This post is an excerpt from the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Workbook
Today your task is to update some of the key pages and posts on your blog.
What are the most important pages on your blog?
This is an interesting question to ponder for a few minutes…. in fact, why not do that before reading on.
What pages or posts on your blog do you see as most valuable?
I sat down and asked myself this question earlier in the week and identified 10 or so pages on my blogs that for one reason or another were more important than others.
The reason I did the exercise was because that day I’d had the realisation that while every page on my blog is important – there are pages on most blogs that are more powerful than others at helping you to achieve your goals as a blogger.
However it also struck me while thinking about it that some of these important pages need updates from time to time.
So today your task is to spend time identifying key posts and pages on your blog and to give them an update.
Let me explore a few of these pages and suggest some ways that they might need an update:
Let’s start with the most obvious page first….
Your front page
This a fairly obvious one – most blogs get more traffic to the front page of their blog than any other. Here at ProBlogger my front page gets a little under 20% of all traffic on the site.
It’s the page I usually promote on business cards, in my email signature, on profile pages of social media sites and the page that others mentioning my blog on their sites refer people to. It’s also a page that people landing on old posts on my blog often head to next to see what the site is about.
Update it – there are a variety of ways that one can update the front page of their blog. These range from complete makeovers through to tweaks. The makeover/overhaul end of the spectrum is a little beyond the scope of this challenge so let me suggest a few smaller ideas:
1. First Impressions – what first impression does a new reader coming to your front page get? Do they know what your blog is about immediately? Does your blog’s title tags, header, tagline etc strongly communicate what your blog is about? Are their eyes drawn to any one important element or are things cluttered?
2. Sidebar – most blogs have a sidebar on every page – but it probably gets looked at more on your front page than any other. Over time sidebars tend to become cluttered with lots of buttons and links – perhaps it is time for a spring clean with the objective of only leaving useful and important information there.
3. Headers/Logo – one way that you can give your front page (and other pages on your blog) a refresh without doing a full redesign is to develop a new logo/header for your blog. This is not something to rush but perhaps today is a day to begin thinking about a new look and brand for your blog.
4. Think about Objectives and Call to Action – one question to ask when looking at your blog’s front page is ‘what are your objectives?’ What do you want people to do when they arrive on your blog for the first time (remember your front page is a logical place for new people to be visiting)? Do you want people to subscribe to an RSS feed or newsletter, click an ad, tell a friend, drive them to your best content, buy a product, hear your story…. what do you want them to do? Once you’ve identified your objective you can then position a call to action in a prime location on your blogs front page.
The front page of your blog is very important – but there are others. Let me suggest a few:
About Page
The about page of a blog may not get as much traffic as others – but it is one of the most important ones that you can spend time developing. The reason I believe this is that it can be a very influential page.
Think about who might read an about page. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that those reading your blog’s about page are going to be people in ‘investigation mode’. My suspicion is that those clicking on ‘about’ links are going to be:
- first time readers wanting to know whether this is a site for them
- potential partners/advertisers/collaborators/journalists/PR people/other bloggers etc wanting to know if they should invest time in building a relationship with you
It stands to reason that it’s a page you’ll probably want to have spend some time on recently to keep up to date, to think about how you call people to action etc.
Probably the biggest two mistakes that you can make when it comes to an about page are:
- Not to have one
- To leave it as the ‘default’ about page
Contact Page
During the last week I had an email from Becki who is doing the 31DBBB challenge. She wrote:
“I read all 700+ comments to the day 2 post and searched for people who have blogs in a similar niche as me. I was hoping to get a link on their site and to cooperate in some way, and am amazed that most have no method to directly contact the author.”
Becki was actively wanting to reach out to other bloggers in her niche with the hope of working with them in mutually beneficial ways to build their blogs. But due to the fact that many bloggers didn’t have any way to be contacted they missed out on a potentially fruitful relationship.
Do you have a means of being contacted on your blog? If so – is it up to date?
High Traffic Pages
Most blogs that have been around for a while have at least a handful of posts in their archives that generate a higher number of page views than other posts. This can be the result of search engine traffic, the result of another site linking to you, a social media site making a page popular etc.
This is an important page on your blog as it is a gateway where potential new loyal readers are entering.
The problem that many blogs have is that those entering your blog in these gateways often turn right back around and leave again.
Spend some time today identifying the most visited posts on your blog using a blog stats program (Google Analytics is one that I use and recommend – but even using a blog platform like WordPress’s native stats package should reveal what pages are getting visited most).
