Website maintenance is a never-ending process. Enlisting the help and support of a partner to help keep your site up to date with the latest WordPress security updates and provide you peace of mind.
Website maintenance is necessary. Most websites serve as the main distribution hub for a company's information, products and services. The company website is the digital face of your company. It is the brand image that is available 24 hours a day to your existing and potential customers.
Your website is a significant asset to your business and requires routine attention to make sure it performs in the manner that you desire. Gone are the days when you could install WordPress with a “set it and forget it” mentality. As technology advances, hackers are discovering backdoors to break the security of your site.
WordPress was first launched in 2003 and now powers over 43% of all websites on the internet. The number of plugins in the marketplace continue to rise. Armed with this knowledge, hackers are on the hunt to find unmanaged websites that lack security and oversight. Websites that lack proper oversight and management become easy targets for hackers to exploit. Updating WordPress is essential to keeping your site secure and functional.
- You can perform the management tasks and updates yourself.
- You can do nothing.
- You can invest in a WordPress care plan
Doing It Yourself (DIY)
Some people would rather pay for WordPress maintenance services whereas others prefer to do the work themselves. Both approaches are entirely valid. The decision usually comes down to four factors:
- Whether you enjoy WordPress maintenance work (or at least don’t hate it!)
- If you’re proficient in the necessary tasks
- How valuable your time is
- Whether or not you can afford it
When searching for a WordPress Care Plan, there are key features that you should always seek. You'll want to know that the team can handle the assets on your site, and provide you access to help when needed. you have peace of mind and you can get access to help when you need it.
Key Features
1. Plugin & Theme & WP Core Updates. WordPress is constantly being updated. Ensure your themes, plugins, and core are being updated. Updating keeps your website free from software bugs allowing you to take advantage of improvements and new features. Make certain that the updates are being performed on regular intervals.
2. Offsite Backups. Websites are a lot like cars, they need regular maintenance to run properly. As a WordPress user, you're probably aware of the importance of regularly backing up your site. But did you know that offsite backups are essential for proper WordPress maintenance?
If something happens to your hosting account or server, an offsite backup will ensure that you don't lose any important data or content. Plus, if you ever need to restore your site, an offsite backup will make the process much easier for you to come back online.
So how do you go about avoiding data loss, by setting up an offsite backup for your WordPress site? There are a few different options available, but we recommend using a plugin like UpdraftPlus or BackupBuddy. You want to feel secure knowing your websites and data are backed up regularly.
3. Premium Hosting. It’s a good idea to use a premium WordPress hosting service. A premium WordPress host will provide you with more resources and better performance than a shared hosting plan. Additionally, a premium host will offer support if you run into any problems with your site.
A good WordPress host will keep your website backed up and updated with the latest security patches. Most will provide the basic support to help keep the site performing well. Keep in mind, the basis of a good website is having a good web server to power it. Top-quality hosting keeps your site online and performing at its best.
4. Monitoring. You’ll want to always be watching to determine if your website is down or if it’s having any issues. You can use a tool such as uptime monitoring. Your website is not good, it is not available online.
You’ll also want to run speed tests with tools like Google Insights. Your care plan may or may not run such reports. Another gauge to see if your website is performing optimally would be to have a performance speed run periodically.
5.Virus and Malware Recovery. One of the most important things you can do to keep your WordPress site secure is to monitor your site for possible security threats. There are a number of ways to do this, including using plugins and themes that offer security monitoring features.
By monitoring your WordPress site for possible security threats, you can help keep your site safe and secure. There are a number of different ways to do this, so be sure to explore all the options available to you.
6. Strategy Calls. Having regular conversations with your website maintenance team can be priceless. As you know, especially in the tech business, asking for forgiveness instead of permission can be costly. When adding plugins and themes to your WordPress website you need to be careful not to select themes and plugins that may conflict.
Google is an excellent source of information. The problems most website owners have is that there is a large amount of information to sift through to get an answer to their problem. Having the ability to reach out to someone for help saves time and frustration.
7. Content Updates & Management. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you needed a quick update to your website that you could call on someone else to get it done for you. This feature is just that.
Look to see if your WordPress Maintenance Care Plan includes a couple of quick fixes. This can include updating outdated blog posts or about me pages. You’re just looking for some assistance in keeping your site up to date with fresh content on a regular basis.
