Byte By Byte: Monthly Website Updates
So much to do, author, so much to do. Every month you should take a little bit deeper look at your website. You should review your website monthly.
File Backup: At the very minimum, backup your website once a month. Set a reminder for the first of the month if that’s easier for you. Organize your backups into folders and back those up on a hard drive, in the cloud, or on your computer. Redundancy is key. Hopefully, you will never need them.
Check Links and Errors: The monthly check of your website links needs to be in-depth. You want to click every single link on your website to make sure there are no ERROR 404s popping up. Depending on how many pages and links you have, this shouldn’t take more than an hour. Fix any links that have issues and make a note to check them again in a few weeks. If there’s a recurring issue, you may need to submit a help ticket or create a replacement page.
Remove Unused Additions: If you utilize plugins on your website, check them every month to be sure the ones you are using are actually helping. If you have too many, it can slow your site down and cause frustration for users. Deactivate and delete any additions that aren’t benefiting your website. This also includes your lowest performing page. If you have a page that gets almost no visitors, consider combining it with another.
Check Marketplace: If you sell directly on your website, this one is crucial to check once a month. Check your prices and increase as needed. Make sure there are no errors or long load times on the check-out page.
Analyze Analytics: This is a big one. Analytics are so important. They tell you, author, who is visiting your website and how they are navigating it. Use this to your advantage to figure out what content is doing well, what isn’t, and what improvements you can make. This will vary depending on what you want to get out of your website.
It seems like there’s a never-ending to-do list for you, author! And that’s probably because there is. It is exhausting at times, but setting aside time to go over these very important aspects of your website will benefit you in the long run, I promise.
