WordPress Maintenance, Like Vehicle Maintenance, Should Be Routine and Scheduled
Congratulations! You’ve got a brand new WordPress website and your satisfied with the design at the moment. However, like most business owners, you’re probably pretty busy running your business and would rather not add anything else to your daily workload. As a result, your website may remain in its current state for months, if not, years before you even get chance to consider additional changes. This is actually pretty common but technology is always evolving due to smartphones, computers, and tablets. As a result, the one element that is important is keeping your WordPress software updated, along with all the wonderful plugins involved in your website.
A vehicle is a crucial investment many businesses make at some point in the lifetime of a business. The benefit of a business vehicle is pretty straightforward and like any business-related tool it does have its responsibilities. In order to continue meeting your needs, a vehicle requires regularly scheduled maintenance and care to operate as it should. A WordPress website is no different which is why it is now considered by most business owners in very much the same way.
Just like business equipment, a website requires regularly scheduled routine maintenance to continue meeting the needs of a business and operating as it should. It is important, adequate maintenance ensures that your website will garner more traffic, increase brand recognition, and generate additional profit. For vehicles, there are different types of maintenance that need to be done such as oil changes, detailing, and tune-ups. Similarly, A WordPress site requires different types of maintenance during its lifespan. Let’s look at some of these WordPress maintenance requirements and why they are critically important to keep your site running like a fine-tuned machine.
A Few Services Included in Our Routine Maintenance
Plugin Updates
Plugins are software packages that can be added to a WordPress site to increase or improve functionality. There are many different plugins available that do everything from creating visitor forms to adding visual effects. Plugins are created by different authors and regularly updated. WordPress is an open-source platform which means many plug-ins are updated routinely. It’s important to implement updates routinely and quickly to ensure your website is secure and functioning properly.
WordPress Core Updates
WordPress itself is a fast-moving platform, and new features are added and regularly improved. Like plugin updates, if the latest version is not installed your website will not be performing at the level it should be.
Off-Site Backups
The WordPress platform is stable, but that does not mean it is invincible. In the event that your website is hacked or goes down for some reason, having a backup offsite can save you from the devastating effects of having to start from scratch. Offsite backups of your website should often be done, especially as you post more and more fresh content.
Website Security
Security is not something taken lightly by WordPress, however, even as the platform is strengthened; malicious individuals will explore new ways to overcome them. Ensuring that your security is up to date and at its best is certainly something that should often be considered. Understanding the vulnerabilities and taking the necessary precautions is vital to the protection of your website and possibly your brand image.
Theme Updates
Themes are the framework that make your site look and act the way it does. There are many themes available that are well suited for any purpose. Themes, however, are often improved and updated just like plugins and the platform itself. Using an out of date theme limits the function and form of your web presence.
Dead link Updates
When people on a website come across issues such as dead links, it can wreak havoc, and the cost can be alarming. Dead links send a message to your visitors that you do not care enough to do your website right, and that you likely don’t do other things with your business right either. Checking your links regularly to make sure your visitors do not run into problems and run away to your competitors should be a high maintenance priority.
Removing Deprecated Plugins
Though it may seem harmless, having a bunch of plugins on your WordPress site that are inactive or not being used should be avoided. Maybe at one point you needed that calendar plugin but now use a different one, leaving that old one can be confusing at best and cause problems with your site’s speed and function. Going through your plugins and eliminating them is a wise maintenance move for a smooth operation.
Managing Spam
A blog on your WordPress site can be an exceptional method of generating traffic and building your brand image. Comments on your blogs can also be a great value to provide additional information and generate discussion on topics important to your visitors. Unfortunately, like email, comment postings can be used as a vehicle for spamming. If the comments are visible to other visitors, your reputation can quickly go south. Spending the time to clear out those spammy comments will keep your visitors happy and engaged.
Updating The Sitemap
When the search engines like Google are crawling your site, your site map is what quickly tells them how it is organized. It also provides valuable information called metadata. Having an outdated site map makes it difficult for the search engines to follow and can hurt your SEO and search engine ranking. It is so important to have a high ranking site and an outdated site map is an easy way to ensure that happens.
Maintenance is important, feel free to contact us for more information
It should be clear by now that just like your car, your WordPress site requires maintenance to keep you safe and moving forward. It may seem like a hassle, but completing the WordPress maintenance on your site is a crucial step in ensuring your website is working for you like it should and not getting lowered on search engine results as a consequence.
Wondering how you are doing? Give us a call and we can provide a quick assessment of your website. We are also glad to answer any questions you may have and provide Collaborative digital marketing solutions to meet your company’s needs.
