Your blog is like your home or your car and needs to be maintained in order to run smoothly. This maintenance isn’t difficult and can make a huge difference to your blog in terms of blog loading speed, appearance and whether the users of your blog find visiting a pleasurable experience. If your blog is slow to fully load, then you could lose traffic.
I recently spoke to a few blogging friends, who despite being very successful bloggers, weren’t maintaining their blog as effectively as they should be. With this in mind I thought I would share some blog maintenance tips, which will help keep your blog on the road.
- Resize your images – Before you upload your pictures to each post resize them! Find out the width of your page (the part for posts) and reduce the images to exactly this size. We all know you can drag images to resize after you have dropped the image into your post, but if you do this you are still saving a large image, which is then taking up 3-4 times the space it needs to on your blog.
- Delete all images that are not in use – You may have uploaded an image, then realised it was the wrong image and had to upload a new one. If so delete the one you uploaded in error. Again if it is left there on your blog (even behind the scenes) it will be taking up space.
- Delete spam – All those spam comments take up valuable space, so as often as you can make sure you empty your spam folder. I do this daily, as I can’t bear things sitting in there.
- Get rid of any broken links – I find the best way to do this is with the WordPress plugin ‘Broken Link Checker’, which simply scans your posts, finds all the links which are no longer working correctly and allows you to remove or unlink them. Broken links signal to search engines that a blog isn’t being maintained and so they will be less inclined to show your blog to people.
- Delete all your blog post revisions – Every time you hit save draft, WordPress saves a copy of the post. So you can have hundreds, if not thousands of drafts sitting on your blog. Even when you hit publish, you will still have numerous revisions still there. I use the Better Delete Revisions plugin to remove all these drafts and free up space.
- Delete old themes (WP users) – Themes are another thing that just take up your valuable space. So delete any you aren’t using.
- Delete Plugins – The same goes for plugins, if you have deactivated a plugin, make sure you also delete the file. Otherwise it will sit their dormant cluttering up your blogs memory.
- Update Plugins – Make sure all your plugins are the most current version, so everything works as effectively as it can.
- Test your Navigation – Just have a little click around your blog and make sure everything leads where it should. I often go on blogs to find their twitter icon doesn’t link to twitter, so make sure yours all work.
- Make sure your contact form/subscribe email works – try out your form/link to make sure you are not losing subscribers.
- Update your ‘About Me’ page – O.k, so this doesn’t speed up your blog, but it is important maintenance. If someone lands on your blog, but this page seems outdated, they might think you don’t put a lot of effort into your blog. Make sure it is current and reflects you now.
- Update your Profile picture – Make sure it is reasonably current.
- Clean up your side bar – Sidebars can end up being added to ad infinitum and can end up looking cluttered, making your blog bulky. So every month or two have a quick look down and make sure everything is still current and required. If there is anything that you can get rid of, do it!
- Back up your blog – What would you do if something awful happened and you lost your blog? All that work, gone. Well after I had a little cry, I would reinstall my posts from my daily back up. Do you back up your blog? If not try using Updraft plugin, which does this automatically and emails you the files,
These tasks are a great way to make sure you are maintaining your blog properly. It only takes a few minutes each day to keep your blog in tip-top condition.
Do you do anything to maintain your blog?
Comments 97
Hmmm I can’t think who it might have been that had a million spam comments and blog revisions on their blog hehehehehe. Wonderful tips, thank God you’re available on tap when I’m having a major blog crisis!! Just brilliant lovely xxx
Author
You know I can’t remember….. 😉 Bless you xxx
Awesome, thanks for the advice
This post is really useful! Thank you so much. Does anyone know where I can find my blog width?
Thanks again!
Stacie 🙂
Great post and such great tips! I’m off to delete all my old revisions! xx
Really need to back my blog up so thanks for the reminder, off to do it now 😉 xx
Great post, what fab tips, off to back up my blog! I really don’t do it as often as I should!
Now don’t freak out but I don’t resize my pics……..
