发表者：Michael Wyszomierski，搜索质量组
原文：Good housekeeping
发表于：2008年3月20日星期四，早上7:45
今天是北半球春季的第一天，正是您开始春季大扫除的绝佳时间。但是作为一名站长，您的家务活并没有在完成车库的打扫后就大功告成了——您或许还需要对您的服务器做一些清扫工作。
外部
在我们着手清理内部之前，先站在外面，从大街上看一下您的站点——或者在谷歌搜索结果里看起来怎么样。只要随手打开离您最近的谷歌搜索框，使用查询格式[site:example.com]对您的网站进行一次站点收录情况检索即可。就象您总是会让您的门牌号码和信箱名字保持清晰可见一样，看看您的访问者能否方便地从谷歌所列出的标题和摘要中识别您的站点及其内容。如果您希望改善网站的目前面貌，请尝试使用谷歌网站管理员工具的内容分析特性，并阅读相关资料，了解如何改善您的网站摘要。
[IMG]upload/site-search1.png[/IMG]
谈到让您的地址清晰可见，就要问问您的网站是怎样被列在搜索结果中的。比如我叫Michael，但是也有人叫我Mike甚至Wysz。但是，我只希望自己在电话簿上被列出一次。相似地，您的站点可能有些页面可以从多个不同的URL进入，例如：www.example.com和example.com。为了整合您网站在谷歌中的搜索结果，可以使用301重定向，告诉谷歌（和其他搜索引擎）您希望自己的页面怎样被收录和排列。您还能够借助网站管理员工具方便地告诉谷歌您所喜欢的域名。就象我希望银行知道，Mike和Michael名下的存款都应该归入同一账户下一样，那些重定向能够帮助谷歌恰当地整合指向特定目标网页的链接属性（比如PageRank）。
内部
无论您的房子再怎样整洁，如果您的访问者找不到大门或无从进入，您所做的一切都可能白费了。您需要通过多种浏览器来查看您的站点外貌和功能，并确保所有的访问者都能享受到您费尽苦心所设计的体验。并非所有的人都在使用Internet Explorer，所以我们建议您使用代表不同页面风格的浏览器进行查看。Firefox、Safari和Opera浏览网页的方式各不相同，而这三种浏览器可能决定着至少20%访问者的的网站浏览体验。对于有些站点，这个比重还可能更高——《纽约时报》最近报道说，他们的在线读者中有大约38%的人使用Firefox或者Safari。
如果您的站点要求用户使用插件，请检查一下这些额外内容在不同的操作系统上是否能够正常运行。要知道，许多人只有在购买新机器的时候才升级他们的操作系统，所以您需要退后一到两个版本，看看您的站点在旧版本的操作系统上表现得怎么样。为了确保您不会把那些浏览功能受限的访问者拒之门外，最好尝试不用图片、Flash或者Javascript等方式来浏览一下您自己的站点。如果您想了解谷歌在爬行您站点时可能会碰到那些困难，请查阅网站管理员工具，看看里面是否有任何关于您站点的爬行错误的报告。
清除垃圾
不幸的是，我们中有很多人都接待过不速之客。如果他们走的时候留下了乱七八糟的东西，那就请帮帮那些未来的访问者，把这些垃圾清除出去。把留言簿中充斥着垃圾信息的页面删除。清除那些由各种广告商在您论坛里发布的毫不相干的垃圾帖。在丢掉垃圾的同时，注意有没有任何空白或者被废弃的页面。我们的地下室里总是有一些永远都没有顾得上收拾的东西。如果您的站点仍然有显示1997年前后"网站正在建设中"的图片的URL，或者还有类似于"Products > Shirts > Graphic T's: There are no graphic t's at this time"的模板，它们除了落满灰尘之外毫无用处，而且我敢打赌您今后再也不会回过头去把那些东西做完了。在您清除了垃圾，并修正了链接指向之后，请使用404 HTTP状态代码，从而确保访问者都知道这些网页已经不复存在了。您可以使用FireFox浏览器上的Live HTTP Headers插件来查看您的服务器返回了什么代码。
安全性和预防性维护
为了防止未来访问者对您的网站造成侵害，特别是防范那些可能在深更半夜潜入您家后门的不速之客，请按照我们的核对表逐项检查您是否已经具备了基本的安全措施。
如果您站点的维护工作（例如升级软件包等）会让访问者暂时无法查看网站内容，请使用503 HTTP 状态代码告诉您的访问者，请他们谅解。它也会通知谷歌稍后再来拜访，而不会将您的错误页也当成网站内容的一部分。如果您使用的是WordPress，就能够借助维护模式插件，在设定状态编码的同时方便地设定您要传达的讯息。
谈到入侵者和软件升级，您永远也不能预见什么时候会出错。在发生问题之前，现在就马上开始重新评估您的备份策略吧。就象您购买的家庭保险一样，花上一份努力和金钱，就能换回心里的平安，何况说不定到时候可能真的会排上用场呢！良好的备份系统可以将您的备份文件存放在工作站点以外的地方，而且会自动执行，不用担心自己会忘记。 在您更新软件或者进行大的改动之前，备份您的站点（包括其中的数据库）是一种非常明智的做法。
Today's the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, so now is a perfect time to start your spring cleaning. But as a webmaster, your chores don't end after you've cleaned the garage -- you'll probably also want to do some cleaning on your server as well.
