After building an engaging WordPress website that tells your organization’s story to the world, you might be tempted to take a break from web development and let maintenance concerns fall by the wayside. However, ongoing WordPress maintenance is critical to the long-term health of your website.
A lot goes into maintaining a WordPress site, especially if you want longevity, security, and the ability to grow. We’ve put together a guide to help you sort out what you need to make your site last, stay safe, and continue to meet your needs down the road. Here’s what we’ll cover:
- Why is WordPress maintenance so important?
- WordPress maintenance and support tasks
- 10 effective WordPress maintenance services and tools
Why is WordPress maintenance so important?
To answer this question, we must consider another: what happens if you don’t maintain your site? What if you just pop a site up on a host somewhere and never touch it again?
In the best-case scenario, nothing. Your site exists, but that’s about it. It will be left in the dust as the rest of the web progresses. Even search engines will “forget” about it, so to speak, as they give higher priority to sites that are updated regularly. And since search engine optimization (SEO) performance and user expectations evolve monthly, your site may not be able to continue meeting your audience’s needs effectively.
Worst-case scenarios are far more interesting to talk about. With all those security holes, from the lack of updates to WordPress core and your third-party plugins, the site could easily be hacked—remember, when they release the fix, they also reveal the security flaw. If you have no backups, you can’t restore to a version before the hack (where it will still be vulnerable to the same hack).
Or, your website host could one day alert you that they no longer support the version of PHP or MySQL your site is using. Some hosts automatically update these tools, and some even update Core for you, but not your plugins. Depending on how out-of-date your site is, these could be site-breaking compatibility issues.
Clearly, it’s a huge risk to keep a poorly maintained or completely unmaintained website. On the other hand, the benefits of good maintenance and consistent support far outweigh the costs. Maintaining your website allows you to:
- Reduce security risks
- Stay current with SEO trends and requirements
- Grow your site and use new and updated features
- Increase traffic and conversions
However, proper maintenance can be time-consuming, requiring extensive research and hosting, WordPress, and website development expertise. That’s why many organizations and businesses turn to expert support providers like Kanopi to lighten the load (more on our services in a bit!).
WordPress maintenance and support tasks
The exciting (and stressful) truth about the web is that it changes daily. Designers and developers must quickly become proficient in techniques they may have never heard of before.
For site owners, this constant change means a lot of upkeep. What’s standard today could be different in a month. You must commit to regular, ongoing website maintenance to ensure your WordPress website stays healthy and up-to-date. While hosting companies will maintain your site’s server (where your website lives on the internet), most don’t offer the kinds of hands-on updates and support your specific website needs.
With that in mind, here are the most essential support tasks you must conduct regularly to keep your site healthy:
Backups
You’re not really a web developer until you’ve deleted something critical and had to restore it. Most hosts offer backup plans, or at the very least provide you with a method of downloading your own backups. At Kanopi Studios, we use hosts that provide daily backups and let us create manual backups, ensuring we have total control in the event a site needs to be restored.
WordPress core updates
WordPress is a growing, living thing. That’s what those little version numbers really mean—version 6.5.4 is out as of this writing. Core updates include security patches, as well as new or updated features that your developer can use to add innovative functionality to your site.
The real cornerstone of this process is the security updates; when the WordPress team finds and resolves a security problem, they release an updated version of WordPress core, along with an explanation of that flaw. This means that the same security bug is now public knowledge and available to nefarious individuals to take advantage of. That’s why it’s essential to update your site promptly after a new core release.
Theme and plugin updates
Likewise, purchased themes or third-party plugins are subject to change for similar reasons—plugging security holes or adding new and improved features. It’s good practice to update these elements at least once a quarter to stay on top of it.
Plus, it’s almost always easier to jump between minor versions (eg. 6.4.2 to 6.4.5) than to wait and go from one major release to another (eg. 4.3.1 to 6.4.5). Although, it is a good way to get that adrenaline pumping, especially if you don’t have backups (but we strongly advise against it if you want your site to stay intact!).
Transients and caching assessment
Both servers and browsers cache websites to deliver content faster. A cache essentially stores a “snapshot” of a website and then delivers that snapshot upon subsequent visits to reduce load time.
