9 blogging detox tasks for the first week of the year

It’s the new year and it’s time for a blog detox. Here are 9 things that you should do to update, clean up to maintain and protect your blogs.

1. Update copyright on your blogs

Does your blog still say “copyright 2014”? This is one that is often forgotten and ignored. If your blog does not have have an automatic or dynamic year inserted in the footer, you will need to get into the code and edit it.

2. Audit your social media accounts and set goals for 2015

If you are like me and you just let your social media account run without much thought on promotions, this year might be the year that you take a more proactive approach. Assess where you are and set up a goal for numbers to achieve this year. For Ladies In Blogging, I will be setting up some new goals and will probably do a few follow along posts. If you would be interested in this, let me know in the comments below.

3. Edit your editorial calendar

Plan your blog content by using an editorial calendar. If you are on WordPress, you can use this free plugin. If not, just use Google Calendar or something similar. Mark down all the major events of the year, seasonal events and anything else that is relevant to your audience. Prepare content to suit the seasons or to promote for an event.

4. Change your passwords

With so many bot attacks on blogs it is imperative that you keep your sites secure. Check that your login in name is not a first name, if it is change it. Change your password to something that is more secure with caps, numbers and symbols.

5. Check that your site security is in place

These wordpress plugins are useful for deterring software from hacking your sites, login lockdown and wordfence security plugins can help add that extra layer of security.

6. Review your blog backup plan

Do you have a blog backup plan? If not, make sure you add one. Regularly backup your blogs in case your server fails or you get hacked. You can easily restore your blog without losing years of content that you have painstakingly created.

7. Fix your broken links

This is important for SEO as broken links will put a damper on your SEO efforts. Use this site Broken Link Checker and run a report. Fix all the links that are listed on that site and keep doing this on a regular basis.

8. Update your about page

Your about page is one of the pages that a lot of people will visit if they want to learn more about you and your blog. If you have not updated this in a while, then you should take this week to revisit it and update all the pertinent information on it.

9. Update your Media Kit

Lots have probably happened on your blog in the last year so it is probably time to update your Media Kit. If you don’t have one, come along to our next event to learn more about how to create one.

If there are other things that you do on your blog, do share in the comments below. Please feel free to share on social media too.