Cleaning Your Blog Up From Time To Time
Are You Cleaning Your Blog?
Have you taken time to go back and clean up some old posts and images on your blog? Cleaning your blog is similar to doing housework. The work is never done and there is always something to clean up.
I had started with old images that were not showing on my pages as they were on blogspot from way back. So I had to re-save the images and put them in the media files here on the self-hosted wordpress site. You can now see them. I haven’t finished all of them yet because it takes a lot of time. I also made sure the images were okay to use and not picked up from anywhere on the net. If there were I changed them. And once I’m on an old post I am cleaning up the words with additional info and with Yoast to guide me through. Adding new h2 headers and making sure the length is correct. I used to post very short blogs.
Cleaning Your Blog, Again and Again
I have also cleaned up the widgets on the side and am trying to keep that area clean. It is not always easy cleaning the blog to remove things to keep it less cluttered. how do you choose? Some things I really liked but if it’s cluttered or slows down the blog, why keep them?
I had deleted the blogroll after reading reasons not to have a blogroll. I had to agree after reading about it and looking at other blogs for a while. I did not want to offend anyone by not having them listed and as time went one it seemed harder to do. Plus it saves time when someone changes their blog name or URL. You may guess which one of my favorite bloggers that does that. A blogger with guts can always make changes. I sometimes get sick to my stomach making them but am usually relieved after that I do. I’ve thought of changing up the pages as some show in the header area and others in the footer. I’m undecided at this point. Do you often change up your widgets and footers?
How often are you cleaning your blog?
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About Lisa
Helping Others to Thrive Online Through Social Media, Blogging and SEO. What good is knowledge if you cannot share it with others?
20+ years experience in marketing/advertising with 3 years experience blogging, social media and SEO.
35 Responses to Cleaning Your Blog Up From Time To Time
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Alright, a link! I rarely go back and clean up my blog but lately I’ve been looking at old links from old comments on one of my blogs, verifying that they’re still live and, well, not dodgy. I haven’t always been very judgmental in links I accepted on my blog space and as I’ve gotten better, I decided to look backwards a bit. Lots of bad stuff there; ugh!
Mitch Mitchell recently posted..The State Of Blogging
Thanks Mitch. I really liked the piece you did on the images, scary stuff. I’m looking over comments stuck in spam that look real but am not familiar with them. Have to research them more. Always cleaning to do…
Oh my gosh! Did you just call me out?
LMAO I really need to clean up my old posts as I’m sure a lot of the pics aren’t there. No biggy, I’ll just delete them. Pics sometimes just get ya in trouble. 
I clean up my sidebar and header as well. I add things, delete em. Try to stay minimal with the stuff. I learned the hard way that glitze and glitter can turn people away. Simple and clean is the way to go. Lisa, your blog always is tidy! Love it!
Brenda recently posted..Am I Worthy? She Thinks So!
No, I thought I complimented you on your gutsiness
Yes, your blog is very clean since you changed your theme. Looks great. I still have more to go but will get to it a little each day.
Aww thanks. You should take a peek at my other blog’s theme. Yes, I did it again!
http://www.paganinme.com however it’s more about a Nature thing 
Happy Yoasting.
I believe it’s an awesome WordPress plugin. I live by it. lol.
Cleaning up. I should do that more. There are plugins that can check your links, but to get older (blogger) posts and images sorted out is a lot of work. At one point I was thinking about loosing them all together, but hey… Those posts are part of the blog it is now, so I’m hanging on to them. Despite the work. One post at a time…
Don’t you just love Yoast Jan? Yes, that’s an issue I’ve had too. I have to change fonts someday too – never know if I’ll get to that. But the images I am working on. It’s not a piece of cake switching from blogger to WordPress. Almost wished I started fresh. Live and Learn right?
Does accidentally deleting text from a footer count? Actually, I think it might have been an incompatible plugin that caused the text to disappear. I’m not 100% sure. But after I deleted the gallery plugin, the text widget reappeared. It took me several days to figure out the problem.
The issue forced me to change my buttons. I also recently cleaned up my blogroll. I discovered that I had several bad links.
I should also clean up some of my older posts. At this point, I’d rather spend my time trying to figure out how to use WordPress. I heard that WordPress for Dummies is a really good book.
Lauren recently posted..Why is this dog smiling?
If it cleaned it up yes Lauren. Sounds like it was the plug-in. your blog is quite clean but I see you have quite a bit in the footer. Your “she writes” would look nice on sidebar
Thanks Lisa. Will add it to the sidebar.
Lauren recently posted..Why is this dog smiling?
I think it will look good there Lauren – I’ll have to come check it out
I added it to the sidebar but couldn’t center it, so I removed it. For some reason even though the script included text center, it kept leaning left. Maybe, it has something to do with party affiliation.
I have to grab the script again.
Lauren recently posted..On the Blog Menu: Blank Footer, Not Frankfurter
I hope it works for you Lauren.
I feel like I am always cleaning my blog and yet never getting it done.
Angie Nelson recently posted..Blogger Review Opportunities
Hi Angie, yes it’s just like housework
Hey Lisa,
That’s a bold step, there.
Thanks so much for the link vote.
I’m quite happy that post pointed you in the right direction and that you were moved to take action – and not just stop at acknowledging that you needed to do something about it.
Most times we read posts that resonate with us and we comment on how useful the post is, but as we close the browser window, we close that chapter.