Of course, as a website owner, you want this snapshot to update when you add new information. Sometimes caching can be too aggressive or non-existent. It’s valuable to consider your website’s specific needs to choose the right type of caching. WordPress also uses something called transients, which allow developers to add additional caching for specific types of database queries. This is essential for large or complex sites.
Caching can be done in several ways: your website host may have caching, you could use a third-party caching plugin or service, a developer could add caching-specific code, or you could implement a combination of all three.
Database optimization
Over time, new content is added to your website database, with either new rows or columns of data, new database tables, or new connections between tables. It’s like your website’s filing cabinet, going back to the beginning of time. This growth can get messy if it’s not maintained and pruned regularly.
Some hosts offer manual “one-click” database optimization solutions, but for a real thorough cleanup, you need someone with the technical know-how and familiarity with your site. Also, backups. Always backups.
Security and malware scans
Sometimes, you may do everything you can to keep WordPress core and your plugins updated, but your site still ends up vulnerable to cyber attacks. Because of WordPress’s popularity, it is by far the most hacked CMS (it’s the target of 90% of all hacking attempts). That’s why it’s wise to run ongoing security checks and malware scans to catch any potential issues.
WordPress offers a variety of security plugins to manage these scans. However, we recommend working with an experienced web developer who can recommend the right tool for your site that won’t compromise performance.
Performance enhancements
Website performance involves the ongoing tasks and elements that allow your site to run like a well-oiled machine. When load speeds, conversion opportunities, and other technical factors are optimized, your site will be a performant resource that exceeds your audience’s expectations. With that in mind, you should conduct the following performance checks every few weeks:
- Assess your site’s load speeds. Ideally, your website should load in 2 seconds or less. You can use PageSpeed Insights to test your site’s pages.
- Set up a notification if your site goes down. Whenever a website goes offline, even if it’s just for a few minutes, it can damage the site’s reputation and reduce conversions. Use a free tool or plugin to set up a notification if your site goes down so you can identify the issue and get your site back up and running.
- Test your site’s most important conversion forms. Your site’s conversion opportunities enable casual visitors to engage with your organization, whether through making a purchase, donating, signing up for your newsletter, registering to volunteer, or taking another action. Ensure your conversion forms work properly and load quickly on laptops and mobile devices.
Accessibility audit
Last (but certainly not least), you must make accessibility a core priority for your WordPress maintenance efforts. Emphasizing accessibility ensures your website can remain a usable resource for all audience members. Accessibility best practices and technologies constantly evolve, so you must stay up to date with relevant guidelines and assistive tools.
You can use automated tools to assess your site’s accessibility (we cover a few options in the next section), but we also recommend manually testing your site. This allows you to recreate the user experience and catch any issues that may have slipped through undetected.
To build a website that’s truly accessible at its core, we recommend taking a holistic approach to accessibility with the help of an experienced web design partner. For example, here’s a quick look at Kanopi’s integrated accessibility approach:
Contact us to learn how we can support your unique accessibility needs based on your audience’s characteristics.
10 effective WordPress maintenance services and tools
There are plenty of WordPress maintenance tools and services available online that can help you maintain a high-quality website for years to come. We’ve rounded up a few of our favorite solutions to help you get started.
Pantheon: WordPress Host
Pantheon is one of Kanopi’s partners for a reason! We love using their platform for hosting WordPress sites. They have powerful features for iterative development and rollouts, and you can even check your plugin versions right from the dashboard with security alerts attached.
WP Engine: WordPress Host
WPEngine also specializes in WordPress hosting, which means they know the ins and outs of the CMS and can help with common problems. Their support is fast, knowledgeable, and dedicated. Their platform also keeps up with the latest stable PHP version and WordPress core, with easy testing and deployment.
Yoast: WordPress Search Engine Optimization
Yoast is a plugin we regularly use and recommend for WordPress websites. Yoast automatically adds basic schema data to your website, creates a sitemap XML, and empowers you to create dynamically generated metadata for your various post types. The free version has all the features you need, making this an affordable addition to your tech stack.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider: Website Crawler
Screaming Frog’s SEO Spider is another solution that can help you monitor and improve your site’s technical performance, which will in turn boost your SEO rankings. The SEO Spider crawls your website to identify issues like broken links, redirect chains, defective meta descriptions and titles, and duplicate content. Then, you can quickly correct these issues to enhance your site’s performance and make it easier for search engines to crawl and index the site.
