New Look, New Structure for this website and blog
In today’s post, learn about the new structure and new layout for this website, and what it means for you. I have been making a series of changes to this site and blog. Some are visibly evident- the changing themes for example. Others are structural. And a large number of changes are related to speed, optimization and security. In this post, I will explain what some of the changes mean for you, the readers of this blog, and what you can expect.
Welcome to Day 9 of my month long blogging challenge for the month of February. On Wednesdays. I write about matters related to websites, which include web hosting, email, website management, and so on. This week I would like to write about an overhaul to this website. This is a work in progress.
In the past, I have written about my Spring Cleaning efforts, setting up a new Content Delivery Network or CDN, and Spicing up This Blog using different themes for different days of the week. I also maintain a separate page on this site, which keeps a running log of changes and updates that I make. Today is the time for the formal announcement. This blog, and website, are changing for the better.
Two Versions of this blog post
Let me give you a heads up here: this is a *long* blog post, over 2,000 words again. But I have also created a shorter version, which you can read here.
For the longer version, check out the second part of this page or click here.
Why do I have two versions of this post? is this a new thing in content management?
Yesterday, I had mentioned that my future posts will be slightly longer than the short 300 word bursts I had published. At the same time, the content has to be reader friendly. The below version should suffice for most readers. But there may be some who can learn or even benefit from my experiments, experience and errors. The longer version is for the latter audience.
The need for new website structure and WordPress categories
Over the past few years, the topics for my blog posts have varied form travel to podcasting; or from webhosting to images. Earlier this month, I started sorting and publishing my written content under seven different themes or categories. Incidentally, that also formed the basis for my blogging journey. In addition, there were three major ailments affecting this website:
a. The website layout needed an overhaul. There were (and are) broken links, images that do not load, and some incomplete blog posts. These add up to poor user experience and of course penalty in search engine rankings.
b. There were multiple blogs. Many were on different domains or subdomains. This resulted in content that was all over the place. To read about my podcasts, one had to visit my podcasting site. To learn about my writing, one had to come back to this one. Visitors had to go website-hopping just to keep up!
c. Almost everything is in English. My goal is to publish content in Hindi and Marathi as well. There was no indication that my site had content in these languages. Over the long term, the current structure was going to prove detrimental.
Back to Basics: Writing versus a Portfolio Site
My site www.amarvyas.in was intended to be portfolio site for my author *avatar*. However, in addition to writing books, I also write quite a few blog posts. The blogging challenge from previous year, and this year’s #bloggingchallenge have resulted in nearly 100 posts and over 50,000 words. In other words, I have practically completed one novel over the past year!
A blog by its very nature is dynamic. In other words, on a blog, the content is added or modified frequently. A Portfolio site,on the other hand, is more static in nature. It may have more images, and content that does not get updated frequently.
For those who are familiar with the concept of Pages and Posts in WordPress, this should resonate well.
Way Forward: what to expect from this blog and website
by February 15th you will be able to see the full impact of the changes I have been making to this site. Seven categories for blog posts should make it easy to follow my daily posts. My author site is also undergoing some updates. This should result in some positive experiences for you.