Getting a WordPress website up and running is only half the battle. It takes ongoing maintenance to keep it secure, stable, and functioning properly. WordPress itself gets updated on a regular basis, plugins require occasional upgrades, design templates evolve over time, and website databases collect digital clutter.
The neglect that builds up over months can combine into a serious WordPress maintenance emergency. You won’t necessarily notice small problems — a single, outdated component can quietly compromise your whole website for weeks.
The good news is that most WordPress maintenance woes are relatively simple to resolve. Let’s take a closer look at some of the most common WordPress upkeep tasks.
Keep WordPress Up to Date
WordPress updates tend to be major undertakings — new features are added, security patches are deployed, performance upgrades are implemented. Either way, it’s crucial that you keep WordPress core files properly updated.
The most important rule before updating WordPress is to have a recent website backup ready. That way, if a routine WordPress upgrade somehow breaks your website, you’ll be able to quickly roll back the changes and restore normal operations.
If you run a small blog or website, you can likely get away with simply checking for WordPress updates on a monthly basis. For larger, more complex websites, it’s a good idea to test major WordPress updates before deploying them to your live website.
Update Plugins and Themes
WordPress rarely runs alone — it hosts a variety of third-party components, including plugins and themes. These additions require regular upkeep just like the WordPress core files.
Go through your plugin list and update any active plugins. Even deactivated plugins can pose a security risk if they haven’t been updated in a while. You should also delete any unnecessary components rather than leaving them on the system.
Themes undergo similar changes and updates over time. Always make sure the theme you’re using is compatible with your current version of WordPress before making any major changes.
Make Backups and Test Them
Believe it or not, website backups fall under WordPress maintenance. A quality backup can protect you from malfunctioning updates, human error, malicious attacks, and technical difficulties.
WordPress website owners have a responsibility to understand how their website backups work. If your web hosting company provides automated backups as part of your service plan, make sure you know when they occur, where they’re stored, and how long they’re retained.
Even more importantly, you should test your website backups on a regular basis. The health of your WordPress site depends on an accurate, up-to-date website backup to ensure you can always restore your data if necessary.
The best practice is to store redundant backups in different locations. Website backups and website files should never be in the same place, since it makes both vulnerable to physical threats, such as fires or natural disasters.
Run Security Checks
Website security audits are one of those WordPress maintenance tasks that seem unnecessary until you need them. Go through your administrative user accounts and ensure that there are no inactive users with administrative privileges.
Also, make sure that your WordPress administrator accounts have strong passwords and proper permissions assigned. You should also look for any unknown files, unauthorized administrator accounts, and other security concerns.
Updating WordPress, plugins, and themes is only part of the website security puzzle. Always combine WordPress maintenance best practices with general security recommendations to get the best results.
If your website was ever hacked, don’t forget to address the underlying cause. Simply cleaning your website isn’t enough — you need to make sure unauthorized users don’t have ongoing access to your system.
Audit Your Plugins
It’s easy to accumulate a variety of WordPress plugins without fully understanding their purpose. New WordPress plugins get released on a regular basis that offer additional functionality. One of them might seem useful — and then you forget about it entirely in a matter of months.
For every plugin installed on your website, you should be able to answer a few basic questions: Do I actually need this right now? Does this plugin perform a task that another WordPress plugin can do better?
Is this WordPress plugin hurting my website performance in any way? Does it unnecessarily complicate my website administration? Can I safely remove this WordPress component?
If you can answer “yes” to any of these questions, it’s time to rethink your plugin strategy.
Test Website Speed and Performance
A fast WordPress website is a happy WordPress website. As your website grows and accumulates more content, you may not notice that it begins to slow down. Large image files, extra scripts, advertising pop-ups, and a variety of other additions can combine into a frustrating WordPress speed issue.
There’s no magic standard for WordPress performance needs, but you should always test your website speed on important pages, including the homepage and major blog posts or landing pages.
You should also look at potential performance bottlenecks and delete any unnecessary scripts or website elements that hurt the loading speed of your web pages.
If you have a web hosting control panel, it’s a good idea to become familiar with performance tools and website maintenance options.
Audit Your Media Library
It may sound surprising, but WordPress media audits are an essential part of website maintenance. Every time you add an image to a post or page, WordPress stores that media file in the media library.
Large image files can bloat your website and hurt its performance, especially on mobile devices. Before uploading any media files to your website, you should resize them to a reasonable image quality and format.
