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You are here: Home / Social Media / How to Spring Clean Your Blog, Part 2: Plugins, SEO & Posts

How to Spring Clean Your Blog, Part 2: Plugins, SEO & Posts

June 1, 2016 By Donna Biroczky Leave a Comment

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Yesterday, I shared my first post of a two-part series on spring cleaning the blog. You can find that post here. I talked about optimizing images, cleaning up your tags and categories and your media library. This is not an all-inclusive series, as there are a lot of other things you can do, but if you take baby steps and slowly work on all your posts and framework, you’ll be good to go when you’re ready to take on bigger projects that will help speed up your page load time. Here is today’s set of steps on how to spring clean your blog and still keep your sanity!

How to Spring Clean Your Blog

Clear Your Cache: This is easy, or at least, it should be. There are plugins that do this. I am on a Managed WordPress plan (save your boos if you’re not a fan — it works for me and I’m a fan) so I have an easy “flush cache” button that takes 10 seconds max. Problem solved. This is particularly helpful when you are making tweaks to the site and want to see them immediately, and it helps with page load as well.

Remove Unused or Outdated Plugins: Go through your plug-ins one at a time. Ask yourself: Am I using this? Why? Plugins I installed in the beginning that were helpful are now things that I can do manually. For instance, I had a plugin installed that pulled all my posts that were categorized as social media into a list on a page for social media. Sounds great, right? It was — but I was just being lazy. I deleted that plug-in and instead, hyperlinked the URL of the new post on the page myself. It took all of two minutes, if that, and I didn’t have another plug-in to slow down the site. I also removed this Image Widget plug-in that I used to love, but my theme, and Genesis Framework overall, offers that now. No need to have plug-ins active to slow down loading if you’re not really using them.

Tools Like SEOptimer: These are tools you use to see where your trouble spots are. There are far too many more for me to list — all free, as there are paid ones but I only use free — and all the options that they will point out are free, but they provide a summary for you to see where you can make changes. I also ran one at Pingdom and learned that yes, I really do need to set up a CDN and I need to lessen my javascript above the fold as well as tightening up my CSS; for me, I’m in the process of a redesign so I’m holding off on those three things until the redesign is complete, but I did take a lot of suggestions to use now.

One of the first things that kept popping up in all three of the audits I ran was my bio image. I continued to get messages that this image took a while to load and it wasn’t in the image library. The ultimate goal is for a search engine to be able to find everything on the page as fast as possible, so if it’s looking in 10 different virtual places and even just one of them is slow, that’s going to take loading from 1 second to 9. Would you wait that long for a page to load? My fix for that error message was easy; I removed the image widget I’d naively installed in WordPress three years ago when I built the blog and used just a regular native text widget, linking to an optimized photo that I uploaded. In short, I made the image smaller and faster to load and put it in a place that’s faster to get to. It cut off 2 seconds of load time, and it was a 10-minute fix at most!

As a side note — if you’re ever experiencing slow loading or odd issues, go through your plug-ins one at a time, turning them off, clearing your cache and re-loading the blog. This helps you narrow down what plug-in is causing the issue, as the majority of site loading problems are plug-ins.

SEO and That Little Green Light: I love the Yoast plug-in. Love it. It really taught me a lot about what was important for SEO for blog posts. I work with SEO all day long in my digital marketing position, but blog posts are different. Yoast helps you focus yourself so you’re hitting the most important things. Keywords, alt-text, length of copy/title, url, etc. Yoast is the best one, in my opinion. They ramp up their game by providing a bunch of tutorials at their site that will talk you through all the little changes you may want to make. This helps you maximize the plug-in, and if you want to ramp up your game, you can buy the pro version. It’s affordable and I’d say worth it.

