5 Steps to Cleaning Up Your Blog Before Year's End
How do you provide that great expert content that will convince people they need to buy/hire you?
Blogging. Or really - any “content” that you are creating to provide valuable information to your audience that lives on your website. So this could also mean podcasts, vlogging, etc. We’re just going to call all that content “blogs” for the sake of this article.
The purpose of creating blogs is to drive people to what you own - your website and email list.
Most potential customers need to be touched 6-7 times by your marketing content before they are ready to buy - which is easy to do with a solid Pinterest marketing strategy and the magic of scheduling pins with Tailwind for your content.
Your blog marketing checklist for Pinterest starts ways before you hit “publish”.
But when you’ve been creating blogs for years, things can get messy.
I’m speaking from experience here.
When I first started my business in early 2015, I didn't think I was going to blog. It wasn't that I didn't have anything to say, but I was hesitant to commit to what I knew would need to be a consistent piece of content.
I started by saying I was going to blog once per week. I am not a "blogger" in that's the way I make my living, so I didn't see a reason to blog several times per week. And I’ve stayed (mostly) consistent since deciding to blog as my main content.
After several years, I have LOTS of blogs and content on my website. I’ve discovered the magic of repurposing evergreen content across my marketing strategy - but that’s a whole different discussion.
I’ve also been through 2 pivots in my business and evolved my offers, lead magnets, branding, and sales funnels.
Whether you’re going through small tweaks (i.e. logo updates), or large shifts (brand new offers), you’ll have to go back through your website content and blogs to make sure all of those calls-to-action and links are updated and not dead ends.
After a few years of being frustrated with trying to keep track of what was where in my blogs, I created an entire index library in ClickUp so I could see exactly which blog contained which content and links.
Update: I no longer use ClickUp for various reasons and have switched over to Notion for all my admin and business operations. You can use the same process I outline below in a Notion table.
Want to get started with Notion? Click here to grab the Weekly Planner Template from Jodi Graham!
Keeping track of all your blogs, updating them so they're not dead-ends, and having a system around updating your blog is a huge process for sure.
It's totally one of those things that once you make the time investment upfront, it will save you oodles of time in the future.
I want you to start next year by running a tight ship - so here is the step-by-step process I used (am using, because I'm not quite done) to update my blogs.
Step 1: Catalog all of your blog posts.
Go through your blog archive and list all of your blogs as a “task” in ClickUp so you know how many you're dealing with (or in a Notion table).
This can be a great task for a Virtual Assistant but it’s also helpful for you as a business owner to know exactly what you have on your website.
If you have a lot of blogs, then try breaking this initial task up into several blocks of time — like creating 20 tasks at a time.
Step 2: Update each blog entry with the categories, tags, and CTAs that are relevant to your business.
Next, you’ll want to create the blog categories and tags you have. Then create those “tags” in ClickUp or Notion for your business’s lead magnets, calls-to-action, etc that you’ll want to keep track of.
For example, I have tags for the main affiliate links I use often (i.e. Tailwind) and my main free lead magnets and products.
The benefit of doing this is when you decide to update or archive any of these, you can quickly see which blogs have these links.
Step 3: Decide how many blogs you will update at a time.
Once you have your blogs listed and tagged properly in ClickUp or Notion, decide which ones need to be updated.
Don't try to do them all at once if you have more than 10 blogs to update - you'll get exhausted and give up.
I do several at a time, but you could also do one per day. Whatever works - just decide and stick to it.
Step 4: Create a blog checklist.
You need to define the elements of your blog that are consistent and help you keep track. I keep track of images, tags, SEO, publish and update dates, etc. As you go through your old blogs, this will help you check off what needs to be updated.
I’m embarrassed to admit that for the first year I blogged, I didn’t realize the importance of creating an SEO description.
Now that’s part of what I put into my blogging process and templates so I can make sure it’s done for each blog.
Step 5: Check all links.
I have redesigned my site/blog several times, and while I thought I updated all my links, as I've gone through each blog I realize there are STILL links to update.
Sometimes it's that I switched the name of the page (hence the url link), and other times it's that I need to update the call to action (CTA) link.
Every 3 months, I run my entire site through brokenlinkcheck.com to see what dead links I have on my site.
The most common broken links I have are:
Links to articles off my site that no longer exist.
Old sales pages and old products that weren’t redirected properly.
Affiliate links for apps/software that have switched affiliate platforms.
If you have a custom 404 like I do - your humor will at least soften the blow of bad link frustration and redirect visitors easily.
Conclusion
Creating lots of content for your website to help your ideal audience is a fantastic way to get more website traffic — but not having an organized and updated blog can create a terrible user experience.
Follow these 5 steps to clean up and organize your blog:
Catalog all of your blog posts.
Update each task in ClickUp/Notion with the categories, tags, and CTAs that are relevant to your business.
Decide how many blogs you will update at a time.
Create a blog checklist.
Check all links.
