The accessible nature of WordPress is one of the primary reasons its sites see around 409 million monthly visitors, according to TechCrunch. At the same time, however, it can sometimes be challenging for less technically-experienced site developers to keep their pages running smoothly.
If you run a WordPress site, are you starting to see your site struggle to run optimally?
Below, we offer a few lessons in essential WordPress maintenance that can help you boost your site’s performance. Learn strategies to avoid downtime while boosting your site’s security and preventing issues due to malicious actors. Finally, learn how to automate updates to your site to take a lot of the maintenance work off your hands.
Updating WordPress Regularly
One of the essential parts of keeping your site in good condition is updating it to ensure it always uses the latest core version of the software keeping it running. These updates include:
- Fixes for bugs
- New features
- Compatibility updates for new plugins
- Patches for security vulnerabilities
- Performance improvements
Ignoring these updates can lead to security risks and, in many cases, poor performance. The performance drop may be due to outdated code or plugins no longer optimized to the legacy code.
As the company behind WordPress continues to update its user experience, you can also assume users will expect any site to utilize the latest interface. Should you fall behind, it may turn users off and cause them to believe you are hosting a less professional site.
To start an update, go to the WordPress dashboard and select “Update” to see if you are already running the latest version and to see additional options. When you update, however, make sure that you create a backup before doing so to avoid potential data loss if anything goes wrong.
Creating an Automated Update Schedule
Instead of performing manual updates, you can configure WordPress to handle updates automatically. Use the automatic update option at your discretion, keeping in mind the complexity of your site and the plugins you use. Some websites have intricate setups and integrations, so proceed with caution!
You can set up the automatic update option on the WordPress “Settings” page or by using automated update plugins. Try to schedule these updates during periods of low traffic to minimize any potential impact on user experience. Additionally, ensure you set up email notifications for these updates so you can promptly check your site for any issues that may arise.
Enhancing Your WordPress Security
While security is essential to prevent issues such as data breaches and malware uploads, it also dramatically impacts your site’s ability to serve data to users. Malicious actors can take actions that can cause significant slowdown even if they don’t cause other harm, so keeping your security strong also prevents a disappointing UX.
Many of the best ways to ensure your site’s security include:
- Using strong passwords# and unique usernames
- Leveraging role-based user permissions
- Installing well-regarded security plugins
- Running regular audits to identify vulnerabilities
- Updating security settings in response to new threats
- Implementing multi-factor authentication
When you find problems, document them for your records, then implement actions to address any weaknesses. Again, ensure that you make backups before you do this in case any issues have the potential of causing data loss.
Scheduling Regular Website Backups
Regular backups can help you protect your site against possible data loss. It helps your site’s performance by:
- Preventing downtime during data recovery
- Enabling rollback if unexpected performance issues occur
- Offering a functional site in case plugins cause issues
- Preserving optimized site configurations
- Preventing memory overload by offloading old data
The purpose of these backups is to act as a template from which to restore your data after:
- Server failure
- Malicious attacks
- Human error
- Natural disaster
- Fire or water damage
- Software errors
- Data corruption
You can utilize several types of backup to help with this issue, each offering varying levels of data protection. These can also help you engage in data recovery at different speeds. As such, you may want to use multiple data backup formats to give you the data you need as fast as possible.
Full Backups
A full backup is a complete copy of your whole site and the contents of any databases. When you need to back your data up using this dataset, it will take the longest due to the sheer volume of data you need to transfer.
Incremental Backups
These backups only capture any changes you have made since the previous backup. They can reduce the storage you need for a backup and allow for simple rollbacks, but they need a clear line of change. As such, they are not helpful without the complete change list.
Differential backups
Implementing a differential backup means you will store any changes you have made since the last full backup. This method differs from incremental backups as you only need the latest primary and differential backups to restore the entire dataset. Differential backups thus balance the advantages of both a full and an incremental backup.
Other Site Optimization Steps to Improve Performance
Several other minor steps can help ensure your site has faster loading times. Each has its benefits, although it takes a small amount of extra work in each case. They include:
- Optimizing images for faster load time
- Caching regularly-accessed data for transmission
- Reduce data requests by combining JS and CSS files
- Using a content delivery network to spread the load
- Clearing old caches to allow for updated settings
- Use tools like Lighthouse to find where slowdown occurs
- Engage in performance monitoring to look for bottlenecks
After performing these steps, you should have done enough to prevent most of the slowdowns you might experience. You will also have laid the foundations for a faster site with reduced data requirements.
Leveraging Professional WordPress Maintenance Services in Edmonton
Running regular WordPress maintenance allows you to engage users faster than ever and offer them a great user experience. More visitors will then progress through your site, giving you more opportunities to convert them.
If you need a helping hand, hiring a local Edmonton web design company such as SelexWeb should put you on the right track to excellence. We can tailor our service to your needs, no matter where your market and customer, ensuring you have a WordPress site that drives engagement. So, contact SelexWeb for a free consultation to learn what we can do for you today.