When you say SEO, most people think right away of where you get found on Google. Good deal, because that’s ultimately what you want in one sentence — to be found as close to the top of the front page of the search results on Google. People also think about keywords, and while they are uber-important, there is a lot more. There are many parts to the complete picture of good SEO, so when I went through my site, I made sure each post had a green light, or close to it. Even Yoast will tell you that not every post is going to get you a green light, and that’s okay, but when I first started, I missed out on a lot of opportunities. I went back through each post one-by-one during my spring cleaning the blog spree and it was illuminating. Some posts didn’t have categories chosen, others didn’t have tags. A few didn’t even have meta descriptions or keywords. What was I doing?? I added these in and made sure that people could find these posts. Literally, within 7-10 days, my traffic improved. Yes, it took me several days, but was it time well-spent? Without a doubt, yes. I also started making sure that “dangerous cupcake” was mentioned more than just in my site title and url, and I’m seeing more traction from that as well. I can’t rank anywhere if I don’t tell Google what I want.

Bad Posts: We all have some of these, even the best bloggers. What seemed like a good idea at the time took a turn or just never got any traction. A rant, a “check out my gorgeous day” or whatever, it just isn’t in keeping with the rest of your posts. Some people say you have to leave these up, but I don’t subscribe to that. I went for removing the post, removing any images that were used only in it, and allowing my redirect plugin to point people back to the landing page. I only removed about 12 posts. This is a choice you have to make on your own, as you may not think anyone’s looked at a post, so I recommend reviewing your Google Analytics to be sure you don’t remove something that people are still visiting a lot.

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I’m Donna, and I’m not a mommy blogger.
I’m a Gen X mom of four, a Marvel geek and creator of Dangerous Cupcake, a Southern California lifestyle blog dedicated to life after the kids grow up. As my kids enter different stages of their lives, I get to do the same, having fun, loving Disney, watching Marvel, and not letting my age define anything. Phase 2 of life is pretty amazing, and midlife isn’t a bad word. Join me in changing focus and enjoying life during our next adventure, without totally starting over. However you do it, life is short, live a little dangerously.
Donna@DangerousCupcakeLifestyle.com

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Out here in Rancho Cucamonga, there are a lot of h Out here in Rancho Cucamonga, there are a lot of hidden gems for foodies. One of them is the Haven City Market, and my favorite place to eat there is Belly & Snout. Not only were they on Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, but they are a main stay of the market with their Filipino-inspired take on American comfort food. Their grilled cheese sandwiches are AH-mazing, but I prefer their bowls.

This pic shows you what my pork belly bowl looked like. Pork belly sits on a bed of fluffy jasmine rice, along with garlic chili aioli, red radishes, green onion and just the right amount of pickled red onion. The pork is perfectly cooked, with a bit of a crisp and rendering of the fat that melts in your mouth. I get it every time!

Steve got the pork belly grilled cheese, made of almost the same ingredients but sandwiched between bread and covered with pepper jack cheese. SO good. 

And of course, if you get spicy food of any realm, you need to get a drink from Native Son bar. The drink you see in this pic is the Rancho Water, made with tequila, passion fruit and citrus…and it’s just sparkly enough to be absolutely refreshing. (I easily drank more than one of these babies. They don’t taste strong, but drink responsibly; good bevs like this sneak up on you!) 

We love to try fancy new restaurants near and far, but sometimes, hanging around close to home is just what we need. Short car ride, casual clothes, fun environment we know we'll enjoy...it's perfect for the kind of weeks we've had lately. Whatever your mood, head over to the market, get your beverage, grab your food, and take it all outside amongst some trees on the green or on a table in the shade. We’ll be back for more….soon!

