided to make a few changes that I think will provide a better user experience for you. Here are some of those changes:

Updated Resources Page

For years we’ve had a resources page listing all my favorite companies, products, ingredients, courses, and other resources that I personally use and recommend to family and friends. It’s always been a reader favorite since you can find all the products I recommend in one easy location. But over time it got a little unwieldy and wasn’t organized nearly well enough for a good user experience. With the new and improved resources page, it’s much much easier to sort and search through all the recommendations, so you can always find what you’re looking for. This is still a work in progress and will continue to get updated over the next few weeks, but you can check out the new design and functionality here.

Medical Review Board

Over the past year we’ve been putting together a medical review board of doctors, researchers, and expert advisers to review all the articles on Wellness Mama and ensure the information presented is up-to-date, balanced, and backed by science. It’s always been my goal to take complex topics and break them down into easy-to-understand articles that will improve the quality of your family’s life. By utilizing known experts to quality check my work, you can rest assured that what you’re reading is factually accurate and trustworthy. Each article that has been medically reviewed will list the reviewer’s name next to the post author, which you can click on to learn more about him or her and see the other articles they have contributed to. You can learn more about our medical review board here.

No Sidebar

In the past, when reading a blog post on your computer, there was a right-hand sidebar that linked to other posts, social media, a search box, recent podcasts, and recommended resources. While some readers found it helpful, I do want the focus of the blog to be on the articles and information provided instead of distracting asides. Because of that, we’ve removed the sidebar and some of the ads so you can focus on the content… which is why you’re here in the first place, right?

Improved Mobile Experience

The majority of Wellness Mama readers visit on a mobile device, so ensuring that the website loads fast and is easy to use on a phone, tablet, or any other device is of the utmost importance. We’ve simplified the design and removed some of the distractions and slow loading components so the site should load much faster and be easier to read as well.

Along with the obvious design changes, there were a lot of behind-the-scenes coding changes that I don’t fully understand which help the site work better and faster.

Thanks to the amazing Wellness Mama tech team at Spears Marketing and Biz Budding, this transition went relatively smoothly, even though we still have a few more tweaks and updates to make over the next few weeks.

Wellness Mama Design Time Capsule

As we finished the recent updates, I looked through all of the past designs I’ve had over the years (since 2006). Each one has definitely been an improvement over the last. If you’ve been a long-time reader, how many of these designs do you remember?

My original site on blogspot.com:

1 Wellness Mama blogspot

First WordPress.com design:

2 Wellness Mama wp.com Vigilance

Second WordPress.com design:

3 Wellness Mama WP.com custom

Second self-hosted WordPress design. I didn’t keep a screenshot of the first one, but I did it myself and rest assured, it was pretty bad! 298 people liked me on Facebook back in 2010 and I remember each of them by name. Many of them still comment pretty regularly and I feel like we’ve become e-friends since then.

5 Wellness Mama Going Green

And then there was the pink theme with the cartoon me 🙂

6 Wellness Mama - Pretty Young Thing

And my first mobile-friendly design with custom hand-drawn typeface logo:

7 Wellness Mama Ballance

My first truly custom blog design, with the updated logo that I’ve used for years:

wellness mama custom design v1

This was an updated version of the above, but with a more personal touch on the homepage:

Wellness Mama version 8 design

An improved version of the above, with the old membership site:

Wellness Mama website version 9

And this one that we’ve had for several years that announced my new books:

wellness-mama-website-v8

Blogging Tips?

I get asked for my blogging tips pretty often, and to be honest, I don’t feel qualified to answer most of the time. My goal when I started blogging was to help other moms provide a natural and healthy lifestyle for their families so they can improve their health and happiness.

I’ve learned a lot over the years about formatting blog posts and using social media, but at the end of the day, my best tip (as corny as it may sound) is to make sure that the focus is always on helping others. If you truly care about your readers, authenticity will show through in your writing and others will be attracted to it.

