About one hundred percent of the time when I'm called to work on a site these days to fix some small problem I also happen to notice some extraneous details that I generally recommend also be looked at. The technical term for these extraneous details is 'crap'.

For many years I cringed when I'd notice these problems. Should I mention them to my clients? Should I not? Is it self-serving to bring up problems I haven't been specifically hired to look at? Won't they think I'm just trying to pad the bill? (Of course you will!)

As every service professional does, I finally learned to mention the problems, then keep my mouth shut from there--just as any good doctor or lawyer or car mechanic does. You lay out the pros and cons and thenleave it up to the client to take action.

Now the reason I think I would get so animated back in the day was because I knew that many clients did not take my recommendations and protestations seriously. And why should they? Because for many years, one could get away with lots and lots of poor practices and most of the time nothing bad would happen. In fact, that is what allowed our industry to thrive: the fact that so many (cough) 'web developers' could create sites and applications that kinda sorta worked and nothing bad would happen. It was the 'wild west', but apparently there were no outlaws. So people like me sounded like Chicken Little.

Now? Well it's still the wild west, but now there are plenty of outlaws. I'm called in to look at lots and lots of sites every month that are just riddled with problems. But still, too many owners just shrug. They just consider it a cost of doing business. Just tear it down and put in something new. It worked for a while, so throw it away like a disposable razor. Which is how I get a lot of new business.

But today, I don't think you can be quite so flip about the hygiene of your site. Remember, if you've been in business for a while you've built up an on-line reputation.Every file on your site, whether you think you can see it or not is likely visible to Google or other search engines and automated systems ('bots' as they say). So you simply must routinely do housecleaning to make sure that what the rest of the world sees is what you think they see. If not, you're just asking for trouble, sooner or later.

So the question is, How to do this?

And Now For A Word From Our Sponsor

Well, again not to be self-serving, but the easiest way to do this is to call me, or better still schedule an annual checkup, just as you do with your doctor or dentist. In my honest opinion (as opposed to my usual dishonest opinion--sorry, can't help it) even small web sites should be periodically reviewed by a professional. One way to think of the current state of affairs is like this: A web site used to be like a car that you could work on in your own garage. Now, it's more like a modern car which requires far less routine maintenance, but which, when service is needed, must be worked on by a professional. Even with the smallest vehicle, there's just too much going on 'under the hood'.

With that understanding, here are some things you can do on your own that you should find helpful.

CMS: Drupal & Wordpress: It's complicated.

First of all, if you have a Content Management System (CMS) such as Drupal or Wordpress® (which it looks like most small sites now do) things start to get complicated, ironically because so many of you use so many darned plug-ins to make life 'simpler'.

1. First of all, check your content. Check for obsolete Posts and Pages.

2. Next, look for dead links. There are plug-ins available to help you with this. They can also help you to check for links to other sites which are now dead. Search engines care about this. You might think that you don't care about old articles, but Google does! Sites with lots of dead links are unprofessional and irritating as hell for visitors who run across them. So Google penalizes sites with dead links. That's right: your over-all search ranking depends, in part, on the number of dead links you have--even on old content you no longer care about. That right there should be some incentive to keep your content up to date!

3. Now go through your Media Library. Look for obsolete images. It's surprising how often I find these are visible in Google searches. Then make sure that the images you do want visible have the right descriptions!

4. OK what about Plug-ins? This is the biggee in terms of security. Most people seem to collect plug-ins like playing cards, rarely updating them--and never discarding the ones they aren't using. But at least twice a year I run into hacked sites where the infection is coming from a plug-in that is no longer being used!

Your Other Sites?

5. If you have a presence on Facebook®, Youtube®, Instagram®,Yelp®, etc., are you keeping those sites updated? It's amazing to me how many sites I look at are not in sync! You need to make sure that the content on all the sites on which you have a presence reflects the same branding and messaging. Yeah, I know this seems so obvious as to not even be worth mentioning, but it happens! Keeping all these properties consistent can be a lot of work and face it, we get busy! (Shameless pitch: this is where having someone like me provide this content management as an ongoing service can make real sense.)

What About All Those Security Plug-Ins?

6. Good question. There are a number of plug-ins that you probably already have installed that might make you feel somewhat secure. Well, some are very helpful, but don't feel too smug. These fall into two broad categories:

Security blockers, such as anti-spam checkers like Akismet and the gazillion 'security checkers' that look for known bad-guy IPs and malware. These can be very helpful. And some can be a right pain in the you-know-what!

Security Scanners. These are supposed to routinely check the files on your site for malware and hacks as well as allow you to run site scans. These can also be useful, however I have yet to find one that prevented a hack from getting through 100% of the time. Also, all of these do require periodic manual scans to be effective and most clients tend to forget to do these.

Call me to create a security plan, which usually includes one or more of these types of plug-ins, and that is tailored to your site's specific needs.

The Executive Summary.

You should schedule routine maintenance of your web sites. I'm calling it 'Spring Cleaning', but really it should be done twice a year. You can call a professional (which I recommend) or you can do it yourself. Either way, this should include a complete inventory of all your site's assets, getting rid of all the dead wood and making sure that all your branding and messaging are consistent. You should be checking all your links and either updating or removing dead links. If you have a CMS like Wordpress, you should be checking all plug-ins, eitherupdating the good one or removing the obsolete ones. If you have related sites on social media, you need to do a complete inventory of those sites to make sure that branding and messing are consistent and get rid of the dead wood on these as well. Whew!

——————————

Like I always say,, I know you're busy. Hopefully my occasional nags help you think about ways to improve your marketing. But even if you don't have a thing for me to work on at present (shocking but possible) drop me a line anyway and let me know how things are going; market-wise or otherwise. It's always good to hear from you!

Best,

JC'S KEY IDEAS FOR APRIL 2018

• Every Site Gets Cluttered
  All search engines now prioritize sites that have videos. And research shows that visitors prefer sites that have at least oneintroductory video. So: where to host it?
• CMS Like Wordpress Require Special Care
  You need to set up a Channel page and you should theme it to be brand-consistent. You should also learn its settings in order to minimize distractions and keep users on your site as much as possible.
• Check Your Other Sites
  Hosting your video on your site gives you control over the visitor experience.. But if you expect more than a few views per day you'll likely need to pay extra for good performance. You'll also need to learn about video encoding.
• Consider Hiring An Outside Service
  Most organizations that create one video, find out how useful they are and end up creating many. So even though it's only your first video, make your hosting choice to accommodate a bunch!

mail@jchwebdev.com

(206) 949-0892

© 2018