If you have a WordPress site, you know how important it is to keep it up-to-date. Not only for security reasons, but also to reap the benefits of the latest features and performance enhancements. While it’s tempting to set it and forget it, your WordPress site requires routine maintenance to stay secure and running smoothly. Fortunately, there are some easy things you can do on a regular basis to keep your site in tip-top shape.
Why Maintenance Matters
WordPress is fantastic in that it’s constantly being improved by the developers at Automattic. But, as with any software, those improvements come with a trade-off. New features and performance enhancements often mean that older features become deprecated or incompatible with the new code. That’s why it’s important to keep your site up-to-date with the latest WordPress release—so you can take advantage of the newest features while still maintaining compatibility with your current plugins and themes.
In addition to new features, each WordPress release includes security fixes for vulnerabilities that have been discovered since the previous release. So keeping your site up-to-date is crucial for maintaining good security hygiene. According to WPScan Vulnerability Database, there were 1,347 vulnerabilities in WordPress core, plugins, and themes in 2019 alone! Yikes! By keeping your site up-to-date, you can rest assured that these vulnerabilities have been patched and your site is much less likely to be compromised.
How to Maintain Your WordPress Site
The good news is that maintaining your WordPress site is relatively easy and only requires a few minutes of your time each week. Here are some simple things you can do on a regular basis to keep your WordPress site running like a well-oiled machine:
Update WordPress Core: As mentioned above, each new WordPress release includes security fixes and performance enhancements. To update WordPress core, log into your dashboard and go to Updates > Update Now. For more detailed instructions, check out this guide from WPMU DEV.
Update Plugins & Themes: Before updating any plugins or themes, always check with the developer to make sure the update is compatible with your version of WordPress and any other plugins or themes you’re using on your site. Once you’ve verified compatibility, you can update individual plugins or themes from the Plugins or Themes pages in your dashboard, or bulk update all plugins/themes at once by going to Updates > Update Plugins/Update Themes. Again, WPMU DEV has put together some great instructions for how to do this safely without breaking your site.
Backup Your Site
This may seem like an obvious one, but backing up your entire WordPress website (both files and database) should be part of your routine maintenance routine. That way if something does happen (like a server crash or hacking incident), you can quickly restore your site without too much headache. There are plenty of great backup plugins available (many of them free), so finding one that fits your needs should be a breeze. Our personal favorite here at Kinsta is UpdraftPlus.
Conclusion
A little bit of preventative maintenance goes a long way towards keeping your WordPress site running smoothly—and keeping you sane! By following the simple steps outlined above on a regular basis, you can avoid many common problems that plague WP sites—and breathe easy knowing that your website is healthy and secure.”