Spring is nearly here and in the tradition of Spring cleaning, I’d like to turn our attention to an online spring clean. Much like the household spring clean it’s not the most enjoyable of jobs, but to keep things running smoothly and your customers or audience happy, it’s essential.

Does it link up

Check for broken links. In blog posts I tend to link to a website ie www.noisetteacademy.com, rather than individual pages or products for this very reason as it minimises the number of broken links I have. Depending on the length of time since you last checked your links, this may be a lengthy, tedious job. If you blog regularly with links to individual pages or products, you may want to consider scheduling regular link checks.

If you have advertising or widgets on your blog, check they are working too.

Check internal links on your blog and/or website! That page you decided to delete was linked to on another page….. And, yes I speak from recent experience after a customer pointed out that the link to my Birthstone colour swatch didn’t work. Whoops!

Check images. For a time I used to use an image’s url when blogging. This now means that if that image has since been removed from the internet, it is no longer available on my blog.

Ditch the Spam

If you don’t have moderation set on your blog, go through your comments and delete spam comments. All those spam links aren’t helping your SEO and it’s so much nicer to see the genuine comments.

I have to admit that I also remove unwanted comments from my facebook page – this is something that I do regularly because it’s so obvious.

Too Connected?

If your twitter or facebook feed is getting cluttered, make time to go through the connections you can live without. There are a number of helpful apps for twitter to help you ‘unfollow’ those who haven’t tweeted for a length of time. You can try The Unfollow App or Untweeps.

Is your inbox overwhelmed by newsletters and blog updates? Google reader overflowing with unread blog posts? Do you read all of them? Nothing bad will happen if you choose to unsubscribe or unfollow. To keep your business email uncluttered, consider using a different email address for subscribing to newsletters you would like to still receive.

With so many social media outlets online, it may be that one or more of your online presences is feeling neglected and lying dormant. I speak from experience! Visiting one online network I joined some time ago, I discovered my old logo and tumbleweed rolling past. I guess you need to decide if it’s led dormant for that long is it time to delete, or commit to maintaining it more regularly. An unmaintained presence isn’t doing you any favours.

Inbox out of control?

Can’t see the important emails from the funny that your friend sent? If your inbox is clogged up and disorganised take some time to reign it in. For lots of helpful tips to sort your inbox, check out this post on how to declutter your inbox and maintain it forever.

Dust it off and Freshen up

Schedule some time to dust things off. Remove things which are no longer required or are dated. Blog sidebars can become cluttered with buttons, icons and ads, so take a minute to go through and remove any which are no longer relevant or needed.

Go through your online albums such as Flickr or your Facebook album. Perhaps your work has moved up a level and you want to update your images, removing those that are not in line with your new expertise or style. As you and your business develop and grow let your design and image grow with you.

Just be careful that you don’t get too gung ho deleting things. Perhaps you could create a ‘retired designs’ album or similar to show what you can do and act as a portfolio of ideas for customers.

Viv Smith is the owner behind gorgeous jewellery brand Poppy Sparkles. She also runs a successful blog featuring independent designers and sellers.