Once you’ve identified some key pages – make sure they are up to date and as helpful to readers as possible – but also think about how you can make that post more ‘sticky’. You could do this by:
- adding some suggested further reading links at the end that point to other key posts on your blog
- adding an invitation to subscribe to your blog at the end (or even at the start of the post)
Other key pages
Many blogs have other key pages on them that often go for months and months (if not years and years) without an update. These include ‘advertise with us’ pages, ‘recommended reading’ pages, ‘subscribe’ pages etc. Almost any page linked to from your navigation menu probably fits as these will be links people looking around your blog for the first time will probably be visiting.
Enough talk – go update some pages! Once you have – share with us how this exercise went in comments below. (Update – You can also share your results and exchange feedback with others in the challenge over at the forum: Day 14 – Update a Key Post or Page on Your Blog)
Want More?This task is a sample of one of the tasks in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Workbook – a downloadable resource designed to reinvigorate and revitalize blogs. Join over 14,000 other bloggers and Get your Copy Today. |
A lot of bloggers will miss this including me.
Gone updating…
Changing my front, about, and most popular pages is always a work in progress. Adding snippets of code, fixing spelling errors, making things more concise… all very important.
A kick in the b*tt… thanks Darren, on my way.
My “About Me” page is one of the most visited – I am therefore going to rehash it and place some internal links on it to other pages on my blog.
Thanks a lot Darren. Another useful tip.
1) I did few tweakings with my blog homepage – http://techpp.com
2) have contacted a logo designer to redesign my logo
3) Updated my about page: http://techpp.com/about
4) added 2 new pages under about – Privacy policy & Disclaimer
5) Updated advertise page – http://techpp.com/advertise
I would love you or someone here to evaluate my ABOUT page specifically. Thanks all.
This is definitely a good strategy. Funnily enough I was just working on this as your tweet arrived. It’s time to give my top-traffic page a makeover, and hopefully a refresh will lead to more links from other sources in the future.
Ugh…. I’ve had updating my About page on my to-do list for ages…. Ok, will definately do it now.
Well, I’ll do it tomorrow as I’m not on my computer now.
Promise! :-)
Hi Darren,
I rewrote my About-page when you assigned us the elevator-pitch task. During the assignments that followed I investigated the most successful post and put re-tweet banners on the end of them.
I’m pretty much done for today, I see. Maybe a logo would be a good one. I’ll think about it.
Half off-topic:
There is one thing that amazes me with Google Analytics (I use Statcounter and Analytics). It shows something mathematical impossible on some days: there are less pageviews than visitors. You could say that a page had not been totally loaded so the pageview isn’t counted, but than the visitor wouldn’t be counted as well. However, I wrote Google a note to think about this. For now I rely for a long time on Statcounter.
Have a lovely day!
Mario
Hi darren
good post ..
what about the categories of blogs..? did you think it should be also update ?
thanks
Since, my blog is relatively new I don’t really have nay posts that are tearing up the search engines.
However, I was recently linked from a major blog in my niche. This provided a nice spike in traffic. I was thinking about changing the beginning of that specific post to a welcome message for readers of the larger blog!
I could always take it down after the traffic subsided.
Oooooh you’re good. I’ve been tossing around an update for a week or so. Decided the layout even needed a good tweaking. Of course all I’ve been doing is thinking. Perhaps this is a sign? Little spooky, but I needed that. Great article.
Great tips,
The sidebar cleanup is a very good idea. Also recommend nofollow of some of the links on the sidebar, to channel and preserve the link juice on the important pages.
Gee, I don’t think I even have a front page, but I do have a contact page and about page so I suppose that is something. Normally if I see a spike in traffic to any particular page I will have a look at it just to see if there is anything I can do to make it more presentable to my new visitors.
Very good idea, after my recent template change this is the next thing on my list now.
Thanks for this insight, great series..
Thank Darren for today’s task, I was working yesterday on changing template for my auto blog, but still need some work on the about page and advertising page as well!
nice tips!
Very good info on the About page. I went a long time without one and I felt like something was definitely missing.
*Declutters sidebar*
lot of things to change from header to popular pages ….How about the footer. In my case I think it need attention on footer as well.
Useful tips …thanks darren
Sjay
Thanks once again for such useful information.
My blog is so new (still in its first month) that I’m not ready to update just yet, but the advice you give here is perfect for new bloggers to consider. It is forcing me to look at my blog, new as it may be, with fresh eyes.
I’m considering carefully all of the questions you suggested.
I still have a long way to go, but my blog is so much better because of this challenge.
Thank you!
I definitely need to updated my about page. A lot of things have changed. And i don’t have a very good contact page so i think i will change that too.
Thank you very much, Darren for this amazing post.
I am going to update my blog right away…but is it really necessary since it has been only 2 months since I started my blog?
Awaiting your advice on this,
Parth
Good tips. Easily forgotten in the shuffle.
