Blog Hosting Best Practices

Many of the blog hosting best practices are covered out of the box by a content management system like WordPress or Scripted’s Blog Hosting service. But every implementation is different, so it’s worth running through the checklist below to cross our t’s and dot our i’s!

Page Speed and Mobile Optimization Exercise

While there are benefits to the rise of mobile web browsing, it’s easy to overlook the consequences. One of the biggest trade-offs is that mobile browsing over 3G or LTE is significantly slower than desktop browsing on Wi-Fi.

To address this shift, Google has prioritized page speed. In other words – Google’s Search Algorithm engineers are just as frustrated as the rest of us, waiting in agony as their phones load sluggish websites. So they’ve set out some standards for page speed.

Meeting those standards won’t guarantee organic search success, but not meeting them will guarantee failure!

Enter three of your most important pages into the Page Speed tool, and address any shortcomings.

HTTPS Exercise

It seems everything from our political parties to our baby monitors have been targeted by hackers. In the dog-eat-dog world of information security, SSL is a must have. That’s the little green lock in the top left corner of your screen.

There are all sorts of reasons to force your customers to use your website over HTTPS. In 2017 we can add SEO to that list. Sites without the little green lock will have a harder time reaching the front page.

Ensure that every page has a little green lock, and that any URL starting with http:// redirects to https://

Accessibility and Readability Exercise

According to the 2012 U.S. Census, almost 60 million Americans (nearly 20 percent of the U.S. population) have some form of disability. While not all of these disabilities may affect the way people interact with your website, a large population of your potential users probably can’t use your website the way you expect them to.

Accessibility is not just about making it easier for people with disabilities to interact with your site. Instead, making information easier to consume and understand should be your primary goal.

Let’s run your site through Addy Osmani’s A11y tool. The online A11y URL checker looks like it was designed by an engineer (psst – it was!), but it’s a great way to identify accessibility issues that impact both the search presence and user experience of your website. Enter the URL of three of your most important pages into the A11y URL checker, and address any items that appear under the “Failed” heading.