It’s especially important to avoid uploading multiple copies of the same image. While WordPress media management isn’t the most intuitive process, you should always review and optimize your media library at least once every few months.
Check for Broken Links
Website links are one of those WordPress maintenance items that you’re likely to forget about — until you need them. Over time, internal website links can point to non-existent web pages when URLs change. External links can lead to websites that no longer exist or redirected to inappropriate locations.
Broken links hurt your website SEO and damage the user experience. You should always scan your website for broken links with a broken link detector tool. Check your website menu, blog archives, and other critical links for potential issues.
When you change a URL, make sure to set up a 301 redirect from the old web address to the new one. That way, anyone who previously bookmarked or linked to the old URL will still be redirected to the right location without encountering a broken link error.
Review Website Forms
Website forms are one of those WordPress maintenance items that you hope won’t be an issue. Contact forms, newsletter subscriptions, search bars, and other interactive elements can develop problems without warning.
Website forms are especially important for business owners. A non-functioning contact form is one of the worst things that can happen to a small business website.
To avoid issues, make sure that all of your website forms are operational and properly backed by email or another communication tool. Regularly test your website forms and double-check that they’re going to the right place and that the information is actually being received.
Review Users and Permissions
Your website probably doesn’t need a separate administrator for every employee at your small business. Regularly review the list of WordPress users and ensure that everyone has the correct level of administrative permissions.
If an outside contractor, developer, or designer finishes their work on your WordPress website, they should ideally have their WordPress account disabled or removed, depending on your personal preferences and security considerations. The same applies to former employees who no longer require access to the website.
WordPress database management is an important skill for any self-hosted WordPress website owner. WordPress databases tend to accumulate digital clutter over time. Depending on the nature of your website, that might include spam comments, old post drafts, and other unnecessary data.
Regular WordPress database clean-up and optimization is an important maintenance task that helps keep your website secure and operating smoothly. Database optimization is even more crucial if you run a high-traffic website or WordPress blog.
The most important rule for WordPress database clean up is to make a recent website backup before you begin. That way, if you accidentally delete something critical, you can easily restore the WordPress database from a working backup.
Review Your Website Content
WordPress maintenance doesn’t just apply to the technical side of website management. Website content review is a critical task that involves looking through your website content and making sure everything is up to date.
Old articles can gather digital dust — random links can break, references to other websites can become outdated, and general information can become obsolete. Regular website content review lets you update important website content without disrupting your readers.
As part of this WordPress maintenance procedure, you should always scan through your website content for broken links and invalid references. You can use a broken link checker tool or manually review each link in your articles, website menus, and website footers.
You should also update WordPress headings, subheadings, image captions, content, contact information, and website calls to action. Website SEO optimization is another important consideration, although it’s a topic that deserves a closer examination in a separate guide.
Analyze Website Analytics
You can learn a lot about website maintenance by looking at your website analytics. If you use Google Analytics or another website analytics tool, set aside some time to review recent developments.
Strange changes in your website traffic patterns could signal changes in your website’s search engine rankings or problems with your WordPress website performance. Search engine optimization (SEO) is another topic that requires further analysis, so we’ll take a closer look at it in the next section.
Website SEO isn’t something you should analyze only once. If you run a WordPress website for a small business, it’s a good idea to check your website SEO every few months to ensure that everything is up to date.
Review Your Maintenance Schedule
Finally, it’s time to review your WordPress maintenance schedule. Some WordPress upkeep tasks need to be performed on a weekly basis, while others only require monthly or annual scans.
The process of compiling your WordPress maintenance list should be enough of a reminder to update your maintenance schedule at least once per year. Having a basic maintenance schedule makes it easy to remember what WordPress tasks need to be completed.
It also helps you keep track of important WordPress updates, website backups, and other website maintenance activities. This is especially useful if you run a high-traffic website or WordPress blog.
Final Thoughts
WordPress maintenance is an ongoing process that helps you avoid major issues in the future. Website upkeep tasks vary depending on the nature of your website, but most WordPress website owners should follow a regular WordPress maintenance schedule.
The most important WordPress maintenance activities are general upkeep, regular WordPress backups, security audits, WordPress plugin management, performance optimization, broken link checks, and routine content reviews.
Above all, WordPress maintenance should be a regular part of your online business development. Website upkeep and administration tasks are much easier to deal with in small doses rather than trying to address months’ worth of neglect all at once.