Two questions. First, what’s your opinion on the use of social network buttons and banners? They can be a small source of traffic, but I’ve read the cluttering is a negative.
Second, I use a form on my contact page. I get several visits to the page, but don’t often actually get a message from the person that visits the page. Do you suggest a form, or are you better off to include an email address?
Thanks for the tips.
Nice tip dareen, usually we avoid make over of the blog and we loose making search engine traffic to our loyal readers
I redesigned my blog with new look.
Now its time to get a logo and banner. :)
So funny that I read this today because I just tweaked my blog late last night. I changed things around a bit with Google Adsense–made sure everything is above the fold, and I added a new revenue stream as well. I also was looking at what posts get the most views and am definitely going to add some things to them like asking viewers to sign up for my newsletter or RSS feed. Thanks for the post!
Great tip! I have been putting this off for a while, but today’s the day. I think it will help me on so many levels.
Thank you!
Hi Dareen,
again real helpfull post for all,this imformation again help all,
Dareen i have problem that i am confiuse about the selection of templets, i am using Blogger.Com but i want wordprees them . Ples help me,
any reader can help….
again real helpfull post for all,this imformation again help all,
Dareen i have problem that i am confiuse about the selection of templets, i am using Blogger.Com but i want wordprees them . Ples help me,
any reader can help….
Okay I did alot of work on this, had been thinking about this since the challenge began..
So my blog has a new header, I changed the main page layout and design, and finally added a subscribe button.
I also redid my All About Me Page.
If you care to stop on by and let me know what you think.
perfect assignment . I just added a contact email on the About me page.. never dawned on me to do that!!
Lots to think about.. I have spent a little time this morning reviewing my sidebar options, I did a little rearranging and looked at my most viewed blogs.
One of the things I’m enjoying most about this is the ability to check out other’s blogs.
Great post!
I actually updated my header logo/title yesterday… to ‘Emphatic Relationships! Proactive Dating!’. What do people think of that?
I could definitely do with redoing my about page… I wrote it up in a hurry when launching my blog and failed to actually mention the famous dating companies I’ve worked with, which is what most of my reputation is based on. :)
Thanks,
Sam
I think a lot of us who are participating in the challenge have been thinking about these kinds of things quite a bit lately. I’ve made some pretty substantial changes to my blog in the last couple of weeks:
I just learned a couple of days ago that WordPress now allows me to make posts sticky. I spent a few hours yesterday morning learning how to make that work out and playing around with it some. I decided to feature one post at a time (currently 20 Blogs I Wish Were Around When I Started Teaching), threw together a little “Featured Article” header thing, followed by a “Latest Articles” thing below.
In fact, when I threw it on the top of the home page, I began to see a resurgence in the traffic that it received. It was almost as if I posted it again!
While I was at it, I also learned how to make the images in posts into thumbnails to give the page a more uniform look and clean things up a little bit more (faster load times are always good).
I added my page list in the footer, so that I could remove some tabs at the top and just leave the most important links up there.
I added a Privacy Policy and FAQ as well as deleting some outdated and redundant pages.
I also have switched from full posts on the main page and searches. I’ve noticed that a lot more blogs are moving to that kind of idea, and I also see a decrease in load time for my blog as well. Any thoughts on doing that?
I’ve actually just given my blog a facelift, using a theme that allows me to highlight more of the content. I’m going to include my new elevator pitch in the about page, and have added a new ‘subscribe’ page this week. This is a great exercise – I know which pages are important to readers because of the Popularity Contest plugin, so it makes it easy to identify those in need of an update. I’ve also used this to help spark new post ideas.
Updating key posts is a valid point ,I have to check them and do them now.
Updating my About page ( http://midwestguest.typepad.com/about.html ) is on my list of things I wanted to do this year for Midwest Guest (other goals included getting more involved with SM like Twitter–which I’ve done–and considering monetizing options–I’ve investigated a bit, but the jury’s still out on this one).
Good point about having some way for people to contact you directly. Fortunately for me, one of my travel blogging buddies pointed out my lack of a way of direct contact early on. I added a direct email link from my About page at that time.
Subsequently, a couple of people have contacted me that way…and one of those contacts resulted in a paid writing opportunity for me. The fact that my About page also listed a few of my prior professional writing gigs with local newspapers also helped me get that particular job.
I recently did a bio elsewhere, so it’s been at the top of my mind to finally get into my About page and expand/update my info there. I’ve still just got the original short bio I put up the first day I started the blog 8 months ago. Thanks for the timely post!
This is very relevant … I had recently realised that my contact form was not working and no mails were reaching me. The thought of how much I lost there is killing me. Need to keep a good check on the static pages.
