While you focus on creating fresh, new, engaging content for your readers, chances are a few spots on your blog are gathering dust.
It happens: You want to keep your blog fresh, of course, but that makes it easy to “set it and forget it” with your blog’s static pages.
Ask yourself a handful of Qs about your blog’s static spots:
- When was the list time you revisited your about page?
- Is your privacy policy up to date?
- Has anything changed with your email, social profiles, or affiliate programs?
- Is your headshot current? (Current = last 5 years NOT that awesome snap of you looking tan that one summer in college!)
- What’s new in your footer? Is your copyright date current?
- Is your contact form GDPR compliant?
OK, so maybe now you’re feeling overwhelmed, and that’s certainly not my goal. Instead, let’s get empowered to fix the most important things now, then schedule the rest in your schedule for future pockets of free time.
Check these 3 things on your blog ASAP:
Your Privacy Policy
Seriously, guys, this is a big one now that GDPR is officially in effect. Now, I’m not a lawyer. This is my informational-purposes-only advice: Either have an attorney draft a compliant policy for you OR hire a lawyer to review the one you draft. Don’t open yourself up to major problems because your site isn’t compliant.
Normally I’m all about the blogging-by-your-bootstraps method of everything. (If it can’t be YouTubed, it shouldn’t be done!) This is one area where I say: SPEND.
The Ways to Contact You
Let’s say your dream brand discovers your blog (YAY!), devours your most recent posts (YAY! YAY!), decides to hire you right away (YAY! YAY! YAY!), then can’t find a way to contact you. Or, they click “email me” and it’s a dead link. Or, they can’t figure out where the heck you are on social and who has time to Google this stuff so let’s just find someone else!
Oof.
Reality check: Readers–whether they’re brand reps, publicists, PR firms, or your average blog reader–are impatient and have very little time on their hands anyway. You want them to be able to contact you, right? Make it easy, intuitive, and functional!
Check every single “Contact Me” spot on your blog right now. Make sure the links are valid. Make sure your social channels appear at the very tippy top of your site. Make sure that when someone fills out your contact form that, first, it’s GDPR compliant, and, second, that you actually receive the correspondence.
About Page
Chances are you’ve achieved new heights since you first drafted your About page. Can you include links to publications on other sites or profiles of you or your blog? How about adding links to your most popular posts so new readers know where to start when they first discover you? If you have an external package like a media kit linked to your about page, does it open the most recent version? Is your Privacy Policy linked here? How about any other policies–like your comment policy, affiliate disclosures, etc.? Retire old clips and replace with new, relevant ones at least every three or four months.
Once you’re up-to-date, what’s next?
Once you’ve made sure these static pieces of your site are current, set a reminder on your calendar to review these on a quarterly basis. I’m a big fan of using time-bound cards on Trello with checklist reminders. Keep your digital home clean, shiny, and dust-free with regular, routine maintenance so you can focus on doing what you do best: creating that fresh, fun, engaging content!