Website update: same but new

If you’re revisiting the website, you may have noticed a few changes. That’s right, I have had the decorators in. Who am I kidding? I’m Scottish. I did it myself! After four years, the website has had a wee overhaul. A new look. A new logo. But still the same shite content!

Why the change?

In the middle of last year, I released a post called “Again, Why bother?” where I admitted I was feeling frustrated with the site. I had fallen out of love with it, and it felt like all the effort I was putting in was for nothing.

I ended that post by saying if I did not see a 10% growth in visitors and viewers year on year, I would rest the website. With more than 20 years of history, perhaps it was time to throw in the towel.

However, last year the site finished with the highest number of views and visitors it has had in over a decade, exceeding the goal I had set. So the site has had a reprieve…for now.

Shite Site!

When I launched the last version of the website in 2021, I was not completely sold on it. Although it looked better, it did not achieve what I wanted. I decided to use Elementor to build the site, thinking it would give me more flexibility.

Instead, I ended up with something which was glitchy, just as restrictive, and more expensive every year.

For example, sometimes if I clicked a button such as search, I would see a black screen. I had to refresh the page and hope it would load properly. But most of the time, it happened again, so I gave up. Maybe it was because I was logged in to WordPress, but it was incredibly annoying.

If I were going to keep the website going, something had to change. Ideally, I would build it myself, but I simply do not have the time or the design skills.

So this is an interim update. Although I said that about the last one as well.

Same but new

The type of content I post isn’t changing anytime soon. Only the way it is delivered has changed. Imagine covering shit in glitter. That is what I am doing.

The old theme felt a bit serious, while the new theme has made it feel lighter.

The logotype has also been updated, although I am still not completely certain about it. The concept is there, but I am not sure I have executed it well. As I have said before, I am not a designer.

That said, I do like the logo I have created because there are three things I see in it:

• The image is made from the letters L, O and M which are the initials of the website
• It looks like a camera, which links to my ‘Today is all about…‘ photo series
• It also resembles a head with a crown, like a queen. Which is me

Content updates

There have also been some updates to pages on the website. Nothing major, just a bit of tidying up.

• Fifty Before 50 has had a small restructuring with some new additions. Admittedly, the list is still not finished. I really do need to think of more things for my bucket list, do I not?
• The Cross Stitch section has had the biggest changes, with projects now placed onto pages by year instead of that dreadful pop-up tool.

Backend updates

Of course, not everything has been glamorous. I have done quite a lot of work behind the scenes to improve the website and the experience for people visiting it.

I reviewed the plugins I was using and removed those that were no longer needed. I installed an image optimisation tool to help pages load faster, and there is still more work to come. These changes have already improved the performance of the site, especially on mobile, which was rated at about 38 before.

There is still a lot I want to improve when I have time, such as reviewing content and fixing the size of image files.

Not all plain sailing

I have been working on these updates quietly during the first part of 2025. Everything was done on my computer before going live.

But of course, it has not all gone smoothly. There were tears. Real ones. And it cost more than I had hoped.

New server

When it was time to launch the updated website, I ran into problems with storage. The backup was too large for the space left on my current server.

I tried removing old content to create more space, but it did not work, and the site was completely broken.

Let me tell you, downloading a copy of the site is much easier than trying to upload it again. Because the file was so large, the hosting company wanted a fee to upload the backup. Not a one-off payment either, but an annual subscription.

Before dealing with that, I needed to sort out the space problem. My website had outgrown the plan I was on. I was unhappy with my hosting provider anyway, because they had recently increased prices by 75% without offering any new benefits.

I could have upgraded to the next plan, but it would have cost 140% more. No thanks.

So I moved to a new server with double the space for only 50% more money. It also gave me the chance to start fresh.

Once the hosting was sorted, I still had to pay to restore the backup. Yes, I could have manually updated the databases, but I did not trust myself, and by that point, I just wanted the site running again.

After two days of problems, the website was finally back online.

Lost images

I started to feel relieved, until I noticed that some images were missing.

Some of the recent blog posts had come across fine, but I had forgotten to back up the new images. So I had to upload those again and reconnect them to the posts.

Then I realised other images were missing because of changes to the URL being incorrect, so I had to fix those as well.

But the biggest problem was that none of the “Today is all about…” photos were appearing. The plugin I had been using was closed down in March 2020 because of a guidelines violation.

I had been using a plugin that was unsupported for five years, and I did not know! Updating the website removed the plugin, which broke all those images.

I have now installed a new plugin, and I am working through all 191 posts to update the code so the images appear properly again. It will take time, but I will get there.

Thank you for sticking around

So that is where things stand. I will get there eventually. If you notice anything that does not look right, please feel free to get in touch and let me know.