Google Analytics: Website Analytics Platform
Google Analytics offers website analytics to assess the effectiveness of your engagement and conversion opportunities. With Google Analytics, you can track metrics such as your website’s page views, bounce rate, time on page, traffic sources, and other detailed information. This data provides a well-rounded picture of who your visitors are and what they want from your site.
HotJar: User Experience Assessment Tools
HotJar is a WordPress plugin that advertises itself as a tool to discover “Everything you ever wanted to know about your website… but your analytics never told you.” In practice, this means HotJar offers detailed user experience tracking tools such as website heatmaps, user session recordings, and feedback and survey tools to gather input from real site visitors.
HotJar is effective for gaining a comprehensive understanding of the user experience on your website and ways you can improve the experience as part of your ongoing maintenance efforts.
Kraken.io: Image Optimization
Images make up a lot of your website’s “weight,” which is why it’s necessary to compress images to ensure faster page load speeds. Kraken.io is a paid service with a WordPress plugin that allows you to create optimized images for your website. For quick image optimization, you can also use a free tool like TinyPNG.
PageSpeed Insights: Page Speed and Accessibility Assessments
PageSpeed Insights gives you a quick overview of how well your site is doing across the board, including performance, SEO, accessibility, and best practices. Put any URL in and see how it stacks up compared to Google’s standards. You can also download this as an extension (Google Lighthouse) for Chrome and run it directly in your browser.
Siteimprove: Accessibility Checker
Siteimprove offers a free accessibility checker and WordPress accessibility plugin to help ensure your site aligns with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). You can assess key components of your site’s accessibility, such as color contrast, headings, alt text, broken links, navigation, and anchor text descriptiveness.
Kanopi: WordPress Maintenance Services
To keep your site healthy and expand its functionality over the years, you need more than just simple maintenance services and security scans. You need a dedicated partner who can learn your website inside and out and offer reliable support all year round. That’s where Kanopi comes in!
We work with some great hosting partners who understand what we’re about, and it lets us hold the right reins when it comes to our client sites. Our developers are experienced with the CMS and strive to uphold WordPress’s own standards.
Top Features of Kanopi’s WordPress Maintenance Services
Kanopi’s well-rounded team of experienced designers, strategists, and developers enables us to support your WordPress website at any stage of its lifecycle. Got a lemon that needs a serious overhaul? Need a complete rebuild? Have a freshly built higher ed website or hospital website that needs extra care to keep it going? We’ve got the combination of skills and people needed to handle your website wherever it’s at.
Like your site, our team is also always growing its knowledge base. We stay up-to-date with security releases, changes to WordPress core, industry standards, and new technologies. If the next version of PHP is on the way, we’re already preparing your site for the update.
Specifically, here’s an overview of our services:
- Module and plugin upgrades
- Bug fixes and security patches
- Development modifications
- Updating content types/views
- Third-party integrations
- CSS/HTML changes
- Commerce updates
- Performance enhancements
- Content revisions and updates
- Managing support tickets with your host
We’re not just about keeping your website running—Kanopi works closely with you to genuinely understand your organization. Forging this partnership allows us to help you create a website that truly represents your organization as we strategize together.
We take a continuous improvement and growth-driven approach with incremental updates like navigation strategy and SEO fixes that boost your site over time. Here’s a look at how our growth-driven approach works vs. traditional website design and development:
Interested in learning more about Kanopi’s WordPress services? Check out our WordPress work to see examples of how we’ve supported and improved sites over time. We work with all types of WordPress websites across industries, including healthcare, education, nonprofit, corporate, and arts and culture sites.
Final thoughts
To summarize, yes, you need to maintain your WordPress website, yes, there’s a lot to do, and yes, someone else can do it for you. If you’re interested in a partnership with Kanopi, we’d love to hear from you. If you need more information about the maintenance process, start with these additional resources:
- The Ultimate Website Maintenance for Nonprofits Checklist. Nonprofit websites built on WordPress have a few specific maintenance tasks to keep in mind. Start with this checklist to maintain your site’s health.
- Measuring Content Success: the Only Scorecard You Need. Content updates are a critical aspect of website maintenance. Use our free content scorecard to assess and update your content effectively.
- Boosting Site Performance in Drupal and WordPress: Strategies to Try and Avoid. Try these strategies when refreshing your website to improve site performance and facilitate faster load speeds.
