You’ve picked your theme. You’ve added your copy. Your WordPress business website is live!
Now it’s time to sit back and relax, right?
Think again. It would be great if building a website was a one-and-done event, but that’s not the way the internet works. Of the 1.9 billion websites online, over 75% of them are “inactive.”
One reason websites fall into this category is that the owner fails to do proper business website maintenance. Just like changing the oil in your car, your website also needs regular, routine maintenance.
The good news is it’s not as difficult as you might think. Keep reading for our best tips for WordPress maintenance.
Back Up Your Site
Every day, hackers attack more than 30,000 websites. Even more startling, 43% of those cyber attacks are aimed at small businesses.
What would you do if your site was hacked or it temporarily went down? If you don’t have all your site data backed up, you could potentially lose everything.
Make sure you have a WordPress plug-in installed (and activated) that automatically schedules backups of your website. It’s also good practice to do a manual backup before performing any other maintenance work — just in case.
Update Your Site
Do you feel annoyed every time you see a new update available for your website or one of the plug-ins?
There’s a reason why updates roll out so frequently. In fact, there are three reasons:
- To give you access to the latest features
- To ensure compatibility with the latest releases
- To make your site more secure
Every update includes new security patches to protect your website against the latest cyber threats. Updates also ensure that your site loads quickly and operates smoothly — two vital components of user experience (UX).
Pro tip: Every WordPress theme or plugin installed on your site is another possible source of insecurity or incompatibility. Be sure to deactivate and then delete any plugins or themes you aren’t actively using.
Improve Site Performance
Once your website is secure and up to date, you can focus on improving its page speed and overall performance.
Why does this matter? Most visitors will “bounce” from a website within 10 to 20 seconds — unless you give them a compelling reason to stay.
Maintaining a business website ensures that each page loads quickly (within a few seconds) and all the elements appear correctly. Practical steps you could take include compressing images, reducing redirects, and enabling browser caching.
A website that runs like a well-oiled machine won’t just impress visitors. Google and other search engines favor fast websites and reward them with higher rankings. Boosting your site performance is likely to boost your SEO as well, which means more potential customers can find your website.
Do You Need Help With WordPress Maintenance?
As we’ve discussed, regular WordPress maintenance is crucial to keep your website running smoothly. Understandably, though, you may not have the time or desire to maintain your website.
After all, you have a business to run!
This is where we can help. We offer an array of web services to help business owners, including worry-free maintenance for WordPress business websites.
Click here to send us a message or give us a call at 570-850-2151.