Author
You are dead to me!
These are invaluable tips. After almost 3 years blogging I slowly learnt them myself along the way but wish I’d read a post like this a couple of years ago!!
Yaz x
Ah such good tips, I need to do it especially resizing my images as my google is always telling me its full but I feel like I never have time! x
That’s a brilliant post! Very many helpful tips. I actually did a blog back-up for the first time this evening. Thanks Aby.
Oh heck! I’m going to have to research plug ins! I resize my pictures since Sarah posted about it but I don’t think I have a plug in to my name- I don’t suppose a Glade one counts- I didn’t think so! Thanks Aby fab as always xx
Author
Ha ha! No those don’t count. What do you mean you haven’t got the editorial calendar plugin…… xx
No not a one, I have looked, do I need to be self hosted to have them? X
Author
Oh yes you do honey xx
Great tips! I have a hard time with the image tip. I tend to take many with my phone and upload them directly with the WP app so they remain huge in size.
Author
Why not use a resizer app on your phone ? x
Totally didn’t think of that as an option. Any you recommend?
Author
I don’t use one hun, but there are load, I would just look in Play Store x
Great tips as always, thanks for sharing 🙂
Great tips thank you!! I’m still working through deleting over 9,000 spam comments because I wasn’t maintaining it properly in the beginning. I’m going to take a look at these other suggestions too x
Author
Oh my! Imagine all the space they took up! x
This scared the pants off me! Need to sort my blog out ASAP! I am so grateful for your brilliant, practical tips, as always Aby xx
Author
Ha ha! Off you go and back up your blog 🙂 xx
Great tips – especially about the broken links. I need to try that. Thanks #sharewithme
Thanks for sharing this. Great advice as always! #sharewithme
Debbie
http://www.myrandommusings.blogspot.com
These are fab tips and whilst I already try to do most of these, it’s been a good reminder that I really must do another round of checking links and deleting draft posts. Picmonkey will resize images for you – you can change the image size when you save it. It is amazing how much of a difference it can make. Thank you for sharing your tips 🙂
Author
Yes I always resize images in PicMonkey 🙂 Love it x
Fab tips as always.
How the hell do you delete themes? Can someone tell me in English please!!!
Author
This might help x
Ooh I learnt something new today. I’ve installed broken link checker 🙂
Excellent post! I had never thought about deleting post revisions before!
There was a time when I cant get in my blog and I cried buckets as I have been blogging in this platform since 2003. So I backed up. And I am always cleaning my photobucket =)
This is a nice read! So helpful. #sharewithme
I am terrible at this sort of thing! I do have a good clear out of my spam comments every so often and I clear out my old revisions too but everything else like old themes etc. I just leave. I have a million broken links from when I moved across from Blogger and I have never sorted them out. This why I will never be a pro-blogger!
Author
That plugin will sort your links out in a couple of clicks x
Aby – you are such a blogging force to be reckoned with ! What an incredible list, I’ve been blogging for over 3 years and had no idea about half of this stuff. Such amazing advice, tomorrow I’m going to find 20mins and add all these plugins and get busy with the ol’ delete button! Thank you so much. GREAT POST! X
Author
Oh honey I am not sure about that, but thank you so much for your lovely comment. Mwahhh xxx
What an incredibly useful post Abby, I’d not thought of most of these and probably only do two – oops! Thanks for the prompt and I’ll definitely going through mine 🙂
Author
Glad it has helped lovely x
Such a fab informative post, thanks so much for sharing 🙂
#Sharewithme
xx
Great advice – thank you. I did not know about the revisions being saved – so am on that now!
