Here are random things about blogging and web development that I learned, and I wish I had known sooner that it would have helped me simplify creating content and maintaining my website.
Blogging 101 Tips
- Make sure Google can index your website, turn Google Search Console into your best friend, and add every new post to the search console’s URL inspection; trust me; it will help you a lot and teach you how to identify and fix errors sooner.
- Add a bit of your personality to your website by adding your profile to the sidebar or footer and a photo in About Me.
- Heading tags are used to show orders on the page to your users.
- <h1> represents the most crucial heading, usually a title.
- <h2> defines the subtitles; let’s say the questions in your article.
- Finally, <h6> describes the most undersized full header.
- Make sure to have at least 300 words in your articles because Google prefers long articles; in my case, I kept 400 words; as a result, my most comprehensive article published was 12000 words.
- But some of your followers might prefer to read shorter posts 10000 words might scare some of your readers; that’s why I try keeping a balance between 400 words and 1100 words per article.
- To find out which posts get the most page views, visit Google Analytics -> Click Behavior -> Click Site Speed -> then Page Timings.
- Ensure the 404 page on your website provides valuable suggestions instead of error messages; provide a searching widget so visitors can find more information and stay around longer on your website; check my 404 pages. I list all the categories and several links.
- A sitemap is a list of pages on a website available to crawlers; it can be a post or a web page organized in a hierarchy.
- Changing the publishing date of a post can make it appear before or in front of another post on your website.
- Breadcrumbs are internal links at the page’s top or bottom that permit users to navigate promptly to a previous section.
- Shortening your links using Bitly allows you to trace link clicks easily.
- Switch to text mode, paste, and then switch back to add a code to your post.
- Changing your username to something contrary to admin for extra security could be easily hacked.
- Avoid using underline for styling text, as it usually implies being an HTML link.
- Google Webmaster Tools helps you fix helpful information about your URLs, causing “not found” errors.
- Test your web design on multiple screen monitor sizes, devices, and browsers to guarantee your system performs optimally for all readers.
- Back up and update your website weekly. I have mine set up for daily updates because I intend to publish daily before; I used to post weekly and had my backup done each Sunday; a backup will help you save your website and bring it back to life if any problem happens while updating your plugins or system.
- Add social media sharing to your posts and ask your readers to comment or share to increase impressions, improving your traffic and SEO rank.
- Make sure your website is mobile-friendly. High traffic and pageviews will be coming from mobile devices.
- Modify how many posts appear on the front page by visiting your WordPress Dashboard -> Settings -> Reading.
- Organize internal links inside your posts to keep people reading your blog and better bounce rate with Google.
- If you want to change the author’s name on your posts, edit it under WordPress Dashboard -> Users -> Profile.
- Use italics, bold, and lists on your posts to make them easy to read.
- Attributing a link with a “no follow” will inform Google that certain links on your website shouldn’t be followed.
- If you want to create more helpful content for your website, use Google Analytics to make knowledgeable improvements to your website.
- Remember, if you edit the post’s title, make sure to edit the slug.
- Make an effort to keep your Google Analytics statistics clean of spam referrers and keep track of the affiliate links on your website for better engagement.
- Visit Google Search Console and make sure Google can index your website.
- Research your targeted niche and start following people who create similar content to the one you plan to build.
- Get into the habit of writing daily. I offer some tips on how to get into that habit writing will make your life easy when it comes to creating content, but like any new habit, you need practice.
- Start subscribing and following online magazines discussing what’s new in marketing, online ads, and affiliates.
- Research to find the right hosting companies for your site besides the creative content you might create, and pay attention to choosing the right hosting company.
- I made a mistake with my first blog selecting the cheapest option, and that decision cost me because it brought unnecessary problems into my life; my website was hacked and breached frequently. I had to use plugins on WordPress to defend my site because my cheap hosting company was useless on defense.
- Remember, an affordable hosting company might cost you a lot. I have used WPengine.com since 2017 and am happy with this hosting plan.
- Don’t be afraid of mistakes and setbacks; you will learn the most from those episodes; for example, after being hacked, I started learning about coding because I didn’t know how to customize my website.
- Lynda.com and Udemy.com offer great courses to learn the basics of coding; make sure you take a new coding class as you confront new challenges.
- Mistakes are lessons; remember that this is even more true when learning about web development or web design.
- Each time you learn how to fix a problem on your website, whether through a Youtube video, lesson, or article, you’ll become more confident about taking care of your website.
- Learn how to defend your website from plagiarism; suppose this is personal because I had my content stolen several times, sometimes by big online magazines, which decided not to give me credit for my work.
- It is different now because my content is copyright protected, and I learned how to track and report stolen work as plagiarism.
- It doesn’t hurt to try Copyrighted.com, a site offering a free badge on your website, indicating that your content can NOT be duplicated without your permission or credit for your work.
- Use rich snippets on your website and fill them with as much information as possible Rich snippets will tell Google that you are the original content creator.
- There is no 100% protection on the internet, but you could always report the “bad guys” to The Digital Millennium Copyright Act and give them a lousy ranking with Google.
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Wendy Cecilia Reyes
