The Doctor Will See You Now: Annual Website Checkup
We’ve talked about weekly and monthly website check-ins, but now it’s time to add an annual check to your to-do list.
Backup Your Site: Hopefully you are doing this monthly. If not, please start! Once a year, organize your backups into a folder and date them. Then create a fresh annual backup. If something happens, you will want these backups, I promise.
Check Your Renewals: Every year you are charged for your website (hosting and domain). Make sure your payment and billing information is current and that you are getting the most out of the type of site you are paying for. If you’re paying for a basic but want to add commerce options, do some research on which option will benefit you the most.
Speed Test: Check the speed of your site. Hopefully you will have great results. Check your site on a few different connections, Wi-Fi may be slower than 5G. If you have issues, check with troubleshooting to see how to increase the speed.
Update SEO: Check what SEOs you are using and update them accordingly. Have the broad ones, of course, but add a few niche terms that will direct searches directly to you. Do some research to see what terms could benefit you the most.
Review Metrics: Metrics are an often overlooked part of your website. This is something you should be doing monthly as well. Metrics inform you about what type of user and how they engage with your website. This can be helpful for your annual action plan.
User Testing: Ask a friend or colleague to test your website for you. Offer the same to them in exchange. Having another set of eyes go over your website can be extremely helpful and may reveal hidden issues.
Update About Me: A lot can change in a year! Make sure your bio and about me section has the correct information, correct list of books, current engagements, and a current headshot.
Things are constantly being updated (code-wise) on website hosting domains, so it is your job to make sure everything is running smoothly. A single line of code in an updated patch could potentially result in half of your website not working as effectively as it once did. Set a reminder around the same time you are doing other annual maintenance, author. You will thank me later.
