Now that Spring is finally here, you may have been hit with the sudden urge to clean and organize. There’s something about the Spring air that makes us want to start fresh. Maybe, it’s due to the feeling of relief and accomplishment we get once we are done filing our taxes that inspires us. Either way, it’s the perfect time of year to be inspired to cross things off our to-do lists.
One task that should not be forgotten, is a full website clean-up. I, myself, have been bitten by the “clean-up bug” and thought it would be the perfect opportunity to learn a bit more about how to take care of my own site. The following will show you what I learned from doing research about maintaining a healthy website in 2022.
Where To Begin
While I have done a site clean-up in the past, (probably when I upgraded and actually purchased my domain), I think I skipped doing it last year. I’ve had my site for about 8 years now, so I have quite a bit of content to look at. Hopefully, the last clean-up I did will make this a bit faster and easier for me to do, but we shall see!
What is your website’s purpose?
The first thing I like to do is think of what the point of my site is, and what it has to offer. You’d be surprised at how things can change over the course of your website’s life. I started my website as more of a place to quickly share about my life in Montreal and the food I tried to cook. Then it turned into that, but with Mom posts and product reviews, and then it basically took on a whole new life of its own.
While these topics are still major themes, I have also branched out into other subjects. Instead of this being a diary/cooking blog full of movie reviews and recipes I cooked (think Julie & Julia meets Eat, Pray, Love), it became a website full of content intended for not only Montrealers but for readers anywhere across the globe.
Luckily, this all lead me to have a career as a content writer (I didn’t know I could actually be paid to write if I wasn’t an accredited author- I was thrilled!). I am beyond thankful for this. Part of wanting to succeed in my job and in life, in general, is that I always want to continue to learn. I don’t want to become stagnant, and I don’t want my website to either! Therefore, take a second to really think about the theme of your website and in which direction you want to take it.
See also: How I Make Money Blogging
What types of content are your visitors looking for?
Part of maintaining a healthy website in 2022 will be taking a look at your site’s stats! As you do this, some questions to ask yourself can be,
- Which posts are the most popular?
- Which posts have brought in the most visitors? Creating your website’s menu around these categories will help your content stay organized and easy to find! Some layouts allow you to showcase your top posts first. Perhaps, you’re able to show off 4 posts. Use the top 3 most popular posts, and put a post that while it may be less popular, is a post you are proud of! By doing this, you can test if having that setup drives more views to certain posts, or if you should save the space for the articles that attract the most views only.
Read more here about a user’s journey on your site. If you haven’t been using yoast.com as a valuable resource, what in the world are you waiting for?
To Tag, Or Not to Tag, That is The Question…
I remember when I first started my website; my#article#tags#almost#looked#like#this. Well, not exactly like that, but you get the idea. According to databox.com, 10 tags per post will, or should, be enough to achieve the desired effect.
A good trick is to pretend you came across the post while you were researching the broad subject matter of the post. What information did you provide that would be crucial for the reader to know? Also, if you don’t believe that you will use the tag again, don’t fill up your website by using it this one time. As the figure of speech goes, “less is more”.
From my experience, I find that the category is more important than individual tags. And, according to GreenGeeks, it appears that I am on the right track:
“There is no contest between the two, categories are more important than tags in WordPress.
Search engines do not consider tags to be a useful tool that they consider in rankings. Instead, their purpose is to help the visitors and nothing more. On the flip side, categories accomplish both.”
https://www.greengeeks.ca/tutorials/categories-vs-tags-which-is-better-in-terms-of-seo
Don’t Forget Themes and Plugins!
If you started your website and used about twenty different themes before landing on the perfect theme for you, I can relate. It took me quite a while to land on one that was organized, offered a layout that made sense and was easy to navigate. I also tried a few plugins to see how they suited my website. It’s good to try new things! However, remember to not only deactivate any plugin or layout but also delete them! You don’t want these extra files taking up space or slowing down your website.
Maintaining a healthy website in 2022 shouldn’t be stressful or take you until 2023 to get right. With your passion for running a website and a few tips, you’ll be on your way to an organized, smoothly running site in no time. Now, please excuse me while I do a bit of website clean-up myself!
If you have more advice or tips, please leave a comment!