Website Development – Make a Schedule and Calendar

Part of keeping a viable website is to keep it current and updated. To keep up with all the tasks associated with running a website or blog, here are some tasks you need to aded to your calendar to help you keep track.

Checking Your Site Statistics

Who is visiting, where they are visiting from, which pages are the most visited, and so on. Information from your site statistics gives you a lot of information. You need to know how users are using your site and how to cater to their needs. You should check your site statistics at least once a month, biweekly if you have a serious interest in SEO.

Check Your Linkability

Using the various link checking tools, look up who is linking to you. This should be done monthly, or at least four times a year. If you don’t see a rise in your link popularity, then it is time to take some action.

Check for Dead Links

You should check for broken links about two to four times a year, unless your external links are critical to the success of your website. The more important the external links are to your pages, the more frequently they need to be checked and updated.

Add and Update Pages

Set a schedule for deadlines on adding new pages, or changing the old, on your site. Each site should have a schedule unique to its user’s needs and your business. Google scores higher points for sites which add consistently changing and new content, resulting in higher page ranks. A static website that doesn’t change is fine for a single store front and a small business with limited resources and information and targetting a narrow audience. If you are actively seeking clients and want people to return to your site frequently, consider adding and updating content on a regular basis. Once a day or week might be too much, though for some it is too little. Only you can decide what the right schedule is for your site or blog. Keep your web pages fresh and invite people to return for more.

Review and Update Description, Title and Site

At least once a year you should review your website description and title. The goal is to make your site work for your users, not for you. Consider updating your website look, meta tags, keywords, and description, and maybe even the title. Our main site used to be “VanFossen Productions” but we found using our business name was useless for helping people find us. So we changed it to “Taking Your Camera on the Road”, which is the name of one of our upcoming books. It works well with the content, explains what we do, and helps people remember what we do. We also took more time to review and update our subject matter. It makes a difference in your search engine rankings to fine-tune this information at least once a year. Twice would be better.

Update and Change Titles, Headings, and Links

According to recent information about how to maintain your web page rank in Google, and how to improve it, Google evaluates the historical changes to titles, headings, and links. If they show changes over long periods of time, it seems to indicate the site is being maintained and updated, showing continued enthusiasm and credibility. You don’t have to update them all, all the time, but one in a while tweak a few to maintain appearanced.

Update Tags

As you started adding tags to your site or blog, you might have treated them like keywords instead of tags, or you started generally when you should have been more specific. Make time to review your tags and check them against tagging directories to make sure they are “found” in their lists. And check to see that you aren’t over or under tagging your posts.

Submit Your Site

Just because you have submitted to the major search engines doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try again. Don’t just submit your entire site or index page, try for specific pages and sections of your site. If you have an educational or informative section about your product or service, submit the address to target people with an educational interest in your topic, not just those who are buying what you have to offer. Also, why limit yourself to only the top search engines. Google was once a tiny player in the search engine market. Check with Searchenginewatch and Cyberatlas and others to find out who is up and coming in the search engine market and submit to them before they get crowded. And don’t forget the new tag technology as another method of spreading the news about your blog or site. You can easily submit your site feeds to many search engines now. Try the smaller search engines to diversify your market. Schedule time to spread your page around search engines at least every three to six months.

Check for Web Design Updates

HTML, CSS, and other web page coding is changing and evolving over time as browser software becomes more sophisticated. Schedule at least once a year to spend a few days reviewing the new methodology and techniques behind web pages to make sure you are best utilizing the technology. Remember, the more up-to-date and versatile your coding behind the pretty web pages, the more people can browse your pages with ease. If you are using WordPress or another blogging tool, make sure you have the latest upgrade to keep up with their improvements and security fixes.

Improve Intrasite Links

As you add articles or posts, its should now be a habit to link to past posts from the current ones. But what about your old ones? Shouldn’t they get links to the appropriate new posts? Go back through your archives and look to ways to include intrasite links from your old posts to your new posts. Links connecting your posts together help users navigate to more content on your site, thus staying longer, and it helps search engines crawl through your site connecting all the pages.

Scheduling the Website’s Calendar of Events

We’ve put together an example of a website’s calendar of events, scheduling link checks, submissions, and other maintenance required by a website. The schedule of adding new content is up to you and the Website purpose. Some sites require frequent updates and new content, while others are okay for a year or two without checking. It’s up to you to set up your own schedule, and the following calendar may help your website planning stradegies.

Calendar for Website Maintenance and Submission
January	February	March	April
• Site Submission • Check Site Statitics	• Check Link Popularity • Verify Links	• Check Site Statitics	• Site Submission • Add New Content
May	June	July	August
• Check Site Statitics • Update Headings and Tags	• Check Link Popularity • Check Tags	• Site Submission • Check Site Statitics	• Verify Links • Add New Content
September	October	November	December
• Check Site Statitics	• Site Submission • Check Link Popularity • Add New Content	• Check Site Statitics	• Review Web Standards and Update

Here are some of our routine maintenance tasks associated with our website to help you fill in the calendar and schedule for your Website:

• Keyword Review and Update
• Check Link Popularity
• Review New Technology
• Review Web Standards and apply
• Check Site Statistics
• Add New Content
• Check Links
• Validate Code
• Submit Site to Search Engines
• Check Web Page Descriptions
• Check Web Page Titles
• Review Meta Tag Standards and Update
• Check Website with Other Browsers
• Check Website with Other Computers
• Check Website with Various Screen Resolutions ideas)
• Review Top Searches from Search Engines (potential new content ideas)

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