WritingThoughts

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Whether you maintain a blog for your business or as a freelancer, there’s always room for improvement.

You can have a better blog. And you can start taking steps to make your blog better today.

This is especially true if your blog has been around for a few years. Mature blogs tend to develop problems that new blogs don’t have to worry about (yet).

Of course, some bloggers just abandon their mature blogs and start over from scratch. Once in a while, that approach is justified. But more often, a mature blog can and should be fixed.

If your blog has an established readership, it’s probably worth it to take the time to fix your existing blog.

The good news is that by making just a handful of changes you can increase traffic and engagement. In this post, I’ll show you five easy fixes to make your existing blog better.

Fix #1. Update the Theme

If your blog is several years old and you’ve never changed the blog’s theme, it’s probably time for a change.

That same old theme that you’ve been using for years looks dated, and dates your blog too. You need a fresher look.

When reviewing possible new themes for your blog, don’t overlook mobile. A mobile-friendly blog is not optional for today’s blogger. For many readers, mobile is the main way they browse the Internet.

You also want to look for a theme that loads quickly. This is important to attract viewers and also affects your ranking in the search engines.

To learn more about choosing the right WordPress theme for your blog, take a look at What To Consider When Choosing A WordPress Theme, written by Marcus Taylor and published on Smashing Magazine.

Fix #2. Review Your About Page

You probably rarely look at your About page anymore, which is too bad. It’s too bad because that’s one of the first places someone who is serious about buying your products or using your services looks.

A low quality About page can make your site look tacky. And it can create doubts in the minds of would-be clients.

Review your About page carefully to make sure that it creates the right impression. Add any new information. Don’t forget to check the formatting as well.

If your About page doesn’t include a picture, consider adding one. Studies have shown that prospects relate better to pages that contain an image.

Fix #3. Update Junk Posts

Over time, most mature blogs become cluttered with junk posts. These may be posts that were once interesting to your readers, but are now out of date. Or, they could be posts that you created when you started your blog that no longer live up to your quality standards.

Either way, junk posts have to go.

Here are some specific things to look for as you review your content:

• Announcements for events or of deals that are no longer available.
• Reviews of products that no longer exist.
• Memes that are not related to your business.
• Personal posts that your readers won’t relate to.
• Informative posts with outdated information or advice.

When you find a junk post, you can choose to either:

1. Remove it from your blog.
2. Update it and make it more relevant.

Be careful about deleting posts that have incoming links or that generate lots of traffic. It’s often better to rewrite these posts than it is to remove them.

If you’re in doubt, rewrite a post rather than delete it. Some experts warn that deleting too many pages can lead to 404 Errors and that makes your blog seem broken.

Remember, your blog represents your brand. Everything you have published is a representation of your business. If you think of it this way, it only makes sense to fix posts that no longer serve their purpose.

Fix #4. Fix Broken and Bad Links

Another problem that old blogs face is broken links and bad links. While a site may have been excellent when you first linked to it, over time the quality of that link may have changed.

The site owner may have quit publishing or sold the site to a less reputable organization.

No matter what the cause, it’s no fun for your reader when they click a link in your post and the link doesn’t work. Or even worse, they are sent to a site that is no longer reputable.

Here are three types of posts that often include bad links:

• Group writing projects
• Blog carnivals
• Roundups

It’s a good idea to start looking for bad links in these types of posts.

The 1stWebDesigner blog has published a helpful post about fixing broken links, How to Find and Fix Broken Links in a Jiffy.

Fix #5. Start Sharing

The final fix for your blog is social sharing. There are two parts to this fix:

1. Sharing social content, including, but not limited to, your own posts and articles.
2. Making it easy for your readers to share your posts with buttons and other built-in tools.

I can’t even begin to count the number of times I’ve thought about sharing a good post, but didn’t because I couldn’t find a social media button. I’m sure I’m not the only one.

Make it easy for your readers to share your content, and they will.

Your Turn

What updates have you made to your blog recently?

Do you need help updating your blog? While I’m not a web designer, I can help you to review and update your content.