Blog maintenance, I don’t think anyone really enjoys it but it is necessary if you want your blog to retain its authority and be in good standing with the likes of Google, Yahoo and other search engines.
Of course the other plus point is that readers want to keep
coming back to a blog that is easy to read and navigate as well.
If you regularly indulge in these ten good habits then you
should keep a healthy blog and not fall foul of any penalties that Google
decide to dish out!
1. Check for
broken links on your blog regularly.
Basically linking to other web pages in your blog posts is a
great idea but you’ll soon find that other blogs close or suppliers change
their product links and you are left with a load of links on your blog that are
pointing no-where useful and that is a big no-no in terms of your site
retaining its credibility. You can easily go to Broken Link Checker and do this
for free, I try to do it every couple of months now as I never knew about it
for the first five years of blogging and when I went to check there were
thousands of links that I needed to remove or fix (one by one) and yes it was a
lengthy process.
2. Register with and log in regularly to GoogleWebmaster Tools
It might look a bit confusing at first but this is one of
the first places you will learn about any issues on your blog. You can search
for duplicate meta tags or titles (google hates duplication and sees it as less
authoritative) and also check your site’s mobile optimisation, to see if your
bog and individual posts display well on mobile devices. There is lots of look
at and then you might need to fix a few things so plan some time to do this and
slowly get your blog in hand. Here is a link to a video I found that explains a little more about what you will find in this useful but jam packed resource.
3. Back up
This one is a real basic. You should back up your blog
regularly. Over the years I’ve known too many friends who have lost their full
blogs or their latest work as they have not been backing up. It is up to you
how often you want to do it, I try to remember monthly.
For an easy tutorial of how to back
up your blogger blog then check out Geekalicious and click here for Word Press
4. Update
all your static pages
If you want your blog to look professional and to attract
work then it is imperative that you update all the statics pages like your 'About
Me', 'Contact Me', 'Work with Me', 'Disclosure' etc etc. You can’t moan at a PR who
offers you nappies when your child is five if you have never updated the page
which gives all the information about your family says Andrea at All you need is Love and Cake.
5. Update your media pack and statistics
If you are wanting to work with brands then they will often
ask for more information about you and your blog, what your rates are, what
work you are happy to take on and what your current site statistics are. I
personally, find it easiest to have a media pack that I update about every 6-8
weeks as I can attach it to an email and respond quickly.
Here are a couple of links to how to make your own media
pack tutorials. The first from my friend Stacey Corrin uses Canva
and is a one page dream or here is a tutorial for a
more traditional pack on BritMums.
6. Cleanse your sidebar regularly
It is very easy for your blog sidebar (and footer) to get
very cluttered over time, Cass at Diary of a Frugal Family advises you to keep
your sidebar clutter free and to make sure you have social share buttons easily
visible.
7. Update your Wordpress plug-ins
I’d like to pretend I know what I am on about here but I’m
not a Wordpress user but I’ve seen enough blogger friends have a meltdown on FB
to know that you must update your plug-ins regularly as ones that become
out-of-date can be a route to spam and an insecure site. This looks like a great guide to updating your Wordpress plug-ins and why you should do it.
8. Take your security seriously
Jenny at Cheetahs in my Shoes reminded me how vulnerable our
blogs can be as we are mostly using freeware. She says if your username is
Admin - change it immediately and she would recommend the Sucuri plugin to help harden
WP sites against hacks, it also lets you see if you're being DDOS or brute
force attacked and if anyone seems to have your username. Using the Limit LogIn
attempts plugin (it's now in the setup of a new WP blog as an option) is a good
idea (but make sure you write the password down). And keep an eye on where
traffic is coming from - if it suddenly starts coming from porn sites, you may
have a problem. And if a WP theme is free and not from the main WP selection,
be highly suspicious - if it's too good to be true, it probably is (and is full
of links, malware or otherwise)
9. Tidy up any sponsored posts
Donna at Little Lilypad Company mentioned paid for posts. If you take paid-for work on your blog then I’d advice that
you offer the follow link (if you take them) in your post for a time-limited
period (but the purchaser must of course be advised this up-front before any
payment is made), you can then change the link to no-follow or remove the post
at the relevant time if you so wish. This means your blog does nto get clogged up with paid-for links over a longer period of time.
10. Update your photos & older blog posts
Joy at PinkOddy quite rightly points out that most of us get
better at taking photos with experience and a practise she has adopted is
taking new photos to suit old posts, so that they look better and also rank
better in search engine listings. It is of course image to name all your images
as well as add an ‘alt tag’ (which is a way to describe the image to someone
who cannot see it). Here is a
link to an old post that Joy had updated the photos in.
Mari at Mari’s World also says to comb through old posts,
tweak them so they are as enjoyable as possible to read and when writing a new post
try to link naturally to your other posts (or other blogs) as you go. IE: she has just
written about a London Bus Tour day out so she linked with all her previous
London sightseeing posts.
Good luck keeping your blog healthy and maintaining a blog that readers want to come back to time and time again. Mich x
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