For the moment I would update what the About page and a few others today …
Thanks for this information. All this while I have not thought about using my strongest post or article and updating it from time to time. I believe I have several articles that generates traffic to my site and I’ll update it from time to time…
Just updated my About page. Now to work on some popular posts. Thanks everyone.
Great post, as usual, Darren. I often update my sidebar and front page, but hadn’t thought of updating the most popular posts. I’ll do that next.
I think sometimes it’s a good idea to tweak the site from time to time even when it doesn’t NEED it as such, as it keeps long-time readers on their toes!
I absolutely agree with Becki: I often have the same experience. It’s very short-sighted, because sometimes I like a blog so much that I want to have the option of discussing reciprocal article-writing or other things, and so subscribing to an RSS feed isn’t always enough. Also, it always leaves me with the impression that the blog owner doesn’t actually want to engage with readers in some sense.
Great trigger for a productive Sunday morning. I separated my “hire me” page from my “contact me” page to hopefully encourage more contacts not related to my consulting services. I also spiffed up my eNewsletter sign-up page and included a sign-up form.
Best,
Laura
http://www.bridging-the-gap.com
gosh. i feel relieved i have one. i use my header as the place for ads and it’s working.
nice info, sam =)
This was really helpful information. I can’t recall anyone taking this approach before.It’s diagraming a sentence. Puts the structure in perspective. Thanks
Ruthan
I have updated my blog by added ‘the related post widget’, since blogger doesn’t give the tool, so I have to googling it, thanks God finally I found it. :)
Oddly enough, after reading one of the “further reading” posts on the editorial calendar assignment, I spent almost my entire day (yesterday) updating all my posts. I went thru and took out bad links, fixed up posts where the text was wonky, etc.
This was also helpful to me because it forced me to read thru every post I’ve written and so I was also able to develop a stronger editorial calendar.
Hello all
I have a “videos” page on my blog that include videos relevant to my theme. I was surprised to see how many people visit that page! Thankfully, I updated it just recently.
Learning so much from this challenge, Darren. Thank you.
Karen
Since my blog was being developed I took the time to make sure there were not any last minute tweaks before launch this week. I am super excited to have a blog that I think is worth promotion. Thank you again for all your tips. They have been invaluable.
Amazing, that I am so excited about this class I got on my computer on a Sunday morning…which I NEVER do!
I have been browsing lots of blogs due to these assignments and I realize mine is so plain. I would love to add pictures to the beginning of posts, for one.
I am also realizing that there’s so many blogs similar to mine, which I was not aware of! Kind of makes me think…why bother?? But, I do have a whopping 17 subscribers, so I guess they are getting something out of it!
My new goal is to save up enough to have my own site, with no ads! I don’t want to have to worry about making money, I just want to write and share ideas with other moms. But I am going to begin a little piggy bank because I can see that my own site would be much more pleasing in terms of design!
I am off to update my About page!
I have actually been doing this a lot lately. When I first started my blog I had no idea what it would become and knew nothing about presentation. Subsequently my first few months have a lot of horrible pictures.
Since I started taking it more seriously, I got some better photo equipment and lately my photos have been the single biggest draw to my site (who needs Digg when you have Food Gawker and Tastespotting?). But I am scrambling to update my older photos, particularly my popular tutorial posts that I refer to regularly. I have also gone back and added watermarks to my most popular pictures, like my all-time most popular olive oil photo.
I have two pages that intruduce Avira antivirus program in another blog http://gordon168.tw , and these pages was good at SERP. So I update these pages when a version updates.
Just curious, wondering if you will be creating another book from all these great posts? Seems like a logical thing to do. Thanks for the great posts.
I did a small update to the homepage which involved moving an adsense section up and moving the search bar down on my sidebar. I will be updating an old post that seems to still get a lot of traffic to my blog but it features a type of celebrity gossip that I don’t really want to be a part of, so instead of keeping the post, I will write a new post in that place that does not involve celebrity gossip.
When new visitors enter the blog from that old web post through search engines, etc. then they will see the new and updated post instead of that celebrity gossip piece.
Hi Darren,
I was not able to comment on the last post. But that idea of visiting a shopping mall(or chetan’s idea of reading a magazine) were really out of the box.
The importance of updating a post or a key page are really essential when:
1. a service you wrote about is down or changed
2. a link expires
3. to add value to a post which is receiving good traffic
I have written a different type of an About Us on our website: http://www.threetipsaday.com/about/ – I’d really appreciate if you can review ir(or someone else would like to comment on it)
Also,
We are celebrating Twitter Week on Three Tips a Day I would love to invite all Problogger readers and 31DBBB participants to have a look.
Best.
Shantanu.
http://www.threetipsaday.com
@threetips(twitter)