@havencitymarket @nativesonie @bellynsnout #havencitymarket #ranchocucamonga #inlandempirefood #inlandempire #iefoodie #bellyandsnout #cocktails #porkbelly #filipinofood #comfortfood #ranchofoodies #nativeson #dinersdriveinsanddives @foodnetwork #foodnetwork @guyfieri @dinersdriveins #ranchwater #ranchowater #tequila #grilledcheese #ranchocucamongafoodie @gorestaurantwk #foodblogger #foodblog
The happiest place on earth is where I spend my bi The happiest place on earth is where I spend my birthday every year…as long as it falls on a weekday where everyone else is at work. It’s a magical day, full of food, beverages, shopping and of course, character photo opps. I’d been in line to see Loki, but he took a break and the lovely God of Thunder took his place. I was not unhappy….but he had a few things to say about my apparent fondness for his brother, the God of Mischief. I mean, the ears. I’d gotten my photo taken with Iron Man earlier in the day and he made me take them off.

Disneyland never disappoints, literally from the second I shared it was my birthday with the parking attendant. I ate lunch at Carthay Circle and had lobster nachos at Lamplight Lounge for dinner. My other favorite part of the day was watching the Halloween lights go on at Cars Land. If you haven’t seen it, be there around 630-ish, it’s so much fun!

I still hear the “Aren’t you a little old for Disney?” and it makes me laugh every single time. There is NO such thing. Disney is for all ages. Even in my midlife, I love it as much as I did when I was younger. Actually, maybe even more. As a Magic Key holder, I wander, enjoying the little things I may not have seen in my days of rushing to get it all done with the kids without one having a meltdown. I’ve already got a list of future reservations, all planned carefully around holidays and events…and of course, the food. Don’t miss the holiday menu! 

@disneyparks @disneyland #disney #disneyland #thor #loki #avengers #marvel #avengerscampus #disneycaliforniaadventure #disneycalifornia #disneyhalloween #disneyhalloweentime #halloweenatdisney #magickeyholder #godofthunder #godofmischief #marvelavengers #disneymom #disneycreator @marvel #carthaycircle #lokiears #mjolnir #purplehair @converse #midlife
This past weekend, we stayed in an AirBnB up in Pi This past weekend, we stayed in an AirBnB up in Pine Cove - Idyllwild to celebrate my birthday. Two nights of peaceful starry skies in the woods, with the only real noise being a random bird knocking on a tree or squirrel running through the huge back yard. We had coffee on the deck in the morning and wine on the deck at night, and in between, lots of relaxing jacuzzi time. We spent Saturday afternoon shopping in downtown Idyllwild, drinking fancy beers at OktoBEERfest sponsored by the Idyllwild Brew Pub and paying a ridiculous $18 per glass for an albeit amazing apple sangria at a wine bistro. 

Idyllwild is a haven. Kind people, a community away from the hustle and bustle that we have even here in the ‘burbs of North Fontana, nestled amongst the pines and beautiful views. Hiking trails, a child’s park that’s easily a place to spend a couple of hours, galleries, restaurants, coffee shops and more — it makes a fantastic place to escape for a family weekend or a romantic getaway. Aaaand if you like crystals and gemstones, you’re in luck. We spent triple-digits in adding to my collection at three different shops. I can’t wait to go back for more!

Our cabin was from New Spirit Vacation Homes but there are so many to choose from. (And we’d definitely stay in the same cabin again!) Prices change throughout the seasons, but it’s a relatively easy drive that took us about 35 minutes from the 10/60 freeways. If you go during the winter, you will need an appropriate vehicle and probably chains; check your cabin’s driveway, too, as some are precarious if you’re not used to it. We have an 4x4 and would love to see the city during the Christmas season!

Put Idyllwild on your list of places to check out for your next mini-vacation!

