Blog Talk: Remember to check your follow links regularly
Blog maintenance can be one of those necessary evils. The process doesn't bother me too much as long as issues do not involve major coding glitches or platform issues that take a lot of time to resolve. There are some very simple maintenance checks that should be done frequently that many blogs, including mine, may forget to do. A big one is to check follow links.
It's easy for follow links to go dead. Links can get partially deleted during coding updates, the platform may change enough to where a new code is needed, there may be misspelled links, and links may no longer work if your site has changed titles. The latter is especially important for many RSS links. Sometimes the links just don't agree with browsers (which I tend to have a problem with), but the blog owner doesn't know that because they don't work with that browser.
These are all easy mistakes to make and they happen quite frequently. I notice it a lot when I'm on blog hops and try to follow blogs but am met with various error messages. Many times it's just missing the : or / in an address and I can still access the site. Other times it's not so easy. As a result, blogs can miss out on a lot of new followers.
So this is just a simple reminder to check your links every now and then, and please, if you notice a dead link on someone's site, inform them!
It's easy for follow links to go dead. Links can get partially deleted during coding updates, the platform may change enough to where a new code is needed, there may be misspelled links, and links may no longer work if your site has changed titles. The latter is especially important for many RSS links. Sometimes the links just don't agree with browsers (which I tend to have a problem with), but the blog owner doesn't know that because they don't work with that browser.
These are all easy mistakes to make and they happen quite frequently. I notice it a lot when I'm on blog hops and try to follow blogs but am met with various error messages. Many times it's just missing the : or / in an address and I can still access the site. Other times it's not so easy. As a result, blogs can miss out on a lot of new followers.
So this is just a simple reminder to check your links every now and then, and please, if you notice a dead link on someone's site, inform them!
What drives me nuts are bloggers who have blog rolls, but either the links don't work to the blogs recommended, or the blogger hasn't updated since 2007. Arg!
ReplyDeleteThat is why I don't post the blogs I follow on here. I don't keep up with all of them enough to make sure they're still running or worth following and I have enough to keep track of without that.
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