A Complete Guide to Maintaining Your WordPress Website
Are you one of those people that creates a WordPress website but never updates it? So, you must begin maintaining your website if you want it to operate well and stay up and running. Here are 15 practical website maintenance recommendations.
Tip #1 Website’s Front End
The front end, or the part of a website that visitors see and interact with, should be reviewed by website owners. By examining the front end, website owners can identify any issues that might be turning away users and fix them. The appearance of a website should be checked on multiple devices, such as tablets, smartphones, and PCs, as well as in different resolutions and aspect ratios. You can use the browser’s built-in functionality or a service like BrowserStack, Sauce Labs or Perfecto to automate the process of testing the website across numerous devices.
Tip #2 Website Backup
The upkeep of WordPress, of which backup is a crucial element, is an essential part of running a website. You must be the backup owner or possess a copy to ensure the security of your website. It’s wise to back up your website using a plug-in for WordPress maintenance. With a plug-in, you can keep a copy of your website backup on your computer and even set it to automatically transfer to a Dropbox, Google Drive, or FTP server.
Tip #3 Frequent Changes of Passwords
One of the best WordPress maintenance practices is frequent password changes. By doing this, you can stop hackers from simply accessing your website, which could have figured out your outdated or weak password. To change your password, go into your website, go to your user profile, and click the “Set a New Password” button. Be careful to create a strong password and update it frequently to ensure security.
Tip #4 Themes and Plug-ins Update
Update WordPress’ core, plug-ins, themes, and other components. These updates are crucial since they provide not only new features and improvements but also bug fixes and security patches. Using the auto-update feature of WordPress, this may be automated. You can maintain WordPress in good working order and lower security concerns by doing routine maintenance.
Tip #5 Scrap Your Old Contents
WordPress maintenance includes deleting extraneous content from your website. As old pages, posts, drafts, and spam comments build up on your website over time, it may become congested and less valuable. By eliminating extraneous items, you can keep your website well-organized, optimized, and tidy. You may maintain a slim and functional website by periodically assessing and removing such content.
Tip #6 Check Comments
As part of your WordPress maintenance routine, you should frequently check for new comments and reply to them. Website owners must interact with their visitors and respond to criticism of their content.
Tip #7 Check Your Forms
WordPress maintenance is essential to ensuring that your website is operational and giving visitors a seamless experience. You may lessen spam and make it simple for people to contact you by checking your contact form’s functioning and installing a contact form plug-in.
Tip #8 React to Form Submissions
It’s essential to respond to your contact form entries to ensure they are handled. As part of your regular WordPress maintenance, review each submission, react to pertinent questions, and ensure the data collected by the form plug-in is accurate and comprehensive.
Tip #9 Update Broken Short Codes
Checking for broken shortcodes is a vital part of WordPress maintenance. These codes affect your website’s essential functionality but can be quickly corrected with a plug-in like Short Code Cleaner.
Tip #10 Update Broken Links
WordPress maintenance is essential for finding and correcting 404 issues and broken links on your website. You may detect and address these problems to guarantee a positive user experience for your visitors by using an SEO plug-in and Broken Link Checker.
Tip #11 Database Optimization
Optimizing your database is one of the vital maintenance duties for WordPress. To maintain your database clean and optimized for optimal speed, utilize plug-ins like WP-Optimize or the Advanced Database Cleaner.
Tip #12 Examine Search Console Statistics
Regularly monitoring your website’s performance with tools like Google Search Console and Google Analytics is crucial for WordPress maintenance. These are simple tools that can help you optimize your website to get a better user experience and search engine ranking by giving you insightful information about its technical performance.
Tip #13 Ensure Your Contents are Up-to-Date
Use WordPress upkeep to keep your website current and functional. Updating your material to maintain its authenticity and freshness and making specific design components like graphics and branding consistent and effective are all key aspects of maintenance.
Tip #14 Image File Optimization
By regularly reducing the size of the most extensive file on the webpage, image optimization on your website can significantly enhance website performance. Use a WebP converter or a plug-in like Imagify to compress images without losing quality.
Tip #15 Look at the Website Logs
To track website changes and security issues and to ensure accountability without having to take the website offline, using a WordPress activity log is an essential component of website management.
Conclusion
Running an excellent online presence requires a regular WordPress maintenance plan. Some crucial aspects that need attention include regular upgrades, backups, security precautions, and content management. Website owners may ensure that their site runs efficiently, is secure, and draws more visitors by using the advice and recommendations provided in this blog.
To improve user experience, it is crucial to monitor website performance, analyze data, and make modifications. Businesses may concentrate on their core skills by working with WordPress website maintenance specialists like WPNinjas.
This Blog is inspired by the video ‘WordPress Maintenance Checklist – A Complete Website Maintenance Tutorial’ by ‘Brainstorm Force’.
Andrew Gray
Andrew Gray is the Senior Operations Manager at Vserve Amazon Listing Services, a position he's held since 2021. He is renowned for operational excellence, leading teams to achieve sales growth and enhanced customer service. Andrew's role is crucial in optimizing the company's operations and maintaining its reputation for efficient back-office solutions.
