If you’re reading this post, you most likely own or are about to own a WordPress website.
WordPress is one of the most popular CMS platforms for website owners. It is easy to install, use and navigate, but sadly, it is also an easy target for notorious hackers.
Last week, Wordfence reported 172 vulnerabilities in 157 WordPress Plugins and 4 WordPress Themes. If you aren’t keeping tabs on these and similar WP risks, you might be just another weak prey – a few clicks away from getting exploited by digital criminals.
Now, we understand that such a staggering number of security issues can create a sense of panic among WordPress users, but don’t worry – there are simple solutions to safeguard your site and beat hackers in their game.
In this blog, we’ve shared the top 10 WordPress maintenance tips and tricks. Read on and learn how to prevent unauthorised logins, spam and malware from hurting your digital presence.
Tip 01. Regularly Update WordPress Core, Themes and Plugins
WordPress is a dynamic platform where you have to constantly update its core, themes and plugins, fix bugs and address security vulnerabilities. Neglecting these updates can leave your site exposed to potential threats.
In 2024 alone, there were 4,448 reported vulnerabilities in the WordPress ecosystem, affecting both plugins and themes. Many are likely linked to the use of outdated components that may not be compatible with newer ones which can lead to site malfunctions or downtime. Here’s what you must do to sail your boat safely:
- Regular Update Checks: Set a routine to check for updates at least weekly.
- Automate Where Possible: Enable automatic updates for minor releases to ensure the timely application of essential patches.
- Backup Before Updating: Always backup your site before applying updates to prevent data loss in case of unforeseen issues.
Please note that if your site has a complex back-end with several advanced features or a unique layout, you can consider working with a custom web design company to keep your website elements safe and updated.
Tip 02. Implement Strong Security Measures
WordPress is a prime target for cyberattacks because it powers most websites on the internet. Implementing strong security measures is essential to protecting your site from potential threats. Here are our golden tips that’ll keep your website safe from the prying eyes of cybercriminals:
- Create Hard-to-Crack Passwords: Strong passwords are one of the easiest and most efficient ways to secure your platform. Use complex passwords combining uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters to prevent unauthorised access.
- Do Not Forget to Enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): In addition to strong passwords, adding an extra layer of verification significantly reduces the risk of unauthorised access.
- Install Top-rated Security Plugins: Use premium tools like Wordfence or Sucuri to get real-time monitoring and protection against malicious activities.
- Creating a Work Profile – To keep personal and professional data safe and private, an independent work profile is needed.
By establishing a work profile in Google, company-sensitive information, including emails, documents and apps, will be separated from personal information.
This separation ensures that company assets are safeguarded from misuse, minimises the risk of data breaches, and keeps work-related apps and settings secure.
Tip 03. Use Automated Backup Tools
Imagine losing all your website data due to a server crash, hacking attempt or accidental deletion. It’s a nightmare that you can easily avoid by regularly backing up your website. Regular backups act as a safety net, allowing you to restore your site to a previous state in case of data loss, hacks or other issues. The best part is the whole process is very easy if you use automated backup tools like ManageWP and Dropbox.
Efficient Website Management with ManageWP
ManageWP is an inclusive platform developed to manage WordPress websites. It streamlines the backup process by enabling users to schedule daily, weekly, or custom backups for multiple sites from one dashboard. ManageWP provides:
- One-click Backups: Back up with one click to save on manual effort.
- Scheduled Backups: Establish scheduled backup schedules so that your site data is backed up safely at periodic intervals with no further action required from your end.
- Dependable Backup Storage: ManageWP enables you to back up your WordPress site directly to Dropbox, a cloud storage service, so that your database and files are always safe and readily recoverable.
Automated and Seamless Backup Process with Dropbox
Dropbox, integrated with cPanel, enables you to automate your whole backup. Such integration ensures that:
- Scheduled Backups: You’re able to create scheduled automatic backups of your site, databases, and settings so they’re regularly stored without needing you to personally handle them.
- Simple Backup Monitoring: After they’re connected, you won’t have to mindlessly remember to back up your information. Set and forget it – your files are automatically backed up to Dropbox in the schedule that you designate.
