No, not Twitter and no I am not talking about some weird trip from the 60s. I am talking about tweaking. Constantly editing and improving my website. Especially my writing.
Yes, I admit it. I edit articles I’ve written after I post them.
A friend of mine told me this was a blogging no no and I shouldn’t be editing after I posted, especially if someone had written a comment about what I wrote. Obviously she hasn’t read some of my articles. I will be the first to admit my writing sometimes sucks. Going back over an article with fresh eyes almost always ends with me finding typos and just really bad sentences.
I draw the line at changing the context of an article, altering an opinion or deleting controversial issues you have written about. Actually, I don’t know why you would want to do that either.
Having a change of heart on a topic or coming to a new opinion is a great excuse to write another article and engage your readers to read more than one page on your site.
But since my old articles sit in an archive waiting for someone to find them through a Google search, I see no harm in making it a better article for the reader when they find it. In fact, my SEO Guy tells me this is smart. He never is on my side when it comes my website, so I take this as a great endorsement of my actions.
In addition to grammar and typos I go back over articles in my archive and add keywords. You know I am not a fan of keyword writing and I never write with it in mind so after an article has had its days in the sun, I will reread it and see if there an appropriate place I can drop in the phrase “Vancouver Painter” without it killing me.
I also add links to new articles or content that I have added to my website. SEO Guy loves it when I do this too.
Chris Haught, Editor of Blogging Painters recently had us start adding subheadings within our articles for this site. We also highlight key point sentences in an article. We do this because it helps with Google rankings. You think I am not going to do the same for my own site? Of course I am.
A luxury of the Internet is that publishing is immediate and at the same time forgiving when it comes to your writing (not so much when it comes to posting pictures of you partying in Vegas on Facebook). Make a typo? Fix it. Type your entire website with the dreaded double space after a period? Get that fixed before the typeset police find you.
So tweak away. It’s good for your image, excellent for your website and even better for your reader.
Photo by http://www.wpwebhost.com/
Nice to meet a fellow tweaker. I’m always going back through old posts looking for ways to improve them either by adding a few key words, or being able to make it read smoother. Thanks for helping me realize that I’m not as weird as I thought by doing that as much as I do.
Hi Derek, only because I know you personally, I can say your “wierdness” is one of your endearing traits, I enjoy your posts and writing style! Thanks for being a great “blogging buddy”!
Heidi – A woman after my own heart. I make my living tweaking – for other people and businesses. Great article. I hadn’t really considered the SEO value of tweaking after you publish and it goes against my grain of ‘perfection’ but I guess it’s better than not tweaking at all!
Just letting you know that your article came up on my Google Alerts as ‘tweak’ is one of my alert words.
Happy blogging
Jo