Most people are likely to think that once they get their WordPress business website built, the only requirement after that is to update the content of the site and nothing else. But this is not the case as there is a long checklist that needs to be taken care of as the real tasks begin after your website becomes live.
For maintaining your business website in pristine condition for its high performance, properly functional & making the hosting of website a success, you need to create a list which contains all the aspects that need to be covered for perfect Requirments of your WordPress website. We’re here to help you. Let’s dive in!
Keep this checklist in mind for regular maintenance of your WordPress website-
1. Regular Back-Up
One of the most essential components of the maintenance program is the regular backup of the website content. The backup is done to ensure that your content stays securely stored in your database, which acts as the perfect solution for you in case some unfortunate event occurs that causes data loss of the website. Because it is a technological era and nothing can be a surety in today’s time, having a proper backup of the content of your business website is vital in today’s time.
If you are the only person who handles your business website, backup after each month is advisable. The sites that are for business must be updated every week, and more significant websites that are regularly updated can be backed up daily. There are many plugins available, on which you can schedule the backups for better efficiency and ease.
2. Remove Redundancy
Old images, graphics and designs which are no longer attractive or useful, only make the website look heavier. Infographics that have become outdated do more harm than good. Remove these elements from your website as soon as they are done serving their purpose. Regularly update your business website for new features and functionalities. Updating the website also helps in improving the security of the data as it enhances the firewall to avoid hackers and spammers from accessing your website database.
3. Remove & Themes
Another essential aspect that needs to be taken care of is the removal of unwanted plugins from your business website. We all know that plugins add to the beauty, features and functionality of the website but not all plugins present in your website are being used by you. These unused plugins can take up a significant amount of memory and also affect the performance & speed of your website by increasing the page load time by a considerable margin.
If you don’t use some plugins, and it has been a lot of time that haven’t utilized them, make sure to remove those plugins and get extra space for your business content. Also, remove the multiple plugins with the same functionality as it also causes the same issues. Make sure to examine what your needs are and use the plugins that can perform various functions rather than using many.
4. Website Security
Security is the most essential component of any website and you should always be focused on it. Always make sure to research and get a dependable security plug-in installed in order to make sure that the configuration is right to help you with the website’s functionality. There are many people who are new to the usage of WordPress and may not understand the creation and setup of security for your business website. Keep checking the website security nets from being accessed by hackers and spammers.
Usage of simple and easy passwords that can be hacked easily can cause a lot of issues to your website’s data and content. Make sure to have additional security layers installed. Having a firewall up and running is essential for your business website. Make sure that your website is fully protected, and the hackers are blocked from accessing your site. Install plugins that periodically scan for malware viruses in your plugins, theme and the core of your WordPress site, which should help keep it safe.
5. Loading Speed
Speed is really very necessary for any online business website as no one likes to wait in today’s time. The speed of a website is as essential as the security and removal of unwanted plugins. Surveys show that most people abandon websites that take more than 5 seconds to open. No matter how good the content on your website is, people are not going to wait for a minute. For increasing the visitors, minimizing the website abandonment rate and enhance the conversion rate, make sure to install the plugins that help in maintaining the proper speed of your business website.
The hosting service also plays a significant part in this as the speed of the website also depends on the hosting server. Make sure to examine the site for the features and aspects that are causing the pace to slow down. High-speed websites are known to rank higher in the Google search engines, which make it essential for the success of your business that the loading speed of your website should be breakneck.
6. Weed-out The Spam
On an interactive website, spamming is a common phenomenon faced by almost all the popular webpages- especially the comments section of the website. In your daily maintenance, you need to keep a check on the spam messages and promotional links that keep getting posted in the comments section, giving the website a neglected feel. Most of these spam messages are generated by competitive websites and may pose a hindrance to your viewers, giving your brand an unruly image. Clear them up weekly, if not daily.
7. Review Frontend SEO Elements
The frontend of any business’ website is an essential component as the customers use the website from here only. Mostly after updating and making changes, the frontend SEO elements are overlooked as to how the changes have affected the overall customer experience. In order to ensure that your website is serving its purpose in regards to the customers and ranking high on SERP because of the optimized elements, a regular examination of the frontend of your website is necessary.
The best way to ensure this is by becoming the audience yourself and using the website to see how everything works. This also helps you in checking the plugins as they are serving their intended purpose properly or not and also you come to know about the plugins that are not being used. Always remember your website is created for your visitors rather than you, so make sure that it is user-centered.
8. Review Overall Functionality
For offering the best user experience, it is essential to have your website up & working while performing all intended functions. Many points need to be kept in mind when it comes to the functionality of a website.
- Browser & Device Compatibility: Always ensure to check for the compatibility as this is a significant concern. If you are verifying that the website is up & running and no other thing is required, then you are probably wrong. Always make sure to check your site on different browsers and devices with different configuration to see if your website works perfectly on those or not.
- Form Testing:Another very essential aspect to check for proper functionality is all the forms. As you are running an online business, you need to make sure that the types work perfectly as the potential customers are going to contact you by filling the forms only. Always examine these forms and check if they are functioning correctly or not.
- Navigation:Navigation is an essential aspect of any website, as this is the main reason behind the usability of it. Make sure to provide all the information that the customers are reading or looking for, easily in one place. It is always advised to add direct links to the content so that customers don’t feel lost and abandon your website.
- Check For 404 Errors & Remove Them:Another reason that might act as a headache for you is the 404 error. It might irritate you a lot, but it also causes disappointment among your visitors, causing them to abandon your website. The Google Search Console can be easily used to find these errors and correct them before the users see them.
9. Get Help From Google Analytics
Your business is all about providing your customers are looking for rather than what you wish to sell them. The success of any business depends totally on this. So to understand the needs of your potential customers easily, you can integrate Google Analytics, which tells you in detail what all things are in demand and also about the behaviour of customers on your website. All this information can help you develop a game plan to sell more of your products quickly while increasing the number of visitors and enhance the conversion rate as well.
10. Double-check Your Web Links
Dead links are a complete no-no for any top-rated websites. They become a double-edged sword as the customers feel frustrated because of these and dead links prevent search engines from crawling and indexing your website. Double-check the download links and backlinks regularly as a part of site maintenance so that it can take up high conversion rates and top ranks on SERP.
That’s All!
So these were the top 10 ways in which you can perfectly maintain your WordPress website. Following these tips can prove to be a boon to your website and also make you an expert at handling the maintenance of your website, ultimately helping in enhancing the conversion rate and business sales.