Your website isn’t just a digital version of your business card; it’s an extension. And like any other physical asset, well-maintained WordPress sites are key to success in this new era where customers look online first before they go anywhere else.
You might be thinking that you don’t have time for maintaining your website but if there was ever something worth doing – trust me when I say these five minutes will make all the difference in your online business.
WordPress website maintenance is a crucial element of your business. Neglected, it can lead to many problems such as downtimes, data loss, and hacking.
For those of you who don’t want to do this on your own or don’t know how to do it at all (don’t worry; there are plenty of other people in the same position), hiring a reliable website maintenance firm to maintain your website for you can be a great investment in your business.
Your site is important so make sure it performs well by making WordPress site maintenance a priority!
What Exactly Is WordPress Website Maintenance and Why Is It Important?
What Is WordPress Maintenance?
WordPress maintenance is the process of keeping your site up-to-date and running smoothly.
This includes accessing your WordPress dashboard and performing tasks like backing up your WordPress database and files, updating plugins and themes, removing any unused files or plugins as well as reviewing Google Analytics reports and content updates.
Why is Website Maintenance Important?
Maintaining a website is important for a variety of reasons, the most important is that it keeps your website running smoothly and reliably. This is essential for any business, as a website that isn’t performing properly can hurt your bottom line.
Problems you could face when you don’t have a maintenance routine
Slow-loading pages (which could cause people to give up before even accessing your site)
Poor user experience
Site security
Less traffic coming through search engines to your WordPress site – which means lost business!
Slow loading pages
One of the most important aspects of maintenance is ensuring that your pages load quickly. A slow-loading page can be very frustrating for visitors, and can also lead to lost business.
There are a number of ways to improve page speed, and it’s important to regularly test your site to make sure you’re providing the best possible experience for your visitors.
User experience
Maintaining a WordPress website impacts user experience in a number of ways. One of the most important is that it keeps your website running smoothly and reliably. This provides a better experience for your visitors, as they won’t have to deal with pages that load slowly or are not functioning properly.
WordPress Site Security
By regularly updating WordPress, your Content Management System, you’re increasing the security of your website and making it more difficult for hackers to gain access.
Hackers look for vulnerabilities in a site’s security in order to exploit them.
Some common vulnerabilities that WordPress websites are prone to include outdated WordPress core, themes and plugins and weak passwords.
By keeping your website updated and using strong passwords, you are reducing the number of security vulnerabilities on your WordPress site, making it much harder for hackers to gain access to your site or damage it in any way.
“Brute force” is typically used to access a system using an unauthorized login. In brute force attacks, a bot is used to go through billions of possible username and password combinations at lightning speed. If they’re lucky, they’ll eventually figure out the correct credentials and access to the protected data.
Hacked WordPress sites are no fun. They can take a lot of time to recover and can be very costly.
There are a number of WordPress security plugins available to protect your site.
Installing a WordPress security plugin is a great way to keep your website safe from hackers. By using a security plugin, you can protect your site from brute force attacks, malware, and other types of attacks.
Additionally, many security plugins also include features that can help you recover your website if it does get hacked.
Search Engine Ranking
There are a few reasons why regular WordPress maintenance can improve your website’s search engine ranking. As mentioned previously, by keeping your website running smoothly and reliably, you will ensure that your visitors have a positive experience and are more likely to return in the future.
Additionally, maintaining a high level of performance and optimization can help your website rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Finally, regularly updating your website’s content and metadata can help Google (and other search engines) better understand what your site is about, which can result in more traffic and higher rankings.
Just like your health can deteriorate if you go too long between checkups, so can the health of your website. Regular site maintenance and updates is a must to keep your business running smoothly.
Whether online businesses or brick-and-mortar, companies of all sizes need to have an attractive and properly maintained website to get and keep customers. It’s easy to look for ways to cut corners and let a few tasks slide, but WordPress site maintenance is not one of those areas where you should let this happen.
How do I maintain my WordPress website?
There is a pretty good list of maintenance tasks to keep your WordPress site running smoothly. The most important of these are security updates and patches.
As mentioned earlier, your website can be a hazard to those who visit it if these security fixes are not done in a timely manner.
To help you get started, here is a list of WordPress maintenance tasks that should be completed regularly:
Weekly WordPress maintenance
- Back up your website and WordPress database. If you update your WordPress site content frequently or are currently building your site out, we usually recommend doing a daily backup.
- Check for updates to your WordPress core, themes and plugins
- Remove spam comments and trash any post drafts or revisions that you don’t need
- Optimize images that haven’t already been optimiized
- Check for and fix broken links on your website
- Fix and/or redirect 404 errors
- Clear out any themes and plugins you do not need. Do not leave inactive plugins in the back end of your site to improve your WordPress security.
Monthly WordPress maintenance
- Review your WordPress security scans and make sure everything is safe and secure
- Use Google Page Speed Insights or GTMetrix to check your site speed. (Check this article on GTMetrix that discusses the differences between the different page speed tools)
- Review your Google Analytics from the previous month and see what you could do differently to improve your website traffic (Google Site Kit is a great free plugin to monitor and access Google Analytics, Page Speed Insights, Search Console, and Google AdSense)
Quarterly WordPress maintenance
- Take a look at your website structure and design. Are there any improvements to be made? Be sure to check all the links and fix any broken links.
- Update your SEO titles and meta descriptions to ensure they are as effective as possible
- Test and tweak forms, popups, and calls to action (CTAs)
- Review your processes and see if anything can be automated
Yearly WordPress maintenance
- Pull up your website on different devices and browsers to see if it displays correctly
- Update your copyright year in your footer to the current year
- Go through your site page by page and check for accuracy, spelling, grammar, and content relevancy
- How does your site look? Is it time for a redesign?
- Take a look at your top-performing posts and see if they can be updated with new content
- Is it time to consider changing your WordPress hosting provider? This can have a major impact on site speed and if their support isn’t top-notch, it may be time for a change. That low cost, may not be saving you in the long run.
Why You Should Care About WordPress Maintenance
Website maintenance is important because it ensures the longevity and functionality of your WordPress sites. If you don’t perform WordPress maintenance regularly, there are many problems that can arise which will reduce potential leads for business growth – do not let this happen!
You might think it’s not worth the hassle because you just need to do some updates every once in a while, but this isn’t the case at all.
WordPress maintenance tasks must be done frequently to stay on top of changes and emerging security issues. Inconsistent or improper website upkeep can lead to major problems that could detrimentally affect your business’ success.
Brene Brown says that in order to show up for the people we love, we have to take care of ourselves first. The same is true for your business website.
You can’t expect your WordPress sites to run smoothly and reliably if you don’t put in the time and effort to perform regular maintenance tasks.
But don’t worry, we’re here to help.
We offer comprehensive WordPress Maintenance packages that take care of all the technical details so you can focus on running your business and doing what makes your heart sing. Click here to learn more about our WordPress Maintenance packages and how they can benefit your business.
