Things to AVOID on an Established Blog

Things to AVOID, once your Blog is established

Ashwin » 30 December 2008 » In Blogging & SEO »

You have a blog, it is popular and boasts of over 1000 subscribers. Now What?

Make sure you don’t make any of the following mistakes, which might affect your blog’s popularity and reputation.

1. Change the Permalinks Structure

A Permalink or a Permanent Link is an unique URL to any blog entry that you make. Many bloggers use custom Permalink structure, as they tend to be more Search Engine friendly. An example of a custom Permalink structure may be - http://yourdomain.org/2008/04/test-post. Wordpress users can refer to this tutorial, on how to use Permalinks.

Changing the Permalink Structure on an existing blog, hugely affects the Search Engine Index. Posts indexed with the older Permalink structure are no longer valid and this might lead to a subsequent reduction in traffic. So, NEVER CHANGE THE PERMALINK STRUCTURE OF AN ESTABLISHED BLOG. When you start your blog, choose the one right permalink structure and stick to it!

2. Shuffling Blog into a Subdirectory on your Domain or to a Sub-Domain

This is even more critical. Doing this can adversely affect the traffic to your blog. Decide on the domain and the structure of your Blog URL and stick to it for life!

3. Change the FeedBurner ID

If you use FeedBurner for all your RSS feed needs, there is a way to update the FeedBurner ID from within the site. But, FeedBurner rightly gives out a warning, which says that all existing subscribers must be updated to the new ID. This is a pain for the readers and you might ultimately lose them. So decide on the FeedBurner ID upfront and stick to it!

4. Change the Blog Name or Logo

Popular blogs like TechCrunch, CopyBlogger and ProBlogger are universally known by their blog names and not by their authors. Blog Name is an identifier to the personal brand of the blog. Once a brand is established, changing it might ruin the reputation. Also, once the Logo of your Blog gets popular, changing it might have unintended consequences. So, freeze on your Blog Name and Logo. However, you can choose to suitably modify the Tag Line or Blog Headline, if your is blog is getting more specific or more diverse