How to Spring Clean Your Blog in 5 Steps
Spring cleaning can be applied to more than just your home! You can take those same ideas and spring clean your blog into a more polished version of what it is today.
During the latter half of last year, I shared a few tips on how to declutter your online space. When I started gearing Violet Roots up for a website revamp (you may have noticed) I began to think about how those same principles could be applied to blogging.
Quite a few tips and tricks popped into my mind and I’m happy to share them with you! Five areas of improvement are listed below. For those of you who want to take a deep dive and really freshen up your blogging space, I have something even better for you! You can get your hands on 10 bonus points along with a few in-depth tips for each when you sign up! Get the 15 point checklist and access to 40+ resources today!
Menus & Categories
I recently went through my menu and tweaked a couple of things. I got rid of sub-links and I switched up the order. It was important to me that I create a hierarchy that best addresses where I want people to go when they visit my site.
I mentioned this when I gave a few tips on how to choose your blog theme and blog style. You want to think carefully about where you’re directing the traffic that comes to your blog. Another aspect of your navigation is your category section. Most blogs focus on more than just one subject and even when they do focus on one thing there are usually quite a few sub-categories.
For example, I blog about creativity, music and blogging with a few lifestyle posts. It’s important that I highlight creativity, music, and blogging because those are the main three subjects, however, there are plenty of topics that go into each one. When it comes to “Music” I technically could break it down into live music, playlists, festivals, reviews etc. If you consider lifestyle I could say self-care, travel, style and much more.
Spring clean your blog by getting rid of all that extra navigation! Anything that isn’t top priority shouldn’t be in your main menu. Either relocate it to your footer, your sidebar or nowhere at all. When it comes to your categories don’t go overboard. Keep it to 5 max with ideally less. If you give your audience too many options they won’t know where to go next.
Blog Posts
Blog posts are the main attraction of a blog. A lot of people tend to get into the habit of churning out content and then allowing it to twist in the wind. (Click to Tweet) No further promotion, no further edits – nothing. Don’t do that!
This year one of my blogging goals was to go through older posts and give them a little extra love. I did that already with my blogging tools post as well as a few others and I want to make it a habit of revisiting older content and improving upon what I’ve already done. Everything you do should be considered a work in progress when it comes to your blog. Your actual posts should be no different. When
When you spring clean your blog make sure to keep tabs on your branded images, dead and related links, formatting and the substance of your content as a whole. Has your blog’s mission changed? Do you even still blog about this subject? If not just hit that delete button and focus on the present.
About Me & Start Here
About Me and Start Here pages are some of the most neglected pages on websites. You would think that more people would be vigilant about keeping these pages updated. I mean, if someone is interested in you enough that they want to learn more you’d think you’d want to leave them with the best possible first impression.
Unfortunately, I’ve seen plenty of pages like this where the branding is totally different, the links are broken and previous blog names are still in use. C’mon people! You’re better than this!
If you have one or both of these pages on your site make sure that they’re a good reflection of your current goals and mission.
Home
Keeping your homepage up to date is so sooo important! I’m in the process of updating Violet Roots at the moment and the main task on the top of my list was my homepage. After all, what’s the point of making an effort to spring clean your blog if you change everything but the homepage?
That would be like renovating an entire store interior but leaving the actual storefront the same. Potential customers would just keep on walking by because they wouldn’t notice that a change had even taken place. Blog readers would be no different.
This doesn’t mean that you absolutely have to change it. Maybe yours is all in order. For me, I wanted to do a better job of elaborating on the VR mission, highlighting the different aspects of it and bringing my shop to the forefront.
Mailing List
Clean out your subscribers. You heard that right – get rid of ’em! Well, not all of them of course. Just remove the ones who have been gathering dust for quite some time. You know, the subscribers who haven’t opened up one of your emails in months. Those guys.
I know everyone wants to be able to say they have thousands of subscribers. Everyone wants to have that big fancy number to gloat about. The thing is having a big mailing list is useless if the vast majority of the people on it are ignoring you. (Click to Tweet) Plus, most email service providers start charging you after your fist 1,000 – 2,000 subscribers. Why pay for someone who isn’t invested in what you have to say?
Another few items to note when addressing your email list is to assess whether or not you’re being as effective as possible with your active subscribers. Have they been broken down into sub-groups? Are they receiving all of your info instead of info that especially made for them and their particular interests? What about your sign up form? Is that up to date?
All of these points are crucial and should go into consideration when you spring clean your blog and mailing list.
Spring Clean Your Blog Checklist + 10 Bonuses
Did you think there were only a handful of ways you can freshen up your blog for the new season? Think again! With this free checklist, you can take a deep dive into your digital space and make sure every aspect of it is in tip-top shape!
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How will you spring clean your blog?