This is brilliant, I will be coming back to this at a time where I can go through it thoroughly. I did delete things from my sidebar earlier today – yay me! but that’s about it. Oops x thanks for sharing #sharewithme
Great tips, a lot of which I could do with working on and improving myself. Thanks for the advice #BrilliantBlogPosts
lovely post, lots of hints and tips. I always feel there is room to improve all the time! #BrilliantBlogPosts
It’s so ironic and wonderful that you published this post. I just published a post about realizing that I need to do these things you have listed!! I’m in the process of changing off images, deleting them, I deleted old drafts and spam comments, basically following your recommendations. It’s so important and I didn’t have any idea! I’m going to try your broken link plugin now, I hadn’t heard of that one! Thanks so much for this post, it’s a great help! #brilliantblogposts
Great post! I’m off to do some maintenance! (and you’ve actually made it seem quite an enjoyable thing!) #brillblogposts
Fab tips although there is a huge error with the broken links plug in, I know tonnes of bloggers affected by it, it’s corrupted files, created so many issues for me so it’s gone, just as a warning for you to check it out. Been a nightmare this end as I had to remove each one to find which was the problem then heard from others they had the same issues. It doesn’t really affect SEO in any way, it just keeps your links live/tidy. I go through mine all monthly anyway to update esp all the paid ones so keep on top of it. Fab tips x
Another great blog club post. I found this so useful and being such a new blogger I wasn’t aware of many of your points. Wow, you think you’re just going to write when you start a blog and as you go on you realise how many other elements are just as important! #brilliantblogposts x
Love your blog club posts but every time you write one I end up with a long to do list! #BrilliantBlogPosts
Really helpful you’ve prompted me to change my about me page thanks for the reminder!
I’m fairly new to this so thank you for the helpful tips..looks like I have some maintenance to take care of on my site!
Hi – thanks for your post – I must admit that it takes so much to maintain a blog that some of these things are well overdue. I am currently updating lots of my older pictures and just going through all the old ones is a mammoth task! – This is my new TO DO list!
#brillblogposts
Brilliant tips, as always!! #brilliantblogposts
Hi! I found you via #brilliantblogposts. This is such a useful post- thank you. I’m on blogger but will definitely use your tips to clean up my act! Love Liz x
Great list. Yet again, I’m doing some, but not all. I’ll check out the plugins. Holds hand up. Guilty of broken links and undeleted draft posts. Making notes as I go thorugh your tips. Thanks for sharing. #BrilliantBlogs
great post, i’m new to blogging – so good to get as many tips as possible!
Great tips as always, cleaned up a few bits, thanks.
great advice, i’m a new blogger so this will come in handy x thanks x
Great tips! Thank you for sharing such useful advise. Now I’m off tidy up. xxx
Thank you so much – you have helped me out so much since I started my blogging journey and you’ve done it yet again. I just checked my spam folder, I’ve been marking comments a spam for the last 3 months……..I didn’t realise I had to delete them too!! I’ve also cleaned up a few drafts and tomorrow I’m deleting plugins! Thanks again 🙂 #brilliantblogposts
Useful advice. I can’t bear spam comments so they go immediately. Unfortunately the only way to stop them in Blogger is to have captcha enabled. Can’t see any other way round it. #brilliantblogposts
Some brilliant tips. Thank you. Now on my to do list. x
Being a newbie blogger, these are some priceless tips! Thankyou!! #thelist
Great check list Aby – so easy to get into bad habits and forget these x
Right, time to get started end on my blog maintainence!
Fab post Aby, thanks for hosting #thelist x
This is great, I’m off to review my blog! I defiantly need to sort out the images and space thank you for the great tips 🙂 #TheList
I’m off to look for the Better Delete Revisions plugin – had no idea I could clean them out! Really fab list and great reminder of the things we need to do regularly. As I use a lot of pix in my posts I’ve also been using the WP Smush plugin – and slowly going back and smushing them all – so that it speeds up my blog even if they have been resized.
Such a useful list! I need to figure out how to back up my blog (I don’t use wordpress), I’d be gutted if it all just vanished! #TheList
Backing up your blog is great advice – and something I’d not thought of until I went to Blogfest last year – now it’s one thing I always do. Lots of other great advice here too, thanks Aby x #TheList
If your blog is like your house and car then I’m buggered haha! But you’re right, I need to do all the things on this list (and hoover the car out!).
