In this post I will share with you some simple blog maintenance tips you can start using straight away - When we’re so busy with the everyday tasks of running our blogs, and yes there is a lot to do as a blogger; you’re responsible for writing content for your blog, scheduling posts, moderating and replying to comments, reading guest posts and scheduling them, the list goes on… we can easily forget sometimes to undertake the important tasks of maintaining our blogs and ensuring it is running as smoothly as it should.

The size of your WordPress blog is no concern to me, I believe every WordPress blog should be regularly maintained, and so there are a number of things you can do to ensure your blog is well oiled and running smoothly at all times, so let’s dive straight into today’s content.

WordPress Blog Maintenance Tips (Blog Health Tips)

1. Updating WordPress

The simplest way to maintain your WordPress blog and to save yourself a whole lot of heart ache, is by keeping your current version of WordPress updated at all times. Most of the updates are security fixes so it’s important to keep the version you’re using updated when new ones become available.

To check if you are currently running the latest version of WordPress follow the simple steps below –

1. Log into your WordPress dashboard
2. Hit the updates tab in the top sidebar (see image below)

Updates shown here for WordPress core, themes and plugins…

2. Using a Well Coded Theme

Another WordPress blog health tip you don’t often read about is ‘using a well coded theme’; a well coded theme is also updated regularly. Many premium WordPress themes come with free updates as and when they become available as many will know. Three premium themes come to mind when thinking about using ‘well coded themes’, Genesis, Thesis and Headway. Many free WordPress themes aren’t usually updated frequently if at all, so be careful with what you’re using.

3. Updating Plugins

Just as you would update your version of WordPress, it’s also important to update your plugins when prompted in your dashboard. Updating plugins often require few clicks and takes no time at all. You can do them individually or many in a single click.

4. Using a Real Backup Solution

Backing up is very important in blogging, don’t just assume your web hosting provider will backup your site for you; often this comes at a premium.

There are many free backup plugins available in the WordPress directory, but the problem with many of those backup plugins is that they can be inefficient and often store the backups in your WordPress database… A backup ideally should be stored outside of your database on a different server. If you have many posts and value the hard work you’ve put into creating each one of them, I’d highly recommend using a premium backup service such as BlogVault.

BlogVault caters for the daily backups for all my blogs, and leaves me to get on with building my blogging business with no worries about having to backup manually each day. You can read my full review of BlogVault here –

Read: Why I can Sleep Better at Nights Knowing My Blog is Backed Up with BlogVault

5. Spam Comments & Trash

Another simple WordPress health tip is to empty and clear your spam and trash folders at least once a week.

Plugins to Help You Maintain a Healthy WordPress blog

I now want to share with you some plugins which I’ve used that has proved to be very useful for maintaining my WordPress blogs.

1. WP Maintenance Mode – If you’re building or updating your WordPress site, this plugin is perfect for letting your visitors know that your site is currently not available.

2. WP Super Cache Plugin – This plugin generates static HTML files from your dynamic WordPress blog. After a HTML file is generated, your web server will serve that file instead of processing the comparatively heavier and more expensive WordPress PHP scripts.

3. Better Delete Revision Plugin – A perfect plugin for deleting all those unwanted post and page revisions that get’s stored up in your directory files. This plugin can also be used to optimize your database.

4. Clean Options Plugin – Each time you delete a plugin or a theme, you leave behind orphaned files in your database, which can affect many things including the performance of your blog, security etc. This plugin is perfect for helping you identify those orphaned options in your primary blog’s wp_options table and getting rid of them.

5. Broken Link Checker Plugin – Perfect for finding and fixing broken URL’s and missing images in posts, pages and comments of your WordPress blog.

6. Growmap Anti Spam-Bot Plugin – Finally here’s a little security plugin that packs a lot of punch. This plugin enabled with Akismet will heavily cut down the number of spammy bot generated comments that end up in your ham and spam folder

Well I hope you’ve enjoyed going through my WordPress blog maintenance tips here, in the next post I’ll share with you some simple tips for keeping your WordPress blog secure. But in the meantime let me know your thoughts on this post, and if you have any of your own tips you’d like to share in the comment section below.

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