The combination of ManageWP and Dropbox offers a highly cost-effective solution for website backups. ManageWP will automate the backup of your WordPress websites, and with Dropbox serving as a stable cloud storage option, you have a secure, scalable, and cost-effective method of safeguarding your data.
Both services have free or low-cost options, so this pairing is perfect for small businesses and website owners who require effective backup management without breaking the bank. It’s a robust, affordable backup solution that keeps your site secure and simple to restore when necessary. You just have to know what’s best for you.
If you don’t have the time to handle all these backup and maintenance tasks, you can reach out to a trusted custom web development company and let them take care of everything for you.
Tip 04. Monitor and Optimise Site Performance
A slow website can frustrate visitors and hurt your search engine rankings. Even a one-second delay in page load time can lead to fewer conversions. That’s why monitoring and optimising your site’s performance is crucial. Here’s what you can do:
- Optimise Images: Large image files are the most common cause of slow loading times. Compress them without losing quality using tools like TinyPNG or plugins like Smush.
Large image files are the most common causes of slow loading times. Compress them without losing quality using tools like TinyPNG, Compressor.io or plugins like WP-rocket. - Resize the Image Before Uploading to the Site: Make sure to resize it according to your needs. The maximum dimensions should be 1920×900, and the file size should not exceed 250KB.
- Use an image for the Hero Banner Instead of a Background: Having your hero banner as an image rather than as a background matters for performance as it can be optimised and load faster. Using an image directly for the hero banner can then be compressed, resized and cached by the browser, lowering the page loading time. This results in improved user experience, reduced bounce rate and higher SEO rankings.
Further, it makes sure the image is responsive and loads optimally on a variety of devices, further increasing site performance. - Avoid Using Inline CSS: When you use inline CSS, the styles are embedded directly within the HTML file. If a web page uses a lot of inline styles, it can cause the HTML file size to increase significantly. Larger files take longer to download, which can slow down page load times.
- Reduce HTTP Requests: Every element on your page, images, scripts, stylesheets etc. needs a separate request. Minimise these by combining files where possible.
- Enable Browser Caching: Caching saves parts of your website on visitors’ devices, making subsequent visits faster.
- Google PageSpeed Insights: Get a detailed report on your site’s speed, along with practical suggestions for improvement.
You’ll notice that a few of the above solutions require some degree of technical knowledge. If you aren’t comfortable fixing these performance issues, it’s recommended to hire experts from a leading custom web design company. They’ll make all necessary fixes and updates, helping you own a high-performing website.
Tip 05. Conduct Regular Security Scans
As aforesaid, WordPress is popular, and that makes it a prime target for cyberattacks. If you don’t scan your website regularly for vulnerabilities, hackers will do it for you and leave you with regrets!
To Enhance WordPress security and deliver a safe browsing experience to your users, make sure to:
- Use Security Plugins: Tools like Manage WP and Wordfence offer automated security scans and notify you if there are security issues.
You can also validate if the site is already clean right after the updates.
- Install an SSL Certificate: This encrypts data between your site and visitors, adding an essential layer of security. It also boosts your SEO.
Tip 06. Manage and Optimise Your Database
Your WordPress database stores everything from posts and comments to settings and user data. Over time, it collects clutter, like post revisions, spam comments and unused tags that can slow down your site. Here are efficient ways to keep your website database in good shape:
- Delete Unnecessary Data: Get rid of spam comments, trashed posts and unused tags regularly. This reduces database size and improves loading times.
- Optimise Tables: Defragmenting database tables helps your site access information more efficiently. Plugins like WP-Optimise make this process simple.
- Limit Post Revisions: WordPress saves every change you make to a post. You may want to limit the revisions you make on the site to prevent unnecessary bloat.
- Delete Unnecessary Data: Get rid of spam comments, trashed posts and unused tags regularly. This reduces database size and improves loading times.
- Install WP-Optimize: WP-Optimize automatically clears out unwanted data like spam comments, post revisions, and expired transients that will expand your database.