Thanks for great advice
#thelist
X
Clearly I have a lot of work to do! Thanks this is very helpful and I know what I’ll be doing for the next hour as my little girl sleeps! X
Thank you for these tips. Luckily I already do the image bits (pat on the back!) but I didn’t know about WordPress keeping drafts! Will have to look into that. #TheList
Sabrina x
Fabulous tips! Guilty of many of those. Thanks so much for the back up plug in info, I will have to install asap as had a scary hacking issue recently and was v worried I might lose my work…I didn’t, thank goodness!
Some really helpful tips here. I really need to sort out my sidebar and back up my blog.
Some great tip that I can even use over on blogger (although i ma have to google how to do it over there!!)
#Thelist
Great and useful information! Thanks for sharing this! Popping over from #billiantblogposts
Great tips. Thankfully I do them all.
I can’t remember which revisions deletion plugin I use, but mine just keeps the most recent one. The rest get deleted. Gives me peace of mind without lots being saved.
Some great tips there 🙂
I have my UpDraft backup go straight to my GoogleDrive so I know that it’s always accessible, no matter where I am if things go wrong (because things *always* seem to go wrong at the most inconvenient times!). I know it can also be sent direct to Dropbox too if that’s you’re preference.
Not sure if you count this as maintenance or not too, but I also go back to old posts on occasion to see if I can add backlinks to more recent posts as well. My blog is only 3 months old but I already do this every 2-3 weeks so that I can stay on top of it all as I do it manually.
This is such a handy post! Just discovered my blog requires a lot of this work. Bookmarking this for future reference, I’m definitely going to need it! Thank you 🙂 x
Great post, my CMS is custom so not as easy to do some of these things but I still need to do them so thanks for nudging me! #sundaystars
Such useful tips here. Never would have thought of revised posts or spam taking up valuable space. Thanks for sharing
Some great tips here, thanks! X
I took your advice and did some blog housekeeping. Deleted themes!!! Couldn’t believe how many I had. Pretty good at most of the others and installed the top plugins based on your last post. You are my blogging Guru. Friend first of course! Love you.xxxx
Author
Thanks lovely, glad it helps xxxx
I actually have a reasonably strict schedule in my blogging diary which ensures that I’m pretty much on top of scheduling posts, commenting, linking up etc. But backing my blog up has been my downfall… until now. Thanks for giving me the nudge Aby 🙂 #brilliantblogposts
Love your blog club and as always I have wrote down a few notes. I still have so much to learn and so much to do on my blog. It will never end. lol Thanks for the advice keep it coming. Thank you so much for linking up to Share With Me. I hope to see you again tomorrow for another great round #sharewithme
Author
I am glad you like it x
Thanks so much for this! 🙂 Really helpful!
I think what I need to work on is my side bar, I really feel like I have too much, but I can’t really get rid of it because I feel it’s important in one way or another. Do you have any tips on a better way to put things on my sidebar (Feel free to have a look). Is there a way I can put it in a slider or something so it doesn’t take up so much space downwards?
Author
I use Cyclone slider plugin, that rotates images (and links) so that could help you. x
Nice!! Checking it out now. 😀 Thanks so much for the help! x
Fixed up a lot now! Thanks so much for the tip! 😀
Such a helpful blog post. I have got so behind with blog maintaince. It is on my to do list for the next month xx
Fab post but these plugin things scare me (no idea who to use them!) I’d love a step by step guide to backing up my blog posts. I’d cry for days if anything happened to them!! #sharewithme
Author
Plugins aren’t scary! Just click add and then it does it all for you. So easy, honestly you shouldn’t worry about them, x
You are a blogging geek indeed! I’ve used few of the points and made changes to my blog as I read 🙂
Thanks for sharing the great advice xx
Love this list and have just worked through it this evening. I did about half of these already, but its a great reminder to regularly do them and to discover the other maintainence tips too. Thanks! Emily