WordPress maintenance you should be doing but probably aren’t

Are you doing what you need to maintain your WordPress website? Click To Tweet

You’ve heard that you need to maintain your WordPress website, but it’s easy to get distracted. All of a sudden, your website is really slow, or it gets hacked. Maintaining your website is the best way to ensure its safety and security, as well as the functionality of your WordPress website. 

maintain your wordpress website

Why do You Need to Maintain Your WordPress Website?

Maintaining your WordPress website is vital for functionality and security. We mentioned in our article on hacking that not updating your WordPress website can make your website at risk of hackers getting in. Since WordPress developers are constantly working to fill any possible holes, you need to stay current with your website.

A maintained website may also be faster than an unmaintained one. Your readers aren’t going to stick around if your website takes forever to load, so staying on top of maintenance is important.

How do You Maintain Your WordPress Website?

Maintaining your WordPress website should not take you that long, as long as you do it regularly. WordPress makes it easy for those with a simple website by making plugins to do much of the maintenance for us.

Backup your website

Backing up your website regularly covers you in case the site goes down or something goes wrong with a plug in. If something goes catastrophically wrong, you can pull up a previous backup (from before the catastrophe) and everything should revert back to the way it was before.

You should back up your website at least monthly and you can use a plugin to assist you. VaultPress is a WordPress backup plugin that does it automatically.

Install Updates

WordPress, your plugins, and themes are constantly being updated. Installing updates as they are available keeps your WordPress website working at the optimum functionality.

Updates for themes sometimes lag behind WordPress, so check your site’s functionality after a WordPress update (which usually occur automatically). If you notice a problem, either uninstall plugins one at a time to see if that’s the problem, r restore it from the most recent backup.  

Delete Unused Plugins

You likely have a bunch of plugins you aren’t using. Even if they aren’t active, they may still cause problems, since they can cause your site to slow down. Check all of your plugins to see what you are actively using and what you aren’t. Then deactivate and delete any that aren’t adding to the functionality of your website.

Optimize your Database

Your database is where all of your information is stored. Your blog posts, images, settings, and subscribers (if you add them on site and not through an email service provider) are all stored in your database. A plugin such as WP-Optimize will clean up any records you no longer need.

Security

Your site’s security is vitally important. Take the tips from What to do When you get Hacked and install malware and security plugins to ensure your site is safe.

User Accounts

It should go without saying, but don’t give out your WordPress password to just anyone. If you want to add an admin to your site, make them an account holder with a unique name and password.

Website Speed

Your website’s speed is vital to the success of your blog or website. Readers simply aren’t going to stick around if your website takes too long to load. Running a speed test will show you how long it takes for your page to load.

In order to make your pages load faster, you might want to try the following:

  • Resize images. You likely don’t need large resolution images so make them a little smaller so your page loads faster.
  • Optimize images and video. You can compress your images without losing quality. Compressor.io is a free website you can use.
  • Delete any unused plugins

What if You Don’t Want to Maintain Your WordPress Website?

If you have no desire to maintain your WordPress website, we can help. We offer one time plans along with monthly maintenance plans so your WordPress website stays up to date and secure.

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In plain terms, WordPress (WP) is simply the top free platform upon which one can create
fantastic fully-featured websites or blogs of any size (best among both free or paid solutions). 

Learn more about WordPress here.
***Gain more insight about how to install WordPress & your options.***

If you would like to consider working with us on our Premium or Standard Plans on a ongoing monthly basis, then we can do the job FREE as a trial (with no credit card required and assumes you have a interest potentially becoming a Standard or Premium Plan member . . . otherwise, please use the single one-off job option below).
See here: https://www.wpwebsitehelp.com/#plansandpricing

OR

2. If you only need us to do this one job only, then checkout here for this one-off single job.
See here: https://www.wpwebsitehelp.com/single-one-job/

Our plans can cover ongoing maintenance & annoying regular task items, of which, you should not spend your valuable time! This gives you peace of mind so you can focus your mind on your endeavor. We have you covered whether it is WordPress help or WordPress support for a business, personal, student, education, non-profit, or ministry endeavor.

Here are some examples along with HOW it works at WP Website Help.
Here are a few FAQ’s & our about us.

Would You Like to Get Started with Us?

We would be honored to help you with your WordPress website or blog.

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