A WordPress maintenance plan is a service provided by WordPress professionals that helps to keep a website running smoothly, securely, and up to date. These plans typically include a set of services that are performed regularly. Services can include updates, security scanning, backups, technical support, and more.
A WordPress maintenance plan aims to ensure that your website runs efficiently, is secure against potential threats, and is always up to date with the latest features and functionality. These steps help ensure that the website remains functional and secure while providing a good user experience for visitors.
When evaluating a WordPress maintenance plan, there are a few things you need to look for. Of course, not all services will be crucial for your website, depending on your expertise and time availability. For example, a novice might need a complete white-glove approach, while an experienced WordPress user might need help with the technical end. Below I will go over the main features you need to look for in a WordPress maintenance plan.
Perform Regular Updates on WordPress and All Installed Plugins and Themes
One of the most significant advantages of building your website on WordPress is its popularity and expandability. You can create almost any website you want using WordPress as a backbone. Someone likely has already developed a plugin to add the necessary features. This expandability is why they power so much of the web. Unfortunately, their dominance means it is a giant target for hackers.
There is a constant battle in the WordPress community to protect websites from cyber security threats. As vulnerabilities are discovered, the developers responsible for the code work to fix them. The only way to take advantage of this work is to update your website regularly, and all installed themes and plugins. This also allows you to take advantage of any new features and non-security-related bug fixes that have been released.
Regularly Perform Off-Site Backups
Hand in hand with updates is regularly performing backups of your WordPress website. Backups are the ultimate protection from downtime. It doesn’t matter why your website went down. Whether a botched update or a hacked site, restoring from a backup almost always fixes the problem. Even in cases where it doesn’t, the backup provides a starting point to fix whatever problems you might experience.
By far and away, automation is the best method of backing up your WordPress website. Sometimes your web host will provide an automated backup service for a nominal fee; I suggest you start there. If your host doesn’t offer a backup service, or if you want your backups to be stored separately from your web host, you can use a service such as ManageWP or BackupBuddy to back up your website to a remote server automatically.
Anyone offering a WordPress maintenance plan will regularly perform updates and backups for you. Since you don’t have to worry about performing these tasks yourself, you can concentrate on doing what you need to grow your business.
Optimize the Performance of your WordPress Website
You can also expect a WordPress maintenance plan to optimize your website and monitor the website’s performance. But, again, the most important aspect of optimization is regular updates. Regularly updating the core WordPress software can fix any security vulnerabilities or bugs that may be slowing down the site. Additionally, updating plugins and themes can also help to improve site speed, as developers will often release updates that include performance enhancements.
Cleaning up the database by removing or optimizing unnecessary data, such as post revisions, trashed posts, and unapproved comments, can also help to improve site speed. However, doing this manually is a very time-intensive task. Using a tool such as a cache plugin can speed up the process, but it still means spending a fair amount of time on getting the most out of your website. Maintenance plans will provide the most time-efficient means to optimize your WordPress database.
The final three optimization components to look for in a WordPress maintenance plan are image optimization, code minification, and a way to serve cached pages to visitors. If these don’t mean much to you, that’s ok. That’s what WordPress professionals are for. However, it is a good idea to have a basic grasp of what they mean so you understand what services a WordPress maintenance plan provides.
Optimizing images involves reducing the file size of images without compromising their quality. This can be done by compressing the images or using file types that have smaller file sizes, such as JPEG or PNG. In addition, optimizing images can help reduce the time it takes for a website to load, as larger images take longer to download.
Minifying code refers to removing unnecessary characters, such as white space, comments, and line breaks, from the code. This can help reduce the amount of data that needs to be loaded when someone visits the website, leading to faster load times.
Caching plugins create a static website version and store it on the user’s browser. Then, when the user revisits the website, the cached version is loaded instead of generating a new version, which can significantly improve the website’s load time.
Provide Technical Support
WordPress sites are generally easy to use. Adding content like pages and blog posts is straightforward enough that anyone familiar with a computer can add and update content. However, the lack of centralized support for self-hosted WordPress makes fixing any problems you may experience much harder. Juggling between forums and support for any plugins you have installed is time-consuming. Providing tech support is the most visible part of a robust maintenance plan.
WordPress tech support will troubleshoot issues that arise, making your life easier, but it is more than that. It is also important when installing new features. A problem with the WordPress ecosystem is that it is so open that plugins will often clash. This can be a complex problem to troubleshoot. The easiest way to deal with this issue is to properly research and test any new features you wish to implement in a test environment.
Change, Add, and Update Content
An optional feature you can expect is content updates. Depending on the maintenance plan you purchase, you may receive anything from no content updates provided to full-service updates, including copywriting, editing, and posting. As a small business operator, you are the best expert on your business; therefore, you should be the one writing the content. However, that doesn’t mean you should be expected to post all content to your website without assistance. A WordPress expert will know how to best edit and format your content to make it visually appealing on your website without sacrificing speed. Many WordPress maintenance plans will offer some form of content update service.
At this point, you may be wondering what content updates have to do with maintenance. Maintenance means more than just keeping your website in working order with no changes. A stagnant website can put off site visitors and hurt your website. Here are three reasons content updates are really about maintenance.
It helps to keep the website fresh and relevant. Websites that are not updated regularly may appear outdated and abandoned, leading to a poor user experience. Updating the content regularly, such as posting new blog articles or adding new products, can help keep visitors engaged and coming back to the site.
Regularly updating the website’s content can help with SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Search engines favor regularly updated websites with relevant and high-quality content, as it shows that the website is actively maintained and provides valuable information to users. This can help improve the website’s visibility in search engine results, leading to increased traffic and visibility.
Regularly updating the website’s content helps to keep the website accurate and up to date. This is particularly important for websites that provide information or services, as outdated information can lead to confusion or errors.
WordPress maintenance plans can help keep your website running at peak performance. It is crucial to stay on top of regular updates, fixes, and security measures to ensure your website is secure and running at its best. Taking the time to understand your options in terms of maintenance plans will help you make the most out of your content management system. With a WordPress maintenance plan, you get an experienced team of experts working behind the scenes to ensure that your website never runs into any significant issues while keeping it secure and up to date.
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