Quick And Simple WordPress Blog Maintenance Checklist

Here's a quick checklist to help you maintain your WordPress blog. Blog maintenance is a critical process in building a great blog. Feel free to print this or bookmark it for the future.

One of the most time-consuming activities as a blogger is 'maintaining your blog.'

I'm not referring to creating content or doing marketing and promotional work for your blog; I'm referring to all the other essential blog management activities involved in keeping your blog in tip-top shape.

If your blog runs on WordPress, managing it is fairly straightforward and doesn't require a huge amount of technical know-how.

WordPress is already a pretty solid platform to work with, and it comes with regular updates too.

That said, relying on those updates alone will not do. Below I've put together a checklist of things you need to do to manage and maintain your WordPress blog properly and regularly.

I've broken this checklist into three sections, daily, weekly and monthly tasks.

If you would like to get your hands on a printable version of this checklist, check out my Ultimate Pro Blog Planner workbook!

WordPress Blog Maintenance Checklist: Daily Tasks

Right then, let's start with the little things you can do each day to maintain your blog.

Some of the things listed below you obviously will not need to do. For instance, if your blog doesn't receive many comments, you won't need to commit as much time responding to them.

1. Moderate any new comments.
2. Respond to legitimate comments.
3. Permanently delete all other valueless and spam comments.
4. Backup your blog.

Probably the most critical item on the list above is backing up your WordPress blog. If your hosting provider doesn't provide a decent back-up solution, then you should consider outsourcing the service. I use and recommend BlogVault (Affiliate Link).

Recommended post: Why Your WordPress Website Got Hacked!

WordPress Blog Maintenance Checklist: Weekly Tasks

OK, next, let's take a look at some of the things you can do every week to manage your WordPress blog maintenance.

1. Check to make sure your plugins and theme are up to date.
2. Ensure your email opt-in forms and contact forms are still working correctly.
3. Check web host performance stats (bandwidth usage, CPU throttling, server uptime, etc.). Again if your blog isn't that popular yet, perhaps do this once per month to start with.
4. Scan your blog for Malware and for any other security or performance issues.

WordPress Blog Maintenance Checklist: Monthly Tasks

OK, so here is a list of things you can do every month to make sure your blog runs smoothly.

1. Delete all post revisions. You might find this plugin useful to help you do the job.
2. Check page load times. Click here to learn more about the Google Lighthouse site speed tool.
3. Check to make sure your About Page is still up to date.
4. Check for any broken links or 404-error pages.
5. Refresh your blog posts and pages with new and updated content.
6. Optimize your database. There are several plugins that you can use to optimize the WordPress database. Check out WP-Optimize.
7. Check inbound links and SEO score. If you need to clean up your backlinks profile, check out this tutorial.
8. Check Google Webmaster Tools to make sure you haven't missed any important notifications about your blog.

That's it. That's all there is to it. As you can see, maintaining your blog doesn't have to be time-consuming. It also doesn't have to be a complicated issue.

Set a reminder

One last tip I want to share with you: Set a reminder on your smartphone or online calendar for each day, week, and month for doing your blog maintenance.

I tend to do my daily maintenance tasks in the morning. Weekly tasks I do on a Friday afternoon, and monthly tasks at the beginning of each month.

Right then, that's all the tips I have for you - Keep this list handy or bookmark it for future reference.