Exterior
Before we get to the interior, step outside, and see how your site looks from the street -- or in Google search results. Just head on over to your nearest Google search box, and do a site search on your site using the query format [site:example.com]. Just like you keep your street number visible on your house, and maybe even your name on the mailbox, check to see that your visitors can easily identify your site and its contents from the title and snippet listed in Google. If you'd like to improve your current appearance, try out the content analysis feature in Webmaster Tools, and read up on how to influence your snippets.
[IMG]upload/site-search1.png[/IMG]
Speaking of making your address visible, how are you listed? My name is Michael, but I'll also answer to Mike or even Wysz. However, I only expect to be listed once in the phone book. Similarly, your site may have pages that can be accessed from multiple URLs: for instance, www.example.com and example.com. To consolidate your site's listings in Google, use 301 redirects to tell Google (and other search engines) how you'd prefer your pages to be listed. You can also easily let Google know about your preferred domain via Webmaster Tools. And just like I'd want my bank to understand that deposits to Mike and Michael should route to the same account, those redirects can help Google appropriately consolidate link properties (like PageRank) to the destination page.
Interior
No matter how clean your home is, all that work may go unnoticed if your visitors can't get in the door or find their way around. Review your site's appearance and functionality on multiple browsers to make sure that all of your visitors get the experience you've worked so hard to design. Not everyone uses Internet Explorer, so it's a good idea to test using browsers representing different layout engines. Firefox, Safari, and Opera all see things differently, and these three browsers likely control how at least 20% of your users are experiencing the web. For some sites it can be dramatically higher -- The New York Times recently reported that around 38% of their online readers used either Firefox or Safari.
If your site requires the use of plug-ins, check to see how this additional content behaves across different operating systems. Keep in mind that many people only update their operating system with the purchase of a new computer, so go back a version or two and see how your site works on yesterday's OS. And to make sure you're not completely shutting out visitors with limited capabilities, try to navigate your site without using images, Flash or JavaScript. If you want to see where Google may be having trouble getting in, check Webmaster Tools to see if there have been any crawl errors reported for your site.
Taking out the trash
Unfortunately, many of us have hosted unwelcome guests. If they left a mess behind, do your future visitors a favor and get rid of the garbage. Tear out spammed guestbook pages. Pull out those weeds in your forum that were planted by an off-topic advertiser. And while you're throwing stuff away, look out for any blank or abandoned pages. We've all had projects in the basement that never got finished. If your site still shows URLs with one of those circa-1997 "under construction" graphics or templates showing "Products > Shirts > Graphic T's: There are no graphic t's at this time" and they're just gathering dust, it's probably safe to say you'll never get around to finishing it. After you've collected the junk and corrected any broken links on your site, make sure you let everyone know it's really gone by using the 404 HTTP status code. You can check to see which code your server is returning by using the Live HTTP Headers extension for Firefox.
Security and preventive maintenance
To prevent problems with future visitors, especially those who may try to come in your back door at night, go through our checklist to verify you've covered security basics.
If your site's maintenance tasks, such as upgrading software packages, make your content temporarily unavailable, let your visitors know to "pardon the dust" by using the 503 HTTP status code. This will let Google know to check back later, and not index your error page as part of your site's content. If you're using WordPress, you can easily set up your message along with the status code using the Maintenance Mode plug-in.
And speaking of intruders and software updates, you just never know when something will go wrong. Before something does happen, now is a great time to evaluate your backup strategy. Like insurance for your home, the effort and expense put into it is well worth the peace of mind alone, not to mention if you ever actually need it. A good backup system archives your backups in a different location than the working site, and happens automatically to avoid the problems of forgetfulness. It's a great idea to make a backup of your site (including databases) right before running any software updates or making a major change.
写得很专业.要花点时间....