Having a professional website is vital to the success of any online venture, and WordPress, a versatile open-source content management system (CMS), is what businesses rely on to achieve a quality online presence without many obstacles.

This powerful website builder already supports 45% of all websites on the internet, so it’s no surprise that it is considered very useful for running any business website. From ease of use to fully customizable solutions to a wide range of themes and plugins, WordPress is packed with powerful features.

So, if you are running a website and want to make sure your site is safe, secure and running at peak performance with customizable features and looks, there is probably no good alternative to WordPress.

WordPress maintenance – how important is it?

After all, WordPress is a sophisticated database-driven system that requires consistent maintenance to keep it functional and stable and secure. So, if you set it up and configure it properly, your work isn’t done here. Again, maintenance goes beyond updating your website core, plugins or themes.

Despite being a popular platform, there are security considerations as hackers and viruses often target WordPress. If this goes unnoticed, hackers can extract database credentials and create unprivileged administrator accounts. And this will put a big dent in your profile and credibility.

However, by maintaining the look and function of your website to fix bugs, crashes and other related issues, you can fight hackers and security threats 24/7. Along with strengthening the security of your site, it helps prevent downtime, ensures a great user experience, and maintains regular backups.

Important WordPress maintenance tasks you should do

Now, if you’re struggling with the things you need to do regularly to keep your WordPress project running properly, the list below may give you some ideas.

Change your WordPress password regularly

Passwords are one of the main causes of WordPress security breaches. That’s why it’s always recommended to use strong, unique passwords for all your online accounts.

However, it is recommended that you change your password regularly, even after using long and complex passwords. This includes passwords for your WordPress dashboard, FTP or SSH account, MySQL database, and web hosting. It reduces the risk of continued access, limits breaches to multiple accounts, and prevents the use of stored passwords.

Back up your site regularly

Even if you have implemented all the security practices to protect your site, your website data may still be vulnerable. Website data loss can occur for a variety of reasons, including hosting system corruption, server crashes or failures. In these unexpected situations, a sound backup strategy can be a lifesaver.

You can manually back up your site yourself, use a plugin to do automatic backups, or use a backup solution provided by your web host provider.

Update to the latest version of WordPress

Whenever a new version of WordPress core is available, always update to the latest version for better performance and security. WordPress version upgrades include patches, bug fixes, new feature updates, faster site loading speeds, security guarantees, and other improvements. This will reduce crashes when updating plugins and themes, even if you get the latest version of the software.

Theme and plugin updates

Along with the WordPress core, your website’s themes and plugins should also be updated regularly. WordPress themes and updates provide bug fixes and performance improvements that help prevent security breaches and improve the functionality of your WordPress website. You can manually check for updates by reviewing all installed plugins and themes or enable automatic updates to save time and effort.

Conducting SEO and content audits

Include this in your regular maintenance tasks. Conduct a thorough and in-depth review of your content. With the help of Google Search Console and Google Analytics, figure out where your visitors are coming from, find the search keywords that show your site in the results, and find high-traffic content.

Find and Fix Broken Links

Broken links are not good for user experience and SEO rankings. Broken links can happen for a number of reasons. Sometimes it can be caused by moving a site to a new domain name, deleting a post without a proper redirect, or a typo that has gone unnoticed for a long time. So, it’s a good idea to regularly check for broken links and fix them in one place to make sure all the links on your site are working properly.

Fix 404 page

Frequently occurring 404 errors from deleted pages, typos, or invalid URLs can hurt your brand and negatively impact your SEO. Therefore, you should regularly look for and fix 404 errors.