Do you really need archives?
This one seems a no brainer to me. Do you really need archives on your site? Does anybody ever look at them? I peeked into link usage in my Google analytics for this site and a couple of others that I’m running…and without exception the Archives link is either NEVER used, or rarely.
In fact, I think it can hurt you when you’re just starting out. People want to know that you’ve been around for a while…and so checking your archives is a good way to see how long you’ve been around.
It’s kind of like when you go to a site that you’re not familiar with and you check out who their customers are to feel more comfy doing business with them.
If you’re going to get a custom theme for your blog, I would look into one that can hide the archive section. If you can’t, then I would do this – start posting your stuff back one month at a time for each post. This will make you “look” like you’ve been around a little longer than you actually have been.
This won’t affect any indexing on your pages because the search engines will still pick it up as new content when you post it, but your audience will see things differently.
Just be sure that if you’re writing about something time sensitive, that you don’t wipe out and re-write history.
That would be kind of embarrasing, no?
Anyway, I think that archives on blogs aren’t necessary. I think they’re a dead appendage from days gone by when people online seemed to think that organization of data for organization’s sake was cool.
Let’s cut that appendage off and do away with archives in place of more relevant stuff like Tags.
Now THOSE are cool.
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I completely agree with you Brooks. It drives me crazy to find sites where the only navigation is the most recent ten posts and a an archive by month. It’s hard to imagine a less friendly way to invite people to view your content. It’s a sure way to get visitors off your site.