WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems being used today. It helps individuals create websites for businesses and nonprofits which help them maximize their digital platforms. Considering how popular WordPress is, it’s rather alarming how little people know about WordPress maintenance. Some people mistakenly believe that websites can just be left alone and don’t need to be properly maintained. This just isn’t the case. WordPress needs to undergo regular maintenance to ensure that your website is always at its best.
Now, this can be rather daunting for some people as not everyone is knowledgeable when it comes to WordPress maintenance. To help make this easier for you, here’s a quick maintenance checklist that you can make use of.
Moderate Comments
Many websites make the mistake of not moderating comments. If you allow your visitors to make public comments, it would be best to allocate enough time to sift through them and remove ones that can hurt your website or brand. For the most part, you’ll want to be concerned with removing comments that aren’t genuine. Remember, you don’t have to do this manually as you can utilize anti-spam plugins such as CleanTalk.
Check On Backups
It’s important that you have a backup for your entire site. While this may seem obvious, you’d be surprised how many people forget to regularly make backups for their site. It would be best to set up weekly automated snapshots that create updated backups for your website.
Keep Your Website Updated
You’ll also want to make sure that your site is up to date. Aside from keeping it running smoothly, updates also ensure that your website is always secure. This is why it is essential to keep the core WordPress, your theme, and any active plugins updated.
Set Up a Staging Site
Speaking of themes and plugins, it would also be wise to set up a staging site for your website. A staging site is a direct copy of your site wherein you can test new themes, plugins, and updates. This will let you test things out before they go live on your site. This is important as new themes or plugins can cause issues that cause problems for you and your users.
Check for Broken Links and 404 Errors
You’ll also want to make sure that all the links and pages on your site are working. While this may seem tedious, it’s important to make sure all your pages are live. Failing to do this will hurt your site’s overall performance. Luckily, you won’t need to do this manually as you can utilize tools such as Google Search Console that allows you to identify broken links and errors on your WordPress website.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this article proves to be useful when it comes to helping you maintain your website. While this may seem like a lot of work, it’s well worth your time and effort to make sure that your site is always at its best. Be sure to perform these checks regularly to avoid any issues or complications.
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