~ Yeremi Akpan
Yeremi Akpan recently posted..Is Commenting for Traffic a Waste of Your Time?
Hi Yeremi, yes your post inspired me! I had noticed it on many blogs that did not have it. I weighed the pluses and minuses and it made sense to do away with. Thanks for the inspiration
Like you, I know the work is never done. I finally got meta description on all my pages. Plus, I had to update them for the new direction of the blog. I haven’t gone through the archives. With 100+ posts, I do not know if it it is worth the effort! I wish there was an easier way to streamline the process. OR automate it *lol*
Susan Silver recently posted..A Gratitude List of 127 Awesome People and Blogs
Hi Susan, I wish there was an “automate” button for it. We may even pay for it to clean things up
Hi Lisa,
I like the way you have compared ‘em with housework. Aha… Had lot o housework in this weekend, nah?
I do changes to my blog as move on and you see how it goes. However now I’m going through all of my posts after jumping into new custom domain to update links and still had to add search description for my oldies
As things change here, get more workload.
I get what you mean with Blogroll. Sometimes we don’t need to get rid of something, but as we learn why should or shouldn’t, we take action. It’s usual
Our blogs should be customized as we like while improving user experience for readers. It’s ya choicy 
Cheers…
(dofollow)
Mayura De Silva recently posted..Shorten and Track Your Links with Google URL Shortener
Hi Mayura, you got that right
Yes that is hard work going through those all posts and changing each. Need an “automate” button, you could develop one 
I almost never go back and clean up images and old blog posts, but I do clean up things like the navigation (the menu) and the sidebar.
I have been thinking about deleting some old posts, I have a lot of fairly badly written old posts from the time when I didn’t know which direction my blog was going and so they’re not really something I should have on my blog (because they’re totally different from everything else), but I just keep focusing on creating new content other than cleaning up the old.
I might have to do something about that
Jens P. Berget recently posted..How I read Blog Posts
Hi Jens, I’ve thought of that too, getting rid of some of those first “unprofessional” type blogs but then I would mess up all the links so I just keep them for now. Images are easier to clean up. Thanks for commenting Jens and have a great new week.
Great post. There are certainly some photos that aren’t showing up anymore on my blog and I have got to fix that. Yep, I change my sidebar quite a bit. I like things neat and tidy. Oh, and a big one, switching to WP this week! Yikes!
Good luck with that Candice
Hardest thing I have done with blogs. Hopefully it will be easier for you. Just do it slowly. I tend to go fast and make errors.
Yeah, cleaning a blog is similar to housework. Both are hard!
And after reading your article, I feel I should care about more! 
Helpful post Lisa 
Thanks!
Chathu recently posted..How Do You Face to a Worse Change?
Blog spring cleaning
Yes, it’s important but I guess it’s one of those things that we don’t really want to do.
I use wordpress so I use a plugin to check whether the links are valid, etc
Shamelle recently posted..How To Create a Blogging Workflow That Works With Evernote
Hey Lisa,
I started doing that about three or four months ago but didn’t go all the way back. I know there are some images that aren’t showing but I just haven’t had time to finish that particular project. But, I do have the post noted where I left off so I’ll have to finish that one day soon when I actually have some spare time. Huh, wonder when that will be now.
We definitely need to keep a handle on this I know. Wish I would have known how to do everything right when I first started my blog then none of that would be necessary today.
Thanks for this reminder.
~Adrienne
Adrienne recently posted..Are You Making These Social Media Mistakes
Really Adrienne? I feel the same too – wish I started the blog fresh from blogger to self-host. Would have been much easier. I have to go back – probably about 100 left to do. Maybe by the end of the year
Thanks for coming by today and commenting.
I do it every now and then
I like keeping the blog to a minimal (of course, in the past, I used to be all flashy and change templates every time I saw a sleek or powerful theme). I play around with widgets, seems if I can cut anything down to increase the speed and change up the look. I also change the whole sidebar itself (For a while, I didn’t have any sidebars for my post pages, because those sidebars act as distractions, but then I added it back again). I say that you could do whatever you want (as long as you don’t mislead your visitor).
Hi Jeevan, yes yours is quite clean
Wow, no sidebars? That is extreme 
Hi Lisa,
I’ve now cleaned my blog twice. Once when i changed themes, I done away with most of my widgets and banner ads and I also lost a complete blog roll due to it not being very active.
More recently I checked my blog for broken links and was shocked at the amount i had so I had a mass clean up then. I still need to go back to my older posts and add images as well as H2 settings for titles etc.
We live and learn don’t we
I wrote a post on cleaning up broken links… link in commentluv
Barry
Barry Wells recently posted..A Solution To Your Plugin Nightmares and Slow Loading Blogs
Hi Barry, Yes, your post was good about fixing up those broken links. I have to still go back and fix old posts with images too from blogger. It sure takes a lot of time. Thanks for coming by and commenting Barry.
Hi Lisa!
It’s just as bad as keeping the bathroom clean. No one notices how clean it is but if it’s not clean it is a major boo-boo. (no pun intended)
I’ve cleaned up sidebars in the last few days as well and I just wanted my blog to load faster. It’s doing much better but I think it could be even faster!
Thanks for the post Lisa. I’m so glad you moved over to self-hosted. It’s like a breath of fresh aire!
Ileane recently posted..How to Use Your Blog to Build Your Email List
Hi Ileane, love your analogy with the bathroom
I have to play more too to get the speed better here. (will refer to your post on it too) Thanks for coming by and commenting Ileane.