You don’t need to be a blogging genius to know what works when it comes to a smooth running website! Here’s a list of ways to clean up your blog for better efficiency & I’ll tell you why regular maintenance is essential!
Do you ever get the feeling your blog is acting kinda “sluggish”? I dunno about you, but visiting slow loading blogs annoy me to the point where I want to turn back around to “Sheikh Google” himself & ask him WHY he directed me this way! 😛
Whilst going through my blog recently I realised it needed a good ol clean up!! Did you know you’re harboring unnecessary files on your blog that can seriously effect your user experience & bounce rate? Making your site run more smoothly will help better serve your audience.
Designing landing pages and SEO is also an important factor, while you work behind the scenes, you’ll also want to work that front end experience too! You can start to do that once you go here to implement these ideas to have smooth sailing throughout! Or working with a good Digital Marketing Agency like iTonic can help.
So here is my nifty rundown of quick fixes that’ll keep your site
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Update those Plugins
If you’re anything like me, you download new plugins to try & after they turn out to be not much use, you forget about them, or never bother to delete them. No big thing right? Wrong!
Not only do plugins take up valuable space on your site, a lot of plugins are never updated and become abandoned after a while, leaving your site slow loading.
Always check to be sure that you have the latest update for all of your active plugins, and that you delete the ones that you aren’t using.
You’ll thank yourself later!
Broken Links
Broken links are links that, for whatever reason, no longer work.
So, for example, say you change up a couple of pages on your blog, but in your posts, you’re still linking to the old pages that no longer exist.
As a result, when a reader clicks on the old link, they’ll get the Error page.
This could cause you to lose readers, and affect your overall ranking on Google.
That’s why it’s important you go through your posts and double check your links to be sure that they’re all working properly.
I’d recommend starting with your most popular posts and then working your way through the rest!
Refresh & Revive Older Posts
One of my older posts started gaining interest thanks to Pinterest! But looking back over it made me cringe! Being a new blogger, I didn’t have a clue about readability, nor any SEO knowledge, I’ve since had more structure to my posts & the older ones were all over the place…
I find more engagement with my newer post format so I want to make sure the whole blog blends effortlessly.
If you have a bunch of blog posts, this may seem like a lot of hassle, to be honest, it can be!
However, it’s totally worth it, and you can always do a few at a time.
Media Library Clear Out
I can’t be the only one that has a TON of unused files in my media library.
For one reason or another, I have uploaded files that I’ve never used on my site, and I’ve even uploaded duplicate photos that I never got around to deleting.
Not only does this take up precious disk space, but having a bunch of random files can make it difficult to find the ones that you actually need.
This can definitely take a bit of time if you have a lot of files uploaded but doing it every 3-6 months makes a huge difference.
SEO
SEO in my earlier days of blogging was non- exsistant I thought as long as I shared my posts, they’d be found by magic!
If you ever want to be found organically on search engines like Google, you definitely want to learn how to properly implement SEO techniques on your blog. Yoast Plugin is a lifesaver in this sense, it can help your SEO & gives you tips to make it better. If you’re already using good SEO strategies, one way to keep your posts fresh is to go back and link to newer, relevant content in your older posts. Make sure you focus on Meta Descriptions and quality keywords.
Email Forms/Opt-Ins
If you have any old opt-in forms or landing pages that you haven’t looked at since you created them, it may be time for an update.
Luckily, there are a ton of ways that you can spruce up your opt-in forms and landing pages to land more subscribers and customers!
You can create a brand new graphic to lure your readers in, and dress up the description of your freebie or product on your opt-in landing page. You also could insert ‘mini’ opt-in forms on relevant blog posts to get even more eyes on your freebies. The possibilities are endless, but the end goal is to ensure that you use every opportunity to have your freebie seen by your visitors.
Give Your Welcome Email A Freshen Up
Email is something I put off & I thought wasn’t needed… I kept seeing articles stressing on how important having an email list is & well thought……. Meh!
Having said that, I have also learned the importance of staying connected with my followers, as well as how crucial it is to AT LEAST have a welcome email. Your welcome email is your one chance to build trust and encourage engagement with your subscribers.
Typically, your welcome email is sent out once someone subscribes to your blog or after they sign up for a freebie.
It’s important to update your welcome email with the latest, most relevant information.
Furthermore, if you have any popular blog posts or have launched new services and products, you definitely want to be sure to link to those in your welcome email!
Last, but certainly not least, Pinterest.
If you have boards with less that 25 pins, it may be a good idea to go ahead and make them secret.
The same goes for boards that don’t fit in your niche. I’m guilty of having boards about stuff that does not fit in with my blog niche, but Instead of deleting the boards, I simply made the boards secret.
Another way you could ‘Spring Clean’ your Pinterest profile is to be sure that you organize your boards so that the most relevant boards show up first. These may seem like simple fixes but they can definitely help improve your monthly views on Pinterest.
So while I carry on ‘Spring Cleaning’ my blog, email, and Pinterest profile to ensure that everything continues to run smoothly, tell me if you do any regular maintenance to your blog? If so, are there any tips that I left off of this list? Let me know in the comments below & don’t forget to share!
Awesome post! The Pinterest Tip relates to me the most! After being a part of so many Pinning threads on FB, I have so many irrelevant pins. Thank you for the info. I am definitely going to put this post to good use! 🙂
This is GREAT advice! I am implementing some of it now! The Pinterest one gives me MAJOR anxiety because my Pinterest is A MESS! But I’ll get there!
Thanks Kathy! Happy editing!