This challenge is going to be way harder than I thought. I made some good progress on the tasks I set out to finish this week but I didn’t complete all of them. I thought the first few tasks would be easy wins. Unfortunately, they took way longer than I thought they would. Here is a summary of the tasks I wanted to complete and how far I got on them.
Phase 1, Task 1: Fix Coding Errors
The first task I needed to complete was to fix all coding errors on my websites. This meant running the HTML and CSS through the W3C validation service and making sure there were no errors. The first site I worked on was my dog site. This site had a premium newspaper style theme that I loved. It’s one of the reasons I choose this site to work on. It doesn’t look like a niche site at all. The site has an authority theme even though there are only 12 articles published. When I ran the HTML through the W3C validator, there were over 200 errors. It was really bad. I spent an entire day fixing the errors. Some errors were caused by the theme and some were caused by the plugins. Trying to track down the code causing the errors was a pain. Then I ran the CSS through the validator. Over 400 errors. I gave up at that point and installed a different theme. It’s the same theme that is on all my other websites. I was able to tweak the theme enough so it looked pretty much just like the old, premium theme that I was using. It was a lot faster to do it this way than to try to find and fix 400 CSS errors. This new theme had only small handful of HTML errors and no CSS errors.
Now that I had the first site done, I moved onto the second site – my travel site. I figured this would be easier than the first site because it was using the theme that doesn’t have many errors. When I ran the HTML through the validator, I was surprised to find dozens of errors. That’s when I realize that I customized the homepage with a plugin and that plugin was causing the errors. I really liked the design of the homepage and wasn’t sure how to do it without the plugin. It took me an entire day to figure it out. So, here I was thinking that I could get the first task done in less than a day, and by day 2, I had only gotten two websites done with the task. It took another day to get this task done for the last 3 websites.
Phase 1, Task 2: Update The Servers
Luckily, this task was so easy that I got it done in less than an hour. I went to my website host and logged into the cpanel. Then I found the MultiPHP Manager and I was able to update the PHP for all of my websites at the same time. I updated them to PHP 8.2 which is the newest PHP software. I also optimized the databases but I did that when I was doing the next task on the list.
Phase 1, Task 3: Speed Optimization
This was another task that took me longer than I was expecting. I spent a lot of time deleting plugins, changing options on Yoast SEO, adding speed optimization (Hummingbird, Smush) & database optimization plugins and messing with settings on the various plugins and in the theme. I eventually got all of my sites to a blazing fast loading speed of under 1 second.
Phase 1, Task 4: Fix Indexation Bloat & Phase 1
Phase1, Task 5: Add SEO optimized title & meta description to all articles
Since both of these tasks are related, I decided to do them at the same time. To fix indexation bloat, I’m setting all category pages to show 50 post. Then I’m going into Google Search Console and redirecting any articles that were deleted earlier but never got redirected and I’m also trying to find any articles that haven’t been indexed. As I’m going through the articles and adding the title and meta descriptions, I’m also deciding if I really need the article. If I decide that the article isn’t worth keeping, I’m deleting it and 301 redirecting the link to the homepage. If I decide that I want to keep the article, then I’m updating it. I’m not just adding the title and meta description but I’m also rewriting paragraphs that need it, adding new information, making sure there are no broken links, adding alt-text to all images, making sure all affiliate links are nofollow and non-affiliate links are dofollow, adding at least 5 external links to trusted sites and adding 5 internal links to related articles. I’m also running each article through Grammerly to make sure I didn’t miss any grammar mistakes. It seems like a lot of work but it’s actually not since most of the articles were already well written. Plus, I’m going to have to do these things eventually so I might as well do them all at once.
Goals for Weeks 2 & 3
Obviously, my goal is to get phase 1, task 4 & phase 1, task 5 completed for all of my websites. I think it’s going to take the entire week to do this. I completed 7 articles on my dog website so I have 5 more to update on that site. My travel site has 9 articles, the cooking hobby site has no articles (just need to fix the category post count), the camping site has 30 articles and my kayak site has 18 articles. I think I can get all of the articles updated by the end of the week. By doing this, I’m also completing other tasks on the list at the same time. For example, phase 1, task 6 & 7, are to make sure affiliate links are nofollow and adding alt-text to all images. This is part of updating the articles so these tasks will be done as well. Phase 1, task 11 & task 12, are also the same as task 4 – all related to indexation bloat. I think I’m going to make a goal of getting through all of Phase 1 tasks by Nov 14, which in two weeks. I think that gives me plenty of time to get it done and it will keep my on-track for my original goal of completing 1 phase per month.
Phase 1
Task 1: Fix Coding Errors – Complete!
Task 2: Update the Servers – Complete!
Task 3: Speed Optimization – Complete!
Task 4: Fix Indexation Bloat – Partially Complete.
Task 5: Add Title & Meta Description to All Articles – Partially Complete.
Task 6: Add Alt-Text to All Images – Partially Complete.
Task 7: Check That Affiliate Links Are Nofollow – Partially Complete.
Task 8: Make Sure Site is HTTPS Compliant
Task 9: Check That The Site is Mobile Friendly
Task 10: Submit Sitemap to GSC
Task 11: Set Category Pages to 50 Posts/Page – Partially Complete.
Task 12: Delete & 301 Redirect Irrelevant Posts/Pages – Partially Complete.
Task 13: Set Up Breadcrumbs
Task 14: Add ‘Tittle’ Tag to All Links
Task 15: Check That Images Are On Own Page
Task 16: Check For Broken Links – Partially Complete.