If you are an entrepreneur or you manage a WordPress Website Maintenance that has been around for a while, this post will interest you, because today we are going to tell you about a series of tasks that you must carry out In WordPress website maintenance .
Taking care of a web page is as important as its design or publishing new content on the blog, especially if the site has grown over time.
For that reason, today I am going to give you a series of recommendations as a website developer that you should follow if you want to have your website well maintained (you know how important it is to have your house in order).
WordPress website maintenance: 10 fundamental tasks
Maintaining a website in WordPress requires a series of tasks, some simpler and more obvious than others.
In my case, I have prepared these 10 that I consider fundamental, although there are many more (a website is constantly changing and growing).
Some of them are related to content management or WordPress updates, others are done manually and others require the installation of plugins.
For the latter (those that need plugins), I will leave you several different options, so that you have a choice ????
1. Plugin update
One of the most basic tasks for maintaining a WordPress website is updating the plugins. These are requiring updates from time to time that you must do so that they do not become obsolete.
Therefore, you should always have all the plugins of your website up to date to avoid possible crashes, incompatibilities, and even for the security of the website.
2. Template update
Closely related to the previous point is the update of the template you use on your website.
My advice is that you always have the latest version to be protected from possible threats and also so that you have its latest functionalities.
For example, the theme that we use ( Divi ) is often updated with new features and options. If you also use Divi or a template that is updated regularly,
I recommend working with a child theme so as not to lose the possible modifications you have made to the template when it is updated.
Another point that I do not want to forget is that you update the WordPress version when a new one comes out, to have the most current version of the CMS at all times.
3. Cache memory
Another task for the proper maintenance of a WordPress website is cache memory management. The cache is a type of fast access memory that is stored in a folder on your server so that, when the web is loaded, the user will see the web saved in that memory.
Its objective is to improve the loading speed of WordPress and reduce the consumption of resources that a website makes when loading.
What maintenance tasks should you perform as far as the cache is concerned?
- Enable a cache for mobile devices and another for the desktop.
- Clear the cache daily (this period of time may vary depending on the type of website).
- Exclude dynamic pages .
For example, in an ecommerce: the cart or the purchase page
What cache plugins are there for WordPress?
The answer is many, but the ones I recommend are the following:
- WP Rocket.
- Swift Performance Lite.
4. Database
Another task for maintaining a WordPress website is cleaning and optimizing its database. Over time, as a website grows, the database automatically stores all kinds of information and gets bigger.
For example, when you review and update a post that you already had published, WordPress stores each of the revisions in the web database.
So, if you have reviewed, for example, a post three times, in the database there will be three different versions of it (and two are left over).
Therefore, you should clean the database every so often (once a week, for example).
What plugins can you use to clean and optimize your website’s database?
- Optimize Database after Deleting Revision.
- Autoptimize.
- Cache plugins like WP Rocket or Swift Performance Lite also include this functionality.
5. Anti spam
Another task that you must perform to maintain a secure and garbage-free website is to install an antispam plugin.
Its objective is to filter the comments that a website receives through its entries and eliminate those that it considers spam, suspicious or dangerous.
The one I like the most and use on all my websites is Antispam Bee , but there are more options within the repertoire of WordPress plugins.
Some of them are:
- Anti-spam Stop
- Spam Comments
- Stop spammers Spam protection, AntiSpam, FireWall by CleanTalk
Read: Cost of website maintenance
6. Security
Closely related to spam is the issue of WordPress security . Security-related tasks are essential for maintaining a WordPress website.
To protect my pages I use a couple of plugins:
- WPS Hide Login allows you to easily and securely change the login URL on your website, which by default is: tuweb.com/wp-admin or tuweb.com/wp-login.php In addition, it intercepts access requests on your website through these links.
- WP Limit Login Attempts is in charge of limiting the number of possible attempts to log in to your website and to notify you by email when a user or IP address exceeds the number of attempts you have configured (3 or 4 are good numbers).
Other WordPress security plugins are:
- Wordfence Security
- iThemes Security
7. Error 404
Other cares for the maintenance of a WordPress website are those related to 404 errors that can be produced by obsolete or non-existent content.
404 errors are one of the most common on a website and occur when the page or section you are trying to access or have searched for is not available.
404 errorTo solve these types of errors I use the 404page – your smart custom 404 error page plugin ,
which allows you to create, configure and customize a 404 error page to your liking.
My advice is that you create a page in which you take the user to other parts of your website and that also includes a search engine.
8. Redirects
Closely related to 404 errors are redirects, especially if a website has been around for a while and you have modified old posts, pages or products.
If that is your case, you must be very careful so that the modified URLs correctly redirect to the new ones.
For example, I recently updated an old post and also modified its URL. Here you can see how the old link redirects to the new one.
https://breldigital.com/website-maintenance/ –> https://breldigital.com/website-maintenance-services/
How can you make redirects on your website?
- Hosting . Most WordPress hosting providers that I know of include the option to create custom redirects from their control panel.
- Htaccess file . The .htaccess file is a file that includes every website created with WordPress and is used to make certain modifications to your website directly, one of them is to create redirects. I don’t recommend touching this file if you don’t have advanced knowledge of web design.
- Redirection plugin . A very simple way to create custom redirects is to install the plugin called Redirection.
- Pretty Links is another plugin that you can also install in WordPress to redirect links very easily.
Before moving on to the next section, I want to talk to you about Broken Link Checker , a plugin that is responsible for scanning all the links on your website and shows you which ones are broken so that you can modify them.
Therefore, it is used to detect and repair broken links in WordPress, a task that I recommend you do if your website already has a lifetime.
9. Search Console
Another point for the correct maintenance of a WordPress website is the one that refers to the Google console.
To use it, you just have to log in with your Google account, link your website and verify it.
Once you have done it,
some of the tasks that I recommend you do in Search Console are :
- Index your website , that is, notify Google that your site is now available and ready to be crawled by its spider.
- Upload your website’s sitemap (the map with the list of all the URLs that you want Google to index).
- Register certain URLs on your website , for example, when you publish a new post. Delete links that have become outdated or broken.
- De-index the less interesting parts of your website (categories, legal texts, tags, etc).
Those are some of the initial tasks that I recommend, although Search Console includes many more functionalities related to search analytics, crawl errors, traffic, link inspection, web coverage …
10. SEO
Finally, I am going to talk about the SEO tasks that affect the maintenance of a WordPress website.
Some of my search engine optimization recommendations in this regard are:
- Check the titles of your posts and pages so that they are correctly optimized for Google and are attractive to the user.
- Check that all posts and pages have their corresponding meta description .
- Look for new keywords related to the theme of your website.
- Delete (or unindex) content that is out of date.
- Update old articles with fresh content.
- Take care that there are no broken links or 404 errors .
- Optimize images and their labeling.
Read: SEO trends in 2021
So far the 10 tasks that I consider essential for the proper maintenance of a WordPress website . Of course, there are many more, but I wanted to focus on those that are essential for a website to be ready at all times ????