#idyllwild #idyllwildcalifornia #pinecove #idyllwildca @idyllwildbrewpub #idyllwildbrewpub #oktoberfest @newspiritvacationhomes #travel #midlifetravel #midlife #travelblog #travelblogger #blogger #californiatravel #californiatrip #visitidyllwild #socaltravels #explorecalifornia #californiadestinations #hikecalifornia #sanjacintomountains #sanjacinto #shopidyllwild
Have you ever been to Haven City Market? Not only Have you ever been to Haven City Market? Not only do they have a huge variety of food vendors and restaurants, but they offer live music and shows on their back patio. On September 16, they co-hosted a Mexican Independence Day celebration, along with non-profit Unidos Por La Musica and Pomona business, Music Tree Schools. We watched singing, dancing and folklorico demonstrations with students of all ages….all while enjoying the delicious Rancho Water cocktail from Native Sons inside the market and eating from Belly & Snout. (More on those in another post.) Scroll for a few more photos and videos of the performers.

It’s a family-friendly venue with room to eat with your family while your kids can play in the grass, but if you’re there on a date or without the kids, there is adults-only seating in the bar area as well. They also host a lot of trivia nights during the week, so check out their calendar (via their Instagram, which I’ve linked below) and make some plans to go visit soon!

@havencitymarket @unidosporlamusica_ @musictreeschools #havencitymarket #havencity #mexicanindependenceday #nationalhispanicheritagemonth #balletfolklorico #mexicandance #ranchocucamonga #ranchocucamongafoodie #ranchofoodies #inlandempire #theie #ie #tequila @bellynsnout #bellyandsnout #cocktails #inlandempirefood
In the morning, I’ve gotta have my coffee. Once In the morning, I’ve gotta have my coffee. Once I’ve downed my two cups, I’m on to water. Drinking coffee is the easy part — but drinking water is not. If I don’t have it in front of me, in an easy to carry tumbler that’s also attractive and keeps it cold, it’s not going to happen. 

AND it also has to fit in my car cup holder. A tumbler that does all that can be a unicorn.

Enter zak!’s Sutton 2-in-1 tumbler! In the morning, it carries my coffee (which its double-wall vacuum insulation kept hot for hours), and after, my water, all without changing a lid. This 2-in-1 tumbler has a unique lid that works for both hot beverages and cold. Take your pick, it’s easy to choose which drinking option you want. Sip coffee from the hole on the top, and chug your water (like I do after yoga) or iced coffee from the straw. I takes seconds to switch from one to the other, and it’s also leakproof, so I threw it in my bag as I packed up and my bag remained dry. Bonus: it’s SO easy to clean, and is top-rack dishwasher safe. 

The Sutton tumblers you see in my reel are my new favorites! The 30 oz tumbler comes in several colors, but I chose Jade, and my 20 oz tumbler is Opera. Both are stainless steel and durable. Thanks to zak! for sending them to me! Try one out yourself and see how you don’t have to compromise or overload yourself with more than one tumbler! Be sure to stay hydrated! As we get older, it becomes even more important for our skin and health overall. 

#ZakPartner @zakdesigns #zakdesigns #StainlessSteel #Tumblers #Hydration #Coffee #CoffeeTumbler #StayHydrated #DrinkWater #Coffee #StayCaffeinated #Caffeine #tumbler #tumblersofinstagram #drinkcoffee #drinkcoffeedostuff #yoga #cupholder #togomug #togocup #everydaysmiles #midlifewomen #midlife #skincare #wellness
I saw Jack and Sally yesterday, so now it is offic I saw Jack and Sally yesterday, so now it is officially the Halloween season. The line was a little long, I had a Haunted Mansion Lightning Lane reservation at the same time but it was so worth the wait to see these two favorites! And I still made it on the ride…which had actually broken down and I had to wait but that’s what churros are for. The list of Halloween foods to try is long, but learn from my mistake and place your mobile order early. That pumpkin chai dessert will have to wait until I go again in two weeks. Bring on all the spooky stuff! 

@disneyland #disneyland #disney #halloween #jackandsally #jackskellington #nightmarebeforechristmas #disneyhalloween #magickeyholder #magickey #hauntedmansion #jackskellingtonandsally #disneyhalloweentime #disneycalifornia #disneygram #disneyfan #disneycreator #thisishalloween #mickeyears
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