Your website isn’t something you can build once and forget about. Like any part of your business, it needs regular attention to stay fast, secure, up to date and visible on Google.
The good news is that it doesn’t have to take over your week. By setting aside just one hour each weekday, you can cover all the essentials: SEO, speed, content, security and testing.
Give each day its own task, and try not to spend more than an hour on it. Here’s how to break it down.
Monday: Search Engine Optimisation
SEO is easy to work through page by page, which makes it an ideal one-hour task. Pick a page, such as your “About Us” or a key service page, and spend an hour making sure it’s as well optimised as possible.
Here are a few things to check:
- Page title and meta description: make sure they’re unique, include your main keyword, and clearly describe what the page is about
- Headings: use one clear main heading (H1) with your keyword, and subheadings to break up the content
- Content: make sure it answers the questions your customers are asking. Use your keyword naturally, without cramming it in.
- Internal links: link to other relevant pages on your website, such as related services or blog posts
- Image alt text: describe each image clearly, which helps visually impaired visitors and helps Google understand your page
On WordPress, plugins such as Yoast SEO or Rank Math can give you a page-by-page checklist. Google Search Console is also worth checking each Monday to see which searches bring people to your site and to spot any problems Google has found.
Work through one page a week, and over time your whole website will be properly optimised.
Tuesday: Speed
Images help reinforce your brand and break up pages of text, but large, high-quality images can take longer to load and slow your website down.
Spend an hour each week finding the main culprits and fixing them. Run your key pages through Google’s free PageSpeed Insights tool to see what’s slowing them down. Then compress and resize any oversized images so they load quickly without any noticeable loss in quality, and consider modern formats such as WebP.
While you’re at it, look for other quick wins, such as plugins you no longer use or videos that could be embedded more efficiently.
Wednesday: Create New Content
Websites thrive on quality content. It helps your Google rankings, gives visitors something useful to read and shows that yours is an active, professional business.
Blogs are a great way to add fresh content to your website. They help with SEO, answer your customers’ questions and give you something to share on social media and in your email newsletters.
Use your Wednesday hour to plan, research or write a blog post. A well-researched article may take a couple of sessions to finish, and that’s fine. Quality matters far more than quantity, and there’s no minimum word count Google needs to see. Write as much as you need to answer the question properly.
Thursday: Refresh Existing Content
New content is important, but so is keeping your existing pages accurate and up to date. Use your Thursday hour to:
- Update older blog posts with new information, so they stay useful and keep ranking
- Check your prices, services, team members and opening hours are correct
- Update your Google Business Profile with new photos, posts or offers
- Share your latest blog post on social media and in your email newsletter
Outdated information can frustrate customers and make your business look neglected, so this hour is well spent.
Friday: Updates, Backups and Testing
It would be a shame to lose all the hard work you’ve put in during the week, so end it by making sure your website is safe and working properly.
Backups: your website should be backed up automatically, ideally every day, with copies stored somewhere separate from your website. Use Friday to check your backups are actually running, and every so often, test that a backup can be restored.
Updates: update WordPress, your theme and your plugins. Outdated software is one of the most common ways websites get hacked.
Testing: use the rest of your hour to test your website’s features and links. Do your contact forms send? Do your buttons and links work? Does your checkout or booking system run smoothly? Check on your phone as well as your computer. If anything isn’t working, note it down and fix it.
Links can break and features can stop working without warning, so keep up these checks every week. What works today might not work tomorrow.
Five Hours a Week Well Spent
Just one hour a day is enough to keep your website optimised, fast, fresh, secure and working properly. Stick with it, and small weekly improvements will add up to a website that works much harder for your business.
If you don’t have five hours a week to spare, we can help. Get in touch with Whelan Web Design to find out about our website management and support services. We’re an Irish web design agency working with businesses across Ireland.
