5 Things to Think About Before Taking a Blog Holiday

Last updated on 26 November 2024

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Whether you’re packing the sunnies and beach towels for summer vacation, or you’re booking time on the ski slopes for a winter getaway, ooorrr you’re like me and you just up and left your city for Europe for about 6 weeks … It’s not uncommon for us to have a blog holiday.

There might be weeks during the year that you simply aren’t working on it. You’re not writing new blog posts, you’re not updating old ones, you’re not even doing much in the way of social media or email … and I think that is super important!

Don’t get me wrong – keeping consistent is still just as important. But the joy of a blog is that you can schedule blog posts and let it be for a bit. You can have a blog holiday, knowing that everything is ticking over, you’re still getting traffic to your blog and not everything needs your attention all the time.

If you’re planning on taking a blog holiday, here are some things you might like to think about before you set off.

Things to do before taking a blog holiday

Do a blog audit for SEO

Before you head off for your blog holiday, take some time to audit your blog’s SEO. People will still be looking for things, and you want to ensure your blog is easily discoverable. It’s a bit like doing the dusting or vacuuming the floor before the guests arrive for dinner. You want to make sure everything is where it’s meant to be and acting as it should.

Here are some things you could do (but make sure you check out that blog audio post, linked above):

Check your keywords: Make sure the keywords you want to target are still relevant and driving traffic. You can update them if you need to.
Review your meta description: Your meta description is a little blurb that tells your readers what your blog is about, and you can see it on Google. Just double-check that your blog’s meta description is still what you want it to be. I need to update mine. 🙈
Fix broken links: Use a tool to check for any broken links and fix them to keep your site in good standing with search engines. No one likes hitting a dead end on the internet, right? Check out Broken Link Checker.

Schedule all your blog posts

This is my favourite thing to see on my blog: weeks and weeks of scheduled blog posts! If you’ve got the time to do this, write up your blog posts and schedule them for the time you’re going to be away. Scheduling posts will keep your blog ‘active’ even if you aren’t manually hitting ‘publish’. Which is what we want when we’re on holiday.

A few tips:

Create a content calendar: Plan out your posts in advance, making sure you have a nice spread across your different content pillars or niche topics.
- Check out this content planner if you don’t have one!
Write ahead: Spend some time writing and scheduling posts before you go.
Use automation tools: This is mostly for promoting your blog posts afterwards. Check out Metricool for social media, and Tailwind for Pinterest.

Update your email list

Just because you’re on holiday, doesn’t mean everyone else is. Make sure your contact emails are updated, and if you want an out-of-office automation happening… write it. I have a fortnightly newsletter that goes out call The Blogger’s Dispatch, so that was one of my tasks; I made sure that all my newsletters were scheduled to go before I did!

Set up an out-of-office reply: Let people know you’re away but will get back to them as soon as possible. A friendly note can go a long way!
Delegate if possible: If you have a team, ensure they know what they’re doing and how they need to reply to emails. Your blog shouldn’t grind to a halt just because you’re sipping cocktails by the pool.
Schedule ahead: I also send one-off emails here and there, and sometimes a sale email. Set up your schedule so that you’re not thinking about your email marketing while you’re away.

Schedule all your Pins

Schedule your Pins to go out after your blog post has been published. You don’t want people clicking on a Pin that leads to a 404 page because your schedule hasn’t lined up. So if you’re doing this for Pinterest, double-check the date that you’re publishing them and make sure it’s after the scheduled blog post. Have made that mistake before. 🙈

Tools like Tailwind can help you schedule Pins to be published when you want them and to what board/boards. It’s honestly like magic. I love it!

Check-in if you need to

Your blog will be fine by itself, but if you need to, pop in once a week and make sure there are no plugins to update (or set them to auto-update), and make sure it’s all looking how it should. Every so often something might go askew, so keeping an eye on it – even just the home page and have a click around – can make all the difference.

Taking these steps will help keep your blog running smoothly while you enjoy your vacation so that you can actually enjoy your holiday, whatever it is that you end up doing. It’s all about balance and ensuring your hard work continues to pay off even when you’re taking a well-deserved break!

Have you spent a good chunk of time away from your blog? What did you do? How did your blog do?

Let me know in the comments!