Your Website Needs a Tune Up this Month

To keep your vehicle running and safe and avoid major bills due to mechanical failure, you have it maintained regulary.

The same it true for your website. It needs to be tuned-up regularly to keep it secure, prevent it from crashing, and avoid costly repair if you need to spend extra time fixing it or hiring an expert to get it back up to speed.

WordPress.org Codex (their online manual) recommends regular site maintenance and has come up with a monthly schedule of tasks you can perform to keep your site oiled and 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.

So roll up your shirt sleeves and prepare to get dirty!

January Website Maintenance

1. Update your WordPress version – WordPress is always moving forward with new features and security enhancements.
2. Back up your site and your database – BackWPup is a free plugin I use. You should have an off-site storage location like Dropbox for your backups. I also use a premium (paid) plugin called  BackupBuddy.
3. Update your plugins – check your Dashboard to see if there are any updates by the plugin author.
4. Clear out your security logs. Your Security plugin (and you absolutely should have a security plugin!) may have logs with a lot of old data that you no longer need. So check out your plugin to see if the logs exist, then clear them out.
5. Export your XML file. The XML file contains your posts, pages, comments, categories, and users. Once downloaded to your computer, you can use import it into another WordPress site. You may never use it but it is a very handy file to have. To export your XML files, go to Admin/Tools/Export. Click on All content under Choose what to export, then click on the Download Export File.
6. Add new content. Search engines like nothing better than fresh, relevant content, so start writing!

You’re all done! Now go and 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.