Do you have a blog?
Even if you're regularly posting on your blog, you might find that it tends to get a little outdated over time. Things like "update About page" or "check for dead links" probably aren't ever very high on your to-do list ... and if, like me, you've been blogging for years, you may be reluctant to delve too far into the murky waters of
stuff-to-update...
The problem with this is that new readers are coming to your blog all the time. They might come to a specific post via a search engine, or someone might share a link to your blog with them. There's a good chance they'll check out your About page or your blog archives or your Contact details. If those are hideously out of date, it's confusing at best ... and may be actively off-putting.
Thankfully, you can do a lot in just a few
minutes. Here's how:
Five-minute fix:
Check your Contact form and any links. It's likely that the basics have remained the same (e.g. email address, phone number) but make sure:
- All the links (e.g. to social media accounts) are working. You may want to add/remove links if you've changed what sites you use most frequently.
- Your Contact form is actually working – fill it in and send it to
make sure.
Fifteen-minute fix:
Update your About page. It's so easy for this to become out-of-date. Look out for:
- Your age / your kids' ages – if you've included these, you'll ideally update every time someone has a birthday!
- Your headshot – if you've had the same one for years now, is it time to sort out a newer photo? (Especially if you've changed your
hairstyle, or started/stopped wearing glasses.)
- Links to your best blog posts – have you written any new ones that you want to include? Should you remove some older ones?
- Details about the services you offer – if you've started or stopped anything, update accordingly!
- Links to your books (or other products) – is there anything new to mention here?
Thirty-minute fix:
Declutter
your blog's sidebar. This may take you less than 30 minutes, but if your blog's been around a while, you might have collected quite a few widgets...
For every widget in your sidebar, ask yourself:
- Is this important enough to warrant a place here?
- Will it distract readers from something else I'd rather they do instead (e.g. sign up for my newsletter)?
- Does this widget look good or is it adding a lot of visual
clutter?
Widgets that I'd view as prime candidates for removal are:
- Tag clouds. These generally don't look great, and they're not a particularly easy way for readers to navigate.
- Carousels of books you're reading. I'd save these for an occasional blog post about what you've read recently. (The carousel may be appropriate if you're a book blogger, though!)
- Blogrolls (links to your favourite blogs). I'd put these on a page of
Recommendations instead, especially if you have a lot of them.
- Latest comments. This is a dangerous widget to have in case a really nasty or spammy comment gets through ... and it's not particularly helpful for most readers.
- Adverts. While you may well use them to monetize, it's worth questioning whether you'd do better promoting your books/products/services instead.
Good luck with your sprucing up! And if you want some extra help with blogging, don't
forget that as a newsletter reader, you get a 35% discount on all my Blogger's Guides. You can grab any / all of them here:
www.bloggers-guides.com – make sure you use the
discount code
alinewsletter before you checkout.
