The Ultimate Blog Maintenance Checklist.
I know what you’re thinking.
You read the headline, and you kinda assumed that you’re about to read another boring article about stuff that happens behind-the-scenes.
Look, if you consider yourself to be a blogger and want others to take you seriously, then focusing on the nitty-gritty is just as important coming up with a genius headline.
You surely don’t expect to become an authority in your niche just by banging out one post after another, do you? Seriously, it’s time to get real and take in some of the tough love that I am about to give you right now.
What exactly am I getting at?
I’m talking about the importance of having a blog maintenance checklist. Today, we’re going to talk about some blog maintenance routines that you should carry out daily, weekly, yearly, etc. to keep your blog flowing like a breeze.
How tough is this stuff?
Now…
Before you get all panicky and brand all of my advice as “information overload,” let me just go ahead and say that blog maintenance is really easy.
Yup! And if you happen to be someone who is using WordPress, then things should be even easier. WordPress is undoubtedly the world’s best content management platform right now and offers endless possibilities for customization and content creation.
As long as you keep your WordPress updated to the latest version, you can pretty much expect everything to go smoothly.
For you newbies, with stars in your eyes, who aspire to become an authority blogger but just don’t quite have the systems figured out, this blog maintenance checklist will be your beacon of success.
All you have to do is just implement the stuff I’m about to teach you. That’s it!
Blog maintenance checklist – breakdown
Okay, since you’ve read this far, I assume that you take this whole blogging stuff pretty seriously. Good for ya! I’ve got some actionable advice that will bring you results sooner than you expect.
For the purpose of this guide, I’m gonna be breaking down the blog maintenance checklist into daily, weekly, and monthly tasks. So go ahead and keep on reading.
Daily tasks 
If you heard the phrase “the devil is in the details,” you probably understand that it’s the little things that make the most impact. If you’ve just started a blog or it’s not quite popular just yet, doing these things every few days will make a heck of a lot of difference.
- Go to the comments section and either approve or put new comments in the trash
- Respond to all the right comments and engage with other bloggers to build mutually beneficial relationships
- Install Grammarly and be sure use for checking spellings and grammar before updating content. Perfect grammar not only helps retain visitors but also helps with SEO
- Check out the social media performance of your posts and network with others to share your content with a wider audience
It’s easy, right? You probably do these steps already.
Weekly tasks
Okay, if you felt the daily blog maintenance checklist was as easy as stealing candy from a baby, then the weekly list shouldn’t be much different.
(P.s. Don’t steal from kids lol)
Some of the blog maintenance tasks you should do every week are:
- Install the updates pending for your plugins and WordPress theme
- If you’ve got steady visitors coming in, make sure your contact form and email opt-in is functioning correctly
- Check for 404 error pages and remove any broken links, if they exist
- Delete all your post revisions using a plugin such as Better Delete Revisions as they may cause your WordPress site to perform slowly
- Depending on the popularity of your blog, you may need to keep an eye out on your web host to statistics regarding CPU throttling, bandwidth usage, server uptime, etc.
And that’s pretty much it! You can perform all of these optimization tasks with the help of plugins. No coding skills needed.
Monthly tasks
I believe that this blog maintenance checklist should be good enough to set you up for the long haul. Now that we’ve got the days and weeks covered, here are some of the things that you should tend to every month.
- Refresh images and header banner if your website has a visual banner as it would keep the site looking fresh to the repeat visitors
- Analyze the speed of your website through Google Pages Speed Insight for both the desktop and mobile phones, and find out how you can improve its speed
- Review the performance of your WordPress plugins and see if they are causing your site to perform poorly
- If you have changed or altered the purpose of your blog, then make the necessary corrections to the About Page
- Improve your Top 5 posts that get the most traffic with the latest information to keep it relevant
- Backup your blog at least once a month using Updraft Pro because you never know when something may go wrong. At least having a backup will let you restore your blog to a previous setting.
- Make it a point to optimize your database to keep your blog clutter free and performing at high speed. A free plugin like WP-Optimize will be your best friend.
See, what did I tell ya? Keeping your WordPress blog in top shape doesn’t have to be like rocket science. With the use of few simple plugins and some effort, you can make sure that everything is A-Okay!
The Importance Of Taking Action
You know what the real difference between a successful blogger and a not-so-successful blogger is? A successful blogger takes action consistently without hoping for instant gratification while the not-so-successful blogger wants things to be handed out to them.
Harsh, but true!
To cultivate the mindset that brings success, you must make a point to go over all of the tips I mentioned in this ultimate blog maintenance checklist guide without fail. Yes, there will be days when you feel like doing nothing.
It’s okay; everyone feels that way sometimes. Just take a break and get back to managing the nitty-gritty of your blog and see how it thrives. Take action, people! It’s what separates the winners from the losers.
Alright everyone, that’t it!
It’s your turn now. Do you have any questions? Post them in the comments section below!
