WordPress maintenance and support are crucial for keeping your website up and running.
You wouldn’t drive a car 100,000 miles without changing the oil or rotating the tires. Routine maintenance is necessary to keep cars and websites in working order. Your mechanic is kind enough to put a sticker on the corner of your windshield to remind you of your next oil change, but how do you know what WordPress maintenance to do?
Use this post as your maintenance reminder for WordPress. We cover why maintenance is essential, a checklist of WordPress maintenance tasks, and offer five tips for simplifying your maintenance and support.
Why is WordPress Maintenance and Support Vital?
If you don’t maintain your car, you’ll likely end up broken down on the side of the road. Neglecting your WordPress maintenance leads to similar results, and you can’t call AAA this time.
WordPress maintenance and support help websites:
- Avoid Downtime. WordPress maintenance keeps your website from crashing. From bloated data to outdated plugins, any number of issues can cause your site to crash. Stay ahead of them with the right maintenance schedule.
- Improve Customer Experience. Well-maintained websites run faster and work better. Delivering the best customer experience requires a fast and usable website.
- Guard Against Hackers and Threats. You’re missing out on vital security patches if you haven’t updated your WordPress software. Outdated software is more vulnerable to security threats.
- Solve Issues Efficiently. The right maintenance program will identify issues while they’re still easy to fix.
How Do I Maintain My WordPress Site?
Maintaining a WordPress site is pretty simple when you have the right plan. Use this checklist to build your to-do list for keeping your site running smoothly.
WordPress maintenance tasks checklist:
- Stay Updated. Updating your WordPress core files, themes, and plugins keeps your site up and running, and it’s also a WordPress security best practice.
- Monitor Security. Use a security monitoring plugin or look for a host with active threat detection to ensure an attack doesn’t catch you off guard.
- Test Performance. Regularly test your site’s performance and speed. When performance starts to slip, troubleshoot the issue. Always test your site’s performance after installing or updating plugins to ensure the plugin doesn’t slow down the site.
- Repair Broken Links. Check and fix any broken links to deliver the best user experience.
- Clean Up Your Site. The more extraneous WordPress data in your databases, the longer it will take for your site to load. WordPress will struggle to find what it needs among all the clutter. You should delete automatically saved drafts, trashed posts, and other “junk” to keep your site’s databases clean. Also, remove any plugins you’re not actively using.
- Build a Backup. Always back up your site so you can restore it quickly in the event of a crash. Install a backup plugin or look for a host that includes automatic backups.
How Can I Access Support for WordPress?
If you need help troubleshooting an issue or answering a question about your maintenance, you need the right resources. From online support to agency and hosting support, you have options.
Online Resources
One of the reasons we love WordPress is the awesome community. WordPress is the most popular content management system in the world. WordPress users are incredibly helpful. Search the official WordPress.org support forums, your theme or plugin developer’s site, or just type your problem into Google, and you’ll probably find an answer.
Paid Partners
You can partner with a WordPress development agency to build and maintain your website. Some companies specialize in maintenance and support packages. You can also hire a freelancer to troubleshoot your website.
Hosting Provider
A good WordPress hosting service goes beyond just giving you a space for your website. Pick a host with WordPress experts on staff who can help you resolve any issues. When choosing a host, ensure they have positive reviews for support.
5 Keys to Simplify WordPress Maintenance and Support
In addition to incorporating our checklist of WordPress maintenance tasks, there are some other tricks you can use to keep your website maintenance and support manageable.
1. Utilize a Managed WordPress Hosting Provider
Managed WordPress hosting services make your life easier. A managed hosting service provides automatic updates and backups for your site. You can put many of your maintenance and support tasks on autopilot.
2. Carefully Select Plugins
Plugins are the No. 1 cause of security breaches and one of the top causes of performance or display issues on your site. Carefully vet your plugins to ensure they’re from quality developers. Deactivate and fully uninstall any unused plugins to ensure they don’t interfere with your website.
3. Schedule Regular Site Reviews
Decide on a regular interval to comb through your site and look for issues. Make sure the site is performing its best. Use the checklist in this post to ensure you’re staying on top of your maintenance tasks.
4. Ensure Your Theme is Optimized
After plugins, your theme is where you could run into an issue with your site. Again, select a quality theme from a reputable developer and keep it up to date.
5. Connect with Reliable Experts
You don’t have to maintain your site on your own. Know who to contact in an emergency to help fix your site. Does your hosting company have 24/7 WordPress hosting support with go-to experts ready to help?
Pressable Makes WordPress Maintenance and Support Easy
Pressable makes your life easier. We’ve automated many parts of maintaining your WordPress website. With enhanced security, automatic updates, and backup services, you can mark several items off your maintenance list as soon as you switch to Pressable. We also offer unparalleled support from WordPress experts along with many useful WordPress hosting features. Schedule a demo today to learn more about why WordPress users love Pressable.
Zach Wiesman
Zach has 12+ years of experience with WordPress, from creating and maintaining client sites, to providing support and developing documentation. A knack for problem-solving and providing solutions led Zach to pursue a job with Automattic providing customer support in 2015 working with WooCommerce support, and now Zach has recently joined our team here at Pressable. Outside of work, Zach enjoys spending time with his family, playing and watching sports, and working on projects around the house.
