We’ve all been there – stuck on a page that won’t load, getting error messages when trying to navigate the site, or trying to view pages that time out. But before we jump to any assumptions – poor website performance isn’t necessarily translating into a poor-quality business. Unfortunately, that’s the impression that many of your users get when they experience issues with your website.
Running a website is much like running a business. As you expect, there’s a lot behind the scenes work that needs to be done to keep everything running smoothly. Without routine maintenance, your website won’t be able to reach your wanted audience and the KPIs.
This is why, in this article, we’ll discuss how to maintain your WordPress website and the tasks that you should regularly perform to keep everything running perfectly.
Table of Contents
Analytics Check
For one, you should focus your attention on how your WordPress website performs. Analytics can provide you with an overview of your site’s health and let you know if there are any bugs that need resolving.
What to use?
Through Google Analytics, you will get valuable information regarding demographics, browser usage, load times, most viewed pages, bounce rate, etc.
With the search console, you will gain more knowledge about the success of your SEO campaigns, and information regarding keyword usage, backlinks, and how your websites fare in queries and SERPs.
Changing Passwords
Most website attacks happen due to weak passwords. When your login information is not safe, you can fall victim to phishing, and brute force attacks. To avoid that, your passwords must be an imposible-to-break barrier that hackers need to pass through. Definitely, having a strong password is mandatory. However, in some circumstances, even with a hard-to-break password, your site can get undermined.
For the exact reason, your site admins should update their passwords frequenlty– when you establish a new password, keep in mind the following WordPress tips.
- Longer Passwords: To make sure you’re safe, keep your password length to at least ten characters. In most cases, passwords longer than 50 characters are the most reliable.
- Be Random: Avoid using familiar phrases and words. Never use words such as the city’s name, pets, or one of your friends. Stay unpredictable.
- Keep it Fresh: Even if you use strong passwords, you still need to upgrade them every two to three months. Not to mention you should not use the same password more than once.
Backups and Updates
Regular backups are of enormous significance. However, many WordPress site owners are not treating this problem with enough interest. Backing up your website doesn’t have to be that time consuming, and neither expensive. When you ignore backing up your website, you risk losing your data and your customers.
Server Interruptions: When you experience a server outage, you may still retrieve some of your data. However, if the data can’t be recovered, you might have to use a version of your site that is seven weeks old. For this reason, you must use a reliable hosting service, or instead, you could use a considerable period of work.
Vulnerabilities: According to a report, 39% of the hacked websites used an outdated version of WordPress and were not maintained. Hackers can overwrite files on an outdated website, which can lead to your email marked as spam and your server being blacklisted.
Managing Spam Comments
As your website gains popularity, spam comments will become an even bigger issue for you because.
- When your comment section is filled with spam messages, it’s even more challenging for users to provide real feedback.
- Spam comments on your website make it look non-professional.
- Most comments include dangerous links that intend to fool users into giving away personal data.
Fortunately, managing this type of issues is not as hard once you rely on the following methods:
Have a “Backlist” – Most spammy comments include plenty of recognizable words. So you will have to come up with a “blacklist” of words that your website can mark when a spam comment contains one of them.
Don’t allow too many links – One sure way to fight off spam comments is to allow fewer links in your blog comment section.
Have a content moderation strategy – To avoid spam. It’s always a smart idea to have someone approve comments before they appear on your website. In WordPress, you can enable it by accessing Settings- Discussion, and select that the comments must be manually approved.
Use the WordPress database optimization tool – you will find this toll disables as a standard, however, you can enable it by changing the wp-config-PHP file.
Database Optimization
Your websites contain all of your comments, content, users, and settings. However, after some time, your database may become clogged up with data that is superfluous and occupies memory which can affect the website’s performance.
Upgrading your WordPress database can help you declutter and defragment tables, enhance the user experience, and improve the performance of your website.
Delete what you don’t use – every content, page, and comment represents an entry into your database. But you can gain a lot of space by simply deleting duplicate or obsolete content.
Go through your Pending posts and Drafts and assess if some of them need to be deleted. What’s more, check if you need each of your taxonomies and delete the duplicate one to improve the findability of your content.
Remove Plugins and Unused Themes- Many plugins and unused themes generate additional tables in your database. Deactivate them and click the Delete button.
Keeping your website functioning properly doesn’t need to be tiresome or complex. All you need is a geniune maintenance workflow along with a consistent website scanning process that can be conducted within minutes.
Take your time to regularly perform the mentioned steps above. In doing so, your website’s performance will always be at its best rate, which will attract and engage new leads, and ultimately nourish your business as a result.
