WordPress web development has helped many small businesses & startups in Singapore to build their online presence at a lower cost. However, to ensure that your WordPress website is bug-free, secure, and user-friendly, you must maintain it regularly. You could be a business owner who has full control over the site or perhaps collaborating with a WordPress developer – whatever side of the spectrum you fall on; these fundamental tasks are designed to help you maintain your WordPress site efficiently.
In this blog post, we have shared some essential maintenance tasks that you must do for your WordPress website.
A Word of Caution
Before performing any of the maintenance tasks mentioned here, having a complete backup of the website is very essential. If things turn out to be unfavorable, a backup can be used to restore the site and not lose any important data. For those who are not particularly tech-savvy, hiring a Singapore web developer or agency is the way to go.
#1 Update WordPress, Themes, & Plugins Regularly
Your WordPress core, themes, and plugins need to be updated, and so does your website content. The security & error-free functioning of your WordPress website heavily depends on how frequently you update your website. On a basic level, you must do at least the following to update your website:
- Update the themes and plugins to their most current versions.
- Make sure that your server’s PHP version is the latest.
- Update the WordPress software to its latest version.
- Ensure that after every update, a functionality check of the site is conducted.
Tip: Remember to make a backup prior to updating. Some updates may break your site. Alternatively, you could hire a WordPress developer to safely do this for you.
#2 Scan the Website For Malware
Regular website hacking, crashing, or sudden technical difficulties could leave unexpected damages that are hard to fix. What you can do about them?
- Use UpdraftPlus or BackupBuddy to automate backups.
- Store backups on cloud services such as Google Drive or Dropbox.
- Occasionally, test backups on a test server to ensure the process works.
Tip: In order to prevent data loss, remember to set up automatic backups at least weekly.
#3 Check Website Security
Monitoring a website for its security is something that every webmaster must take seriously. Regular cyber checks ensure your site’s protection from potential hacks and malware. Here are a few things that you or your developer can do to secure your WordPress website.
- Regularly scan WordPress websites for malware and vulnerabilities.
- Use strong passwords and enable two-step verification (2SV).
- Download and install security plugins, such as Sucuri and Wordfence, as needed.
- Change the default admin URL (WPSite.com/wp-admin) to a customized one, for, e.g., WPSite.com/mylogin, etc.
- Regularly update all the plugins and the theme.
Tip: Hire a website agency to maintain your website regularly that will take care of the above tasks for you.
#4 Maintain Loading Speed
Your website’s ranking on search engines can help boost quality website traffic, new sales, and leads even further. The loading speed of a website is one of the important signals for search engines like Google to determine its rankings. Therefore, optimizing the website’s performance for loading speed should be an integral part of any website maintenance procedure.
- Use caching plugins such as WP Rocket or W3 Total Cache.
- Optimize images using Smush or Imagify.
- Minimize CSS and Javascript files to help with faster loading times.
Tip: Take the loading speed optimization of your website seriously, as your business relies on it. Therefore, hiring a web developer can help a great deal with the performance of your website and ensure that it loads quickly.
#5 Check and Fix Broken Links
Having broken links on a website can affect its user experience as well as SEO rankings.
- Use the Broken Link Checker plugin to find dead links.
- Look over your links and update them if they are out of date and incorrect.
- With the Redirection plugin, set up redirects for broken links.
Tip: Consistently auditing your links helps to make sure that users will always be sent to the appropriate sites.
#6 Optimize the database
Your WordPress database tends to collect data over time, which can slow down your website.
- Use the WP-Optimize plugin to remove spam comments, post edits, and other irrelevant information.
- Remove unused media files and older drafts.
Improve the performance of your database by optimizing the tables.
Tip: Hiring a WordPress developer can help you if these tasks are new to you.
#7 Optimize The Website For SEO
Search Engine Optimization brings in many new visitors because it allows your site to appear in higher positions of search results.
- Use plugins like Yoast SEO or Rank Math and watch the magic happen.
- Modify Meta Descriptions, Title Tags, and Alt Text of Images.
- Research relevant keywords and make necessary changes to the content.
Tip: Routine SEO audits can boost your site rankings and traffic. Hire an SEO expert if required.
#8 Check Website Forms and Contact Pages
Forms are essential for capturing inquiries, leads, and customer data. If these forms don’t work, business opportunities will be lost.
- Test the contacts forms and signup forms anytime necessary, and check pages regularly.
- Use plugins like WPForms or Contact Form 7.
- Make sure to check the email notifications and confirmation of submission.
Tip: Consider adding reCAPTCHA to the form to help block spam for form security.
#9 Change Website Content
The content encourages visitors to stay on the site for longer and helps in achieving better SEO ranking.
- Schedule regular content updates for blog posts, product descriptions (in the case of e-commerce sites), and other pages to engage visitors on a regular basis.
- Eliminate incorrect, irrelevant, and out-of-date information along with damaged images.
- Verify that all pieces using branded elements have the same typography, color, and style throughout.
Tip: Schedule a day for your website every month to review & update its content.