Did your Webmaster grow up in a barn?

We have all heard the old cliché “Did you grow up in a barn?”, but how often do we apply it to our websites?

When you pay someone to develop your site, they should keep your directory structure clean. How can you expect to ever get top rankings when there are 30 versions of a page hidden on your website?

Another factor to bear in mind is that the more junk you have in your site, the harder it is to maintain. If you want to be forced to pay your webmaster to edit your site, then let them leave stuff everywhere. If you want to be able to choose what you do or don’t do, make them keep things neat. After all, you are the one writing the checks!

Here are some simple tips to keep your site clean, be certain to make sure your webmaster is following them.

• When changing a page, don’t leave the old page in your root directory with a name like changedpage2.html (also applies to Duplicate pages and posts in WordPress that can be moved to pending review, trash or draft) – instead, move it to an archive folder, or download it and burn it on a cd or flash drive.  
• Store files in the appropriate folder or location – Image files belong in your images folder or media library, not your root directory.  
• If you have more than 1 website, don’t duplicate your files in each site. instead, choose one site for certain files and always store them there. A great example would be media files; why would you need them on every website when your autoresponders only point to one site?  
• If you are not using something anymore, move it to an archive folder, or burn it to cd or flash drive, the more stuff you have in your root folder, the harder it is to manage.