My Blogging Resources

This is a list of the blogging resources that I use for my site in case they can be helpful to any of you who blog or are thinking of starting a blog (go for it!):

  • Domain name registration: Hover
  • Website hosting: BizBudding
  • WordPress theme: Mai Lifestyle Pro
  • WordPress training tutorials: WordPress 101
  • Website security & backups: Sucuri
  • Form creation software: Gravity Forms
  • Recipe creation: WP Recipe Maker
  • Email newsletter: Convert Kit

What do you think? Do you like the new design changes? Anything you’d do differently or still has bugs that need be fixed?

Category: Organization

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About Katie Wells

Katie Wells, CTNC, MCHC, Founder of Wellness Mama and Wellnesse, has a background in research, journalism, and nutrition. As a wife and mom of six, she turned to research and took health into her own hands to find answers to her health problems. WellnessMama.com is the culmination of her thousands of hours of research and all posts are medically reviewed and verified by the Wellness Mama research team. Katie is also the author of the bestselling books The Wellness Mama Cookbook and The Wellness Mama 5-Step Lifestyle Detox.

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Reader Interactions

Discussion (84 Comments)

  1. Allison

    February 20, 2012 at 8:57 PM

    Congratulations Katie on the new look – it is awesome and so user friendly!

    Reply
  2. Sevin

    February 20, 2012 at 8:54 PM

    Oooooh! Love the new design!!! – I loved you site to begin-with but this is *tons* better than before!!! 🙂

    Reply
  3. Leigh Miller

    February 20, 2012 at 8:47 PM

    LOVE it!  I’m a green gal, though, so it’s right up my alley!  It looks so organized and clean.  And I’m in for the challenge!

    Reply
  4. Gwyn Wiens

    February 20, 2012 at 7:19 PM

    Although I’m a huge fan of the previous “Joan Jetson” lookalike graphics, the new green is a good look for you too! 🙂 I’m glad to see another Challenge coming up as well, I’m ready for it this time!

    Reply
  5. Anne

    February 20, 2012 at 6:52 PM

    It looks beautiful! Love the cheerful green.  And also, I have one of those Cuisnart immersion blenders, and it rocks 🙂 What a great gift!

    Reply
  6. Aura

    February 20, 2012 at 4:00 PM

    The site looks nice, seems easier to navigate the recipes now! One problem, though: I print out a lot of your recipes, but I can’t find the printer-friendly links in your posts now! Did they get removed in the facelift?

    Reply
    • Wellness Mama

      February 20, 2012 at 8:33 PM

      Working on it and hopefully it will be back soon. Still working out a few bugs, but I wanted to have the site functional in the meantime 🙂

      Reply
  7. Leslie

    February 20, 2012 at 3:54 PM

    Wow!!  Great new look– I love it!

    Reply
  8. Sonya Zikic

    February 20, 2012 at 3:24 PM

    The site looks great. Well done!

    Reply
  9. Amy

    February 20, 2012 at 3:19 PM

    Looks awesome and I can’t wait to look in further..I really like what you’ve done with the recipes!

    Reply
  10. Karla

    February 20, 2012 at 2:17 PM

    Such a cool site! I liked the old one but this one is super cool and extremely user-friendly and organized. We missed you! Welcome back!

    Reply
    • Melody

      January 4, 2016 at 7:53 AM

      I really wish there was a search feature somewhere. I have referred many people to your site and they can’t find the articles I have mentioned without one. I love your wealth of information, but I feel like it is now more inaccessible.

      Reply
      • Wellness Mama

        January 4, 2016 at 9:42 AM

        The search box can be found by clicking on the magnifying glass icon in the navigation bar.

        Reply
        • Brittany

          January 4, 2016 at 11:38 AM

          I also don’t see where to search. There is no magnifying glass that I see. I had to go to google type what I was searching for then wellness mama. That’s the only way I could get to the recipe I was looking for.

          Reply
          • Wellness Mama

            January 4, 2016 at 11:52 AM

            What browser are you using and what version?

          • Robin

            January 4, 2016 at 1:54 PM

            I was using Google when I had a problem looking for the magnifying glass. Instead of going crazy, I posted to the site, closed the page and went to it, at another time, with a fresh eye. Voila! It was there! Sometimes, pages don’t download completely; sometimes, I just can’t see the obvious. 🙂

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