“behind the scenes” blogging checklist for 2015

I’m a list girl. I like to make a list and check it off. In fact, I’ve even been known to add items to my list just so I can check them off.  Maybe you can relate?

One of my goals in 2015 is to be more consistent “behind the scenes” with my blog.  I’ve identified several tasks I need to do throughout the year and created  created a monthly checklist for myself as well as a quarterly checklist with one or two items to do each month. I also set aside a specific day {last Monday of the month} for doing these tasks.

Here is my “behind the scenes” blogging checklist:

Monthly

• Track stats. Some of the main information I am collecting includes subscription numbers, social media followers, page views, and popular posts. I have a simple spreadsheet set up to record these numbers.
• Schedule social media for top posts. I started doing this last year and found it very effective.  I identify the top ten posts for the previous month and schedule them on social media throughout the following month. This increased my page views but also helped me build better internal links as I was consistently digging into my archives.
• Back up database. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who rarely does this. But in 2015, I’m scheduling it so I will be sure to get it done.
• Evaluate and update plug-ins. This is another monthly task for me. Sometimes I try different plug-ins to see which one works best for me but I often fail to delete the ones I’m not using anymore.

Quarterly

• Update social media profiles.  While you don’t want to change your social media profiles and images every week, it is important to keep them up-to-date. I’ll be looking at mine quarterly just to make sure they are current.
• Review About page. Same as with the social media profiles, you want to keep your about page up-to-date. And if you need ideas about creating a great about page, check out this post for three questions to ask yourself.
• Update editorial calendar. I love my editorial calendar and I don’t know how I’d manage without it. While I use it monthly, I also know the value of setting aside time each quarter to review what it coming and make adjustments as needed.
• Update SEO on blog pages and archive posts. Hopefully you are already taking the time to do the SEO work on each of the posts you are currently writing. But what about all those posts in your archive? And what about the pages on your blog? Have you optimized them? One of my goals for 2015 is to get every post in my archives optimized so I’m setting aside some time each week to go do a few. This is definitely going to be a year-long process for me but for others it may not take as long. Regardless, improving SEO on your posts and pages is a valuable way to spend some time this year.

So, there you go … my current checklist for 2015. Did I leave anything important off?

What tasks would you add to this list?