If you’re a marketer who uses WordPress, then you know how important it is to keep your website up and running smoothly. Unfortunately, many marketers don’t have the time or knowledge to perform proper WordPress maintenance. In this blog post, we will discuss some tips that will help you keep your website running like a well-oiled machine!
Review Your Strategy
One of the most important aspects of WordPress maintenance is to review your website’s strategy on a regular basis. Ask yourself questions such as:
- Who is my target audience?
- What type of content do they want to see?
- What are my goals for this website?
Answering these questions will help you determine what changes, if any, need to be made to your website. For example, if you’re not seeing the results you want from your current marketing efforts, then it might be time to make some changes to your website.
Keep WordPress Updated
Another important item is to keep your WordPress installation up to date. WordPress releases new versions of the software regularly, which include security fixes and new features. By keeping your WordPress installation up to date, you can ensure that your website is as secure as possible. To update WordPress, simply log into your dashboard and click on the “Updates” tab. From there, you can select the “Update Now” button and WordPress will take care of the rest!
Keep Plugins & Themes Up to Date
In addition to keeping WordPress itself up to date, it is also important to keep your plugins and themes up to date. Like WordPress, plugins and themes are regularly updated to include security fixes and new features. By keeping your plugins and themes up-to-date, you can help ensure that your website is as secure as possible. You can update your plugins and themes by going to the “Updates” tab in your WordPress dashboard.
Back Up Your Website Regularly
Another important tip for keeping your WordPress website running smoothly is to back it up regularly. This way, if something goes wrong, you can restore your website from a backup and avoid any downtime. There are many WordPress plugins that can help you automate the backup process. We recommend using a plugin like UpdraftPlus or BackupBuddy.
Perform Regular Maintenance Tasks
In addition to the tips mentioned above, there are also some general maintenance tasks that you should perform on a regular basis. These tasks include deleting unused plugins and themes, optimizing your database, and checking for broken links. By regularly performing these maintenance tasks, you can help ensure that your WordPress website is running smoothly.
Delete unused plugins and themes: As you add and remove plugins and themes from your WordPress website, it’s important to delete the ones that you’re no longer using. This helps keep your website organized and prevents unused code from sitting on your server and taking up space.
Optimize your database: Over time, your WordPress database can become bloated with unnecessary data. This can slow down your website and cause performance issues. To keep your database running smoothly, it’s important to optimize it regularly. You can do this by using a WordPress plugin like WP-DB Manager or phpMyAdmin.
Check for broken links: Broken links can be frustrating for your website visitors and can also hurt your search engine optimization (SEO). To avoid broken links, it’s important to check for them regularly and fix them as soon as possible. You can use a WordPress plugin like Broken Link Checker to help you find and fix broken links on your website.
Check Your Website’s Page Speed
It’s important to check your website’s page speed regularly. Page speed is a measure of how fast your website loads for visitors. A slow website can cause visitors to leave before they even have a chance to see what you have to offer. In addition, Google considers page speed when ranking websites in search results. To check your website’s page speed, you can use a tool like Pingdom or Google Pagespeed Insights.
Check Your Forms and Contact Pages
If you have forms or contact pages on your WordPress website, it’s important to check them regularly to make sure they are working properly. Forms and contact pages are essential for website visitors who want to get in touch with you. By checking these pages regularly, you can ensure that you don’t miss any important inquiries from potential customers or clients.
Install a Caching Plugin
If you want your website to load quickly, then you need to install a caching plugin. A caching plugin speeds up your website by creating static HTML files of your dynamic WordPress pages. This means that your server doesn’t have to process each request individually, which can greatly improve your website’s loading speed.
We recommend using Litespeed Cache, which is a free caching plugin that is compatible with WordPress.
Optimize Your Images
Images are an important part of any website, but they can also be one of the biggest culprits when it comes to slow loading times. By optimizing your images, you can ensure that they load quickly and don’t bog down your website.
There are a few different ways to optimize your images, but we recommend using an image compression plugin like WP Smush. This plugin will automatically compress your images when you upload them to your website.
Backup Your Website Regularly
Make sure to backup your WordPress website regularly! This way, if anything ever happens to your website, you can restore it from a backup and be up and running in no time.
We recommend using the UpdraftPlus plugin, which is a free plugin that makes it easy to create backups of your WordPress website.
Search Engine Rankings
Your WordPress website’s search engine ranking can have a big impact on your business. If you want to improve your ranking, there are a few things you can do.
First, make sure that your website is accessible to search engines by going to Settings > Reading and checking the box next to Search Engine Visibility.
Next, you can improve your website’s SEO by installing a plugin like SEO Framework. This plugin will help you optimize your website for the search engines.
Fix 404 Errors
If you have any broken links on your website, it’s important to fix them as soon as possible. Broken links can hurt your website’s SEO and frustrate your visitors.
You can use a WordPress plugin like Redirection to help you find and fix 404 errors on your website.
Update Meta Tags
Make sure to check your website’s meta tags regularly. Meta tags are a code that helps search engines understand what your website is about. By updating your meta tags, you can improve your website’s SEO and make it easier for people to find your site.
