The Importance WordPress Maintenance

If you own a website, you must maintain it to keep it running smoothly and reduce the risks of your website going down. WordPress websites are no different and need regular maintenance to keep them in tip-top condition. In this blog post, we will explore why you need to keep your WordPress website up-to-date and well-maintained and give some top tips on performing maintenance.

What Is WordPress Maintenance?

Website maintenance, specifically for WordPress, is a crucial practice involving regular tasks to guarantee your site remains up-to-date, optimised, and secure. By taking a proactive approach to these duties, you can ensure your website consistently delivers an excellent user experience and enjoys robust protection against potential threats.

In essence, maintaining a WordPress website involves a series of routine tasks that keep it running smoothly and efficiently. These may include updating the core WordPress software, themes, and plugins, monitoring website performance, ensuring regular data backups and implementing security measures. All these efforts combine to create a user-friendly and well-protected online presence for your brand or business.

Why Is WordPress Maintenance Important? 

All websites require maintenance to keep them up to date with the latest technology and best practices; the only difference with WordPress is that it is much easier to complete, and if you wish to, you could complete it yourself without needing to hire a web developer. 

The main reasons you need to keep your WordPress website up to date with a maintenance plan are:

Website Security

WordPress is an open-source CMS, so anyone can create plugins to be uploaded to the repository or your website. Sadly, this opens them up to abuse. So keeping your core updated and the plugins you are using up to date helps reduce the risk of your website being hacked. 

Reduce Downtime

Regular maintenance helps reduce website downtime and keeps your website running smoothly for your customers. Any number of things can affect your website and take it offline, from being hacked to a software configuration; keeping on top of updates and regular maintenance reduces this risk. 

Improves User Experience 

Making sure everything works as it needs to and functions as required helps improve the user experience for your customers. Everything from ensuring payment gateways to contact forms must work as required, or your customers will use a competitor. 

WordPress Maintenance Checklist

Below we have collated just some of the WordPress maintenance checks that should be completed weekly and monthly. These are the basics of what needs to be done to keep your website running smoothly for your customers. 

Weekly

• Complete backup of your entire WordPress website.
• Check for updates to the WordPress core.
• Check for updates to plugins and update them as required. 
• Update themes if an update is needed. 
• Check comments on posts and remove spam ones. 
• Test contact forms to ensure they are working correctly. 
• Run a manual security scan.
• Visit your website and scroll around some pages checking for issues. 

Monthly

• Find and fix any broken links or redirects.
• Check Google Search Console for any issues.
• Run website performance tests. 
• Analyse website traffic to pages and posts. 
• Audit plugins and remove ones that are no longer required. 

Reasons To Hire A Professional For Maintenance Tasks

If you run a business, you have a million and one things to think about, and your website and its maintenance, in all honesty, are probably at the bottom of an extensive list. That is, until your website is hacked or offline, affecting your profit margins! Hiring a professional to take care of your WordPress maintenance schedule makes a lot of sense when you compare it to the time needed to complete it and the expertise required to do it right when you compare it to the financial loss of your website going offline. 

Hiring an agency that offers WordPress support can:

• Save you hours of time.
• Save you lots of money.
• Ensures expert support. 
• Gives you peace of mind. 

How Can E2E Studios Help? 

We are a team dedicated to web development, web design and SEO. Based in Stockport, Greater Manchester, we have been helping business owners all over the UK and beyond with their website needs, including WordPress maintenance. We offer stand-alone maintenance and combined hosting and maintenance packages to suit all shapes and sizes of websites. If you need help keeping your WordPress website in tip-top condition, contact the team today!