Time to tune up your website
WordPress.org Codex (the WordPress.org online manual) recommends regular site maintenance and has come up with a monthly schedule of tasks you should perform to keep your site running smoothly. They have created a monthly Site Maintenance Calendar to help you keep on track.
Here is my version of the calendar. It is basically the WordPress.org calendar with a few of my own tasks added that I have found to be important while maintaining and organizing my sites.
May Website Maintenance
1.) Check for Dead Links.
A dead link is a link in a website that goes nowhere. A dead link occurs when a link is broken or removed, i.e. the webpage that is linked to is deleted. It also occurs if there is a misspelling in the url address or the link goes to a non-existent page.
The result is a “Page no found” message. This is called a 404 error. A high 404 error rate can hurt your SEO results.
An excellent plugin that monitors your site for dead links is Broken Link Checker. This plugin is very useful for site with a lot of links — both external and internal.
2.) Add new content to your site.
Write a new post, talk about a new product or service, upload and use a new image. Remember, search engines love fresh, relevant content.
3.) Backup your site and database.
This should be done regularly. If you update your site daily, you should think about weekly database backups, and bi-weekly full site backups.
I use two backup plugins. One is BackWPUp. This is a free and very good plugin.
The other plugin I use is Backup Buddy, a premium (not free) plugin with great features and support.
4.) See what is new in the WordPress community.
Go to your Dashboard link and click on Home. There you will find a section called “WordPress News.” Read what is new and what WordPress bloggers are writing about.
Finished? Now go Press On!
If you would prefer to have someone else maintain your site and keep it up to date and secure, we have a Website Care Plan for you. Read about the different plan options here.