WP-Optimize also makes it easy to optimise databases with one-click options like table repair and defragmentation. It also ensures quick loading, improved resource utilisation, and overall site performance. Through constant database maintenance, it serves to keep your WordPress site running well and efficiently and is a favourite among many users.
Tip 07. Check for Broken Links
Broken links frustrate visitors and can hurt your SEO. When users click on a link that leads to a “404 Not Found” page, it disrupts their experience. Search engines also frown on these dead ends, which can impact your ranking.
Not to forget, broken links create a poor user experience. Visitors might leave your site if they keep hitting dead ends. In addition, search engines penalise sites with many broken links, which can lower your visibility in search results.
- Use Online Tools: Tools like Broken Link Checker and Dead Link Checker scan your site for dead links, helping you identify and fix them quickly.
- Plugins to Help: Use WordPress plugins to automatically find and alert you about broken links.
- Redirects: If you’ve removed a page or changed its URL, set up a 301 redirect to guide visitors (and search engines) to the new location.
Tip 08. Test Website Functionality
Your website should work flawlessly at all times. Ensure to test features like contact forms, payment gateways and interactive elements regularly to be sure that they’re working well.
You must make it a rule to manually navigate your site to check for issues. This gives you a first-hand experience of your site as a user. That said, here are a few things you must test regularly to own a well-maintained WordPress website:
- Forms: Test all forms (contact, subscription, feedback etc) to ensure submissions are working and notifications are received.
- Navigation Menus: Make sure all menus are functional and properly linked.
- Payment Gateways: If you’re running an e-commerce site, test the entire checkout process, including discounts and shipping calculations.
- Interactive Elements: Test sliders, pop-ups and other dynamic features to ensure they work across different browsers and devices.
- Responsiveness: Test the site responsiveness using ResponsivelyApp. It will give you a full experience of how the site looks in different screen sizes.
Tip 09. Review and Improve SEO
SEO is what makes your website visible. If you don’t keep your SEO strategy up-to-date, it will surely affect your website’s visibility in search engine results. SEO trends and algorithms change frequently, and so should your strategies! You can’t afford to keep using the same strategies and expect better results.
Search engines like Google frequently update their algorithms; if you don’t update yours, it will affect your ranking. Ensure to always update your SEO strategies from time to time. You can also work with a digital marketing agency to help you stay on top of the latest SEO trends and algorithm changes. They’ll help you with:
- Updating Fresh Content: Regularly update old posts with fresh information and relevant keywords. This keeps your content current and engaging.
- Checking Meta Tags: Ensure meta titles and descriptions are accurate, relevant, and optimised for your target keywords.
- Optimising Images: Use descriptive, keyword-rich file names and alt tags for images. This boosts your visibility in image searches.
- Monitoring Analytics: Use tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to track your site’s performance and identify areas for improvement.
Tip 10. User Experience (UX) & Accessibility
A website with poor navigation and overly complicated design can’t keep your users hooked. To deliver an enjoyable and truly user-friendly experience, it’s a good idea to follow a few important tips mentioned below:
- Test website navigation for ease of use (desktop & mobile).
- Check readability (font sizes, contrast, spacing).
- Ensure interactive elements (buttons, dropdowns) are accessible via keyboard.
- Add alt text to all images for accessibility and SEO.
- Ensure proper heading structure (H1, H2, H3) for SEO and readability.
The aforesaid tips are simple but leave a grand impact. Positive UI and UX of your website will help you increase user satisfaction and retain your audience for long.
Final Thoughts
The importance of consistent maintenance of your WordPress website cannot be overemphasised. Maintaining a WordPress site safeguards your brand, enhances user experience and helps you stay ahead of the competition.
But let’s be honest, WordPress maintenance can be time-consuming and sometimes overwhelming, especially when you’re juggling other aspects of your business. So why not leave it to the experts?
At Netplanet Digital, we understand the importance of a secure, fast, and SEO-optimised website. We are here to ensure you have consistent and updated routine updates, the perfect custom website design, security monitoring, and performance optimisation.
So be proactive! Don’t wait until your website has been hacked – book a free consultation today!
