As a WordPress site owner, you have a lot on your plate. From creating content to driving traffic, it’s easy to let maintenance tasks fall by the wayside. But the truth is that keeping your WordPress site up to date is crucial for its performance, security, and overall success.

So, to make things easy for you. In this article, we’ll go over six important maintenance tasks that you should do on a regular basis to keep your WordPress site running smoothly. From keeping your software and plugins up to date to regularly backing up your site, we’ve got you covered. So, put on your virtual tool belt, and let’s get started!

1. Update Your WordPress Software and Plugins

One of the most important maintenance tasks you can do for your WordPress site is to keep your software and plugins up to date. New updates often include security patches and performance improvements, so it’s essential to stay updated.

To update your WordPress software, simply login to your dashboard and follow the prompts. For plugin updates, you can either update them individually or bulk update them all at once. Just be sure to back up your site before updating it in case anything goes wrong.

Moreover, if you are running an eCommerce store on WordPress, then along with all the associated plugins, you must keep all the payment-related plugins up-to-date.

2. Monitor Your Site’s Performance

Maintaining the performance of your WordPress site is crucial for providing a good user experience and ensuring that your site runs smoothly. To do this, it’s a good idea to regularly monitor your site’s performance and identify any issues that may arise. 

Here are some key areas to consider when monitoring your site’s performance:

• Page Load Times: Slow page load times can frustrate users and harm your search engine ranking. You can use a tool like GTmetrix or PageSpeed Insights to check your page load times. These tools will analyze your site and provide recommendations for improving page load times.
• Server Response Times: Your server’s response time is the amount of time it takes to receive and process a request. If your server response times are slow, it can cause your site to load slowly or even crash. You can use a tool like Pingdom or New Relic to check your server response times.
• Errors and Issues: It’s important to regularly check for and fix any errors or issues that may arise on your site. This can include broken links, mixed content warnings, or accessibility issues. You can use tools like Query Monitor to help identify any issues with your site.

So by regularly monitoring your site’s performance, you can catch any issues early and take steps to fix them before they become a bigger problem. This can help ensure that your site is functioning properly and providing a good user experience for your visitors.

3. Keep Your Site Secure

It’s a fact that no website can ever be completely secure, but as a website owner, you must minimize the security risks as much as possible. One way to do this is by using security scans to identify potential vulnerabilities on our sites. And by regularly performing these checks, you can protect your site against hackers’ attacks.

Several commercial plugins for WordPress can help you with this task, such as Sucuri and WordFence. These plugins offer a range of valuable features, such as;

• Repairing Files
• Security Scanner
• Malware Removal
• WordPress Firewall
• Leaked Password Protection

The number of security scans you run depends on how frequently you publish content and update your website. Therefore, as a general rule of thumb, you should scan your website once every two weeks.

4. Regularly Back Up Your Site

As a website owner, you should know that backing up your site is an essential maintenance task to make sure you don’t lose any important data in the event of a problem. 

So, to help you out, below we have outlined some mandatory recommendations to follow while backing up your site:

• Determine How Often to Back Up: The size, complexity, and frequency of updates to your website will determine how often you will need to perform maintenance. Keep your website updated at least once a month for optimal performance.
• Choose a Backup Method: There are several ways to back up your WordPress site, including using a plugin, manually exporting your database, or using a hosting service that provides automatic backups. Choose the method that works best for your needs and resources.
• Test Your Backups: It’s essential to regularly test your backups to ensure they are complete and can be restored successfully. This will give you peace of mind knowing that you have a reliable backup in case something goes wrong with your site.

REMEMBER: Don’t neglect this important maintenance task – it could save you a lot of time and stress in the long run.

5. Check for and Fix 404 Errors

A 404 error occurs when a user tries to access a page that doesn’t exist on your site. This can be frustrating for users and harm your search engine ranking. To fix 404 errors, you’ll need to find the pages causing the issue and either delete them or create a new page to replace them. Here’s how to do this.

First, to identify the 404 Errors, you can use a tool like Google Search Console or a plugin like Redirection to identify any 404 errors on your site. These tools will provide a list of the URLs causing the errors and the number of times each error has occurred.

Now for each 404 error, you’ll need to decide whether to delete the page or create a new page to replace it. If the page is no longer relevant or necessary, you can simply delete it. If the page is still useful, you’ll have to create a new page and redirect users from the old URL to the new one. This will help ensure that users can still access the content they’re looking for.

Lastly, be sure to test your changes to make sure they’re working correctly.

6. Website Functionality Test

Regular testing is an essential but often overlooked maintenance task for WordPress sites. By taking a few minutes to perform basic tests on your site, you can save yourself a lot of time and headaches down the road.

To begin with, perform some basic tests, including logging in as an administrator and checking that everything is working properly, such as pages, forms, links, and content. You should also test that contact forms, social media icons, and other widgets are functioning correctly.

Furthermore, to ensure that your site works properly across different browsers and operating systems, you can use tools like LambdaTest to perform cross-browser testing. This will help you identify issues that may only affect certain browsers or platforms.

If you notice something isn’t working correctly, try to identify what has changed recently that may have caused the problem. It could be an issue with a plugin or a change you made to your theme that affects the site’s functionality.

We recommend testing your site for basic functionality at least once a month or before making any important announcements, such as a sale or a new product line. It’s also a good idea to give the site a “test run” before making any big announcements to ensure everything is functioning smoothly.

Conclusion

WordPress offers excellent flexibility and strength, but it can create vulnerabilities without regular maintenance, as it is essential for the success and performance of your website.

So, if you invest a little time and effort in regular maintenance, you can save yourself a lot of headaches and ensure that your WordPress site performs at its best.