Gtmetric and Picking up the Pieces…

So, I finally wrote a few blog posts, made them public, and got all these ‘things’ that happen in this past year, out there and done with.

Honestly, the writing of these blog posts was bothering me.
I don’t know what it was. But it was like I was being nagged, nagged about this writing, and finally when it was done… I found myself with nothing else to say.
Makes sense, eh?

And then I’m told…”Why did you make this public? Since you wanted to write that bad, why not add it to your… I don’t know… Diary?”
Well, for one thing, I don’t keep a diary. Oh, I did as a teenager…but do you know how long ago that was??
Jokes aside…I wanted this public, because all of us, in one way or another, went through hell this last year…And in many ways, still do. So, if this helped in some way. My job is done.

So, Where Do We Go From Here?
What answer are you looking for? What steps were taken chronologically? Or how one learns, how to rear in the ‘roller coaster of emotions, that such changes bring in?

Well, let’s start with the practical.
Once the dust kind of settled, I finally took some time to work on my business website. And may I say, it was not a pretty sight…

As I explained earlier, in this past year, my idea of taking care of my website (which represents the outlook on my business) was updating the plugins…and that was it.

No blog post. No content updates. Freebies give away….Nothing. Nada.

Needless to say, that by the time I finally got around to doing something about this…It was in serious need of a good virtual dusting and all-around revising.
From design per se, to mobile views, and to back-end setups, I went through it all one step at a time and started ‘fixing’ things.

Blog Posts
I had a fair amount of blog posts, all covering different subjects written over the past 3 years or so. Now, where they good? I think they were… But that’s me. That’s my point of view.

Now, in all honesty, yes, I’d like to think ‘job well done’…but you know what? Nah, some of them, were not the best, and to be honest, simply did not represent who I was anymore.

So, I had to decide quality over quantity – which yes, can be very ‘biased’ in more ways than one…

But then, it’s my website and I’ll leave it at that and …
You got it. I went through each one of them and started the ‘removal’ process. Now, I can just hear you say… ‘Hey…you need those for SEO and the like. Why did you do this?’

Simple, because, at this point, SEO and ranking were not the goals.
Clearing the air of what did not apply anymore was more important. It’s not only the blog posts that were leaving…but something from the past.

Website Mobile view
The Mobile View… Geez, did I work on that one! Lol
That right there was one interesting project. Now, you would think that the job per se re: setting up the website mobile view, would be no more than what? 1 hour if not less.

Well, nooo…Not with this old girl lol.

The issue here is twofold. I’m visual. What does that mean? I’ll find that one pixel that was out of place and hunt it down. I’ll move the spacing between modules, two, three…no four times, until it’s perfect across all views. I’ll change the shading of a background only a few notches and then come back to the original …because…

Do you see what I mean?
So yes, twofold. Visual. And. Neurotically inclined when it comes to design.

Website Speed and Google
Now, once the jobs ‘below’ were done…. Re:

• Website mobile view perfectly adjusted for tablet & phone.
• Old and irrelevant blog posts removed – because.
• Webpage content updated.
• New pictures added…
• Website footer changed.
• Sign-up boxes removed (I had way too many).
• The Blog post page per se visually updated….
• Picture’s super crunched with the … plugin.
• Plugins: research done on the plugins already installed…and when necessary, changed to something less speed demanding.
• Connected to Cloudflare (the setup was interesting…)

I think that’s it…That said, I’m positive I’m forgetting something… Anyway, you get a general idea.
And the result was what? This below… Not bad eh for a bit of ‘cleaning’…

What this means, for me the geek, is that I was now firmly on my way to picking up the pieces and doing something about it…The base of my business had been taken care of…and to me, that was step number one.

In other words. The foundation of my business was sturdy and ready to get going again.

I know that for many, the picture above may mean little…I understand.
But to others out there that do rely on their online business and understand the geeky process behind it all…Attaining such results means that you’ve just done some serious organizing and cleanup.

So yes, my online business was now back ‘together’… in more ways than one…Simple in design and solid.

I could now look forward to some more serious changes…
Like, what do I want to do when I grow up?