What you should be doing to your blog behind the scenes

If you’re looking to progress and grow your blog more then you should definitely be doing some blog maintenance, it could be something small every day which could take 10 minutes but could end up being super important to help keep your blog up to date. Here are a few things I do behind the scenes to look after my blog and make it the best it can be..

Check your links are still working

When I say links I mean every single link on your site wether that’s a social media one or one’s linked in a blog post. Don’t worry you can check all your broken links on broken link checker. Just enter your URL and it brings them all up, it is a very time consuming job but it’s got to be done.

A broken link is basically a link that no longer directs you to the desired page, If you’ve got a broken link on your site the reader will get a ‘404 not found error’ page come up which means they probably aren’t going to stay on your site for very long which may make your SEO suffer.

Check your traffic sources

It’s really important to know where your audience is coming from, that way you know where to promote the most. My biggest traffic source is Twitter and always has been since starting my blog but yours may be instagram, Facebook or Pinterest. Track your traffic sources weekly and see where your posts perform the best then promote, promote, promote.

Refresh your old posts

I started this a while ago but then I got distracted and never finished it but it’s definitely on my to-do list. We always promote our newer posts but sometimes your old but still popular posts may be getting more traffic than you thought. Why not update your photo’s?, your writing style may have changed so update the post to your standard now, change up the layout to a more modern look. Revamping older posts may take some work but it provides you to share that content with newer readers.

Delete old plugins

Unused and old plugins slow down you site if you didn’t know and they also represent a security risk. This isn’t a job I do as regularly as others, it’s more a monthly thing but it’s good to get my site running a little bit better and you can always update your regular plugins as well. WordPress one’s are constantly being updated to include new features. Oh but remember to backup your site regularly too so that you have a spare copy in case of any problems when updating.

Improve user friendliness

Put yourself in the reader’s shoes and make any changed you feel are necessary. I hardly ever click on my blog because most of the time I’m behind the blog, I sometimes forget what my blog actually looks like to everyone else. Check the text and font sizes, are they easy to read?, is your search bar easy to find?, are your images clear?, does your blog look professional?, does your contact page still work?, how easy is your blog to navigate?

I know you may not want to do some of these tasks because trust me I try and avoid mine some days but they are important and after a little blog spring clean you’ll find that your blog may run a little faster and you’ll be much happier knowing they are done for another few weeks/months.

Do you do blog maintenance?

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