You can use a plugin like SEO Framework to help you manage your website’s
Add Fresh Content Regularly
One of the best ways to improve your WordPress website’s search engine ranking is to add fresh content on a regular basis. This can be in the form of blog posts, new pages, or even just updates to existing content. By adding new content, you’re telling the search engines that your website is active and relevant, which will help improve your ranking.
Review Your Hosting Plan
If your website is slow or frequently goes down, then it might be time to review your hosting plan. Shared hosting plans are often very affordable, but they can also be unreliable. If you’re serious about your WordPress website, then we recommend upgrading to a VPS, dedicated server, or cloud hosting. This will give you more control over your server and ensure that your website is always up and running.
Make Sure Your Domain is on Auto-Renewal
If your domain name expires, then your website will go offline. To prevent this from happening, make sure that your domain is set to auto-renew. This way, you don’t have to worry about manually renewing it every year and you can rest assured knowing that your website will always be online.
Review Google Search Console Data
Another important aspects of WordPress maintenance is reviewing your Google Search Console data. This will help you identify any issues with your site that could be impacting your search engine rankings. Additionally, you can use this data to improve your site’s overall SEO. There are a few things you should look for when reviewing your Google Search Console data:
Click through rate: This is the percentage of people who click on your listing in the search results. A high click-through rate indicates that your listing is relevant to the searcher’s query.
Average position: This is the average position of your listing in the search results. A higher average position indicates that your listing is more visible in the search results.
Impressions: This is the number of times your listing appears in the search results. A high number of impressions indicates that your site is relevant to a broad range of queries.
By reviewing your Google Search Console data, you can identify any areas where your site needs improvement. Additionally, you can use this data to track your progress over time. Regularly reviewing your Google Search Console data is an important part of WordPress maintenance.
If you don’t have a Google Search Console account, you can create one for free. Just go to the Google Search Console website and click “Add a property.” Enter your website’s URL and follow the instructions to add your site. Once you’ve added your site, you can start reviewing your data.
Review Google Analytics Data Regularly
In addition to reviewing your Google Search Console data, you should also regularly review your Google Analytics data. This will help you understand how people are finding and using your website. Additionally, you can use this data to improve your website’s overall performance.
There are a few things you should look for when reviewing your Google Analytics data:
Bounce rate: This is the percentage of people who leave your site after viewing only one page. A high bounce rate indicates that people are not finding what they’re looking for on your site.
Pages per session: This is the average number of pages people view during a session on your site. A high number of pages per session indicates that people are finding what they’re looking for on your site.
Average session duration: This is the average amount of time people spend on your site during a session. A high average session duration indicates that people are engaged with your site.
By reviewing your Google Analytics data, you can identify any areas where your site needs improvement. Additionally, you can use this data to track your progress over time. Regularly reviewing your Google Analytics data is an important part of WordPress maintenance.
Check Your Website on Multiple Devices
It’s important to check your website on multiple devices to ensure that it looks and functions properly. People use a variety of devices to access the internet, so you need to make sure that your site looks and works well on all of them.
One easy way to check your website on multiple devices is to use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool. Just enter your website’s URL and Google will show you how your site looks on a variety of different devices.
Another way to check your website on multiple devices is to use a responsive design testing tool. These tools allow you to enter your website’s URL and view how it looks on different screen sizes.
Both of these methods are quick and easy ways to check your website on multiple devices. Regularly checking your site on multiple devices is an important part of WordPress maintenance.
Audit Your WordPress Security
One of the most important aspects of WordPress maintenance is security. You need to make sure that your website is secure in order to protect your data and your visitors’ data.
There are a few things you can do to audit your WordPress security:
- Install a WordPress security plugin: There are many WordPress security plugins available, so you can choose the one that best suits your needs.
- Use strong passwords: Be sure to use strong passwords for all of your WordPress accounts. A strong password is at least eight characters long and includes a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.
- Keep WordPress up to date: It’s important to keep WordPress up to date in order to receive the latest security updates.
By following these WordPress security tips, you can help keep your website safe from hackers. Regularly auditing your WordPress security is an important part of WordPress maintenance.
Conclusion
By following the tips in this article, you can help ensure that your WordPress website is running smoothly. By regularly backing up your website, performing maintenance tasks, and optimizing your images, you can help keep your website running quickly and efficiently.
If you need a hand with any of these tasks, our team at Graticle would be happy to help! We offer a variety of WordPress maintenance and optimization services that can help keep your website running smoothly. Contact us today to learn more! Call (360) 450-3711
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WordPress Maintenance FAQs
How often should I update WordPress?
It is recommended that you update WordPress as soon as a new security release is available. For major releases, it is best practice to wait until your theme and plugins have been updated before updating WordPress itself.
If my site is hacked, what should I do?
If you think your site has been hacked, the first thing you should do is change your password. If you are still having issues, you can reach out to the WordPress support team like ours for help.
What are some common WordPress security risks?
There are a few common WordPress security risks that you should be aware of:
– SQL injection attacks
– Cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks
– Brute force attacks
To help protect your site from these and other security risks, we recommend that you install a security plugin like Wordfence.
Is it really necessary to use a WordPress security plugin?
Yes, we believe it is. A WordPress security plugin like Wordfence can help you block malicious traffic, scan for malware, and more.
