WordPress Websites Don’t Need Maintenance

Published Categorized as Design Hacks, Fresh
  • Do you have a WordPress Website?
  • Your website ranks well on google search but the content is relatively static?
  • Your website is not essential to the running of your business?

If you answered yes to these questions, then there is good news: You do not need to pay someone monthly to maintain your website. WordPress and decent web hosting should automatically take of your website maintenance needs. So read below and rest easy.

Note: This Website uses WordPress auto-updates as outlined below and to date, we have not had a single hiccup.

1. Plugin/Theme/WordPress Updates

All types of updates can be done automatically through WordPress and set up within the WordPress dashboard within minutes, read here and see how.

2.Backups

Your web host should have some sort of daily backup service that they include as part of your hosting package. As an example, all Xneelo hosting packages (what we use) come with daily backups and the backups are kept for 2 weeks. If you don’t want to check your website every 2 weeks, you could always rely on a paid or free automatic backup service. Of which there are hundreds available for WordPress. Check out Updraft Plus if you need a quick and free solution.

3. Security

The main way that hackers gain access to your website is by exploiting plugin/WordPress/theme vulnerabilities. The best way to avoid this is by keeping your website updated. This is efficiently and effectively taken care of by activating automatic updates (see point 1 above). For those needing an extra security layer, web hosts often offer a firewall to block malicious attacks such as Cloudbric. There are also well-established (and free) plugins for WordPress that can help you manage website security, such as iThemes Security.

4. Bugs and Fixes

If your website is not essential to the operations of your business, then any bugs that may arise from plugin updates don’t need to be fixed as they happen. What is more important (for protecting your reputation and customers data), is to prevent hackers from getting into your website and exploiting it (keeping plugins updated, point 1.). Therefore, your web developer can fix bugs as and when they happen, at an ad-hoc rate. You will find that most of the time bugs don’t occur when plugins are updated and even if they do, they don’t usually bring your whole website down.

Websites that need regular maintenance

Any business that relies on its website for its main business activity, should still take care to update plugins manually and carefully, as well as having a maintenance schedule. The following cases would still require regular maintenance:

  • Websites that don’t use WordPress
  • ECommerce Websites
  • Sales or lead generation websites
  • News Websites
  • Very High Traffic Websites

Now go and let the robots do what they do best.

If you need any help setting up your “maintenance free” WordPress Website or finding out if your current website needs maintenance, please get in touch.