Website maintenance can be quite simple or quite cumbersome, depending on where you are along the chain, and on how complex or voluminous the site is. Whether you’re a commercial webmaster, or if you’re the admin behind your own personal blog, there are a few basic maintenance tasks you need to undertake. This includes logging in at least once a day to respond to comments and review contact forms. Ideally, you should update your blog once a week, revamping the site, and repairing any broken links you may have missed the previous week.
Monthly or quarterly website maintenance
These are the website maintenance tasks that aren’t necessary on a day-to-day basis but still need regular attention.
- Browsers are updated pretty frequently, so check that your site is still rendering well on all the usual suspects (yes, even Internet Explorer). Download new browsers from sites like Browse Happy and test your site against them as well.
- Check if all your forms and automated messages are working – browser updates can affect them too.
- Keep a specific eye on your website statistics like Google Analytics, SEO stats, page rankings, and searchability. If you need to, adjust your title tags, metadata, and general optimisation settings.
Annual site maintenance
For annual website maintenance, it’s a good idea to check both the front and back ends of your website. Start with practical matters. Ensure your domain is renewed, and that the dates on your website are updated, especially the year and copyright. Do a page by page design review of your layout. Is the font size and type consistent throughout? Are the photos rendering correctly? This is important because host theme updates sometimes interfere with your web layout, and you might not spot it in your dashboard. You can once again check your analytics for your most popular posts and refresh them if needed, keeping its information up-to-date and repairing dead links. You should also review time references in the content (e.g. phrases like ‘this year’). It’s recommended to revisit your overall content strategy every year. For more advice on how to maintain your site, contact Studio Licious Group today.