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Blake Goble , Technical Project Manager
Blake comes from the land of sunshine and surfers but much prefers his music venues dimly-lit, filled with hardcore jams.
Obsessive of clean inboxes, SciFi, and being the proudest new member of the parenthood crew - assume all puns intended.
March 6, 2023 | Gain Knowledge
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But just like you have to paint your house every now and then to keep it looking fresh and fabulous and protected from outside elements, you also have to give your website a little TLC. And when it comes to website maintenance, WordPress is like the Martha Stewart of the internet – it’s trusted, economic and always focused on the latest trends.
As with any piece of software, WordPress and WordPress plugins are constantly updated with new features and security patches. If you are regularly updating your website, you can ensure that you are using the latest version of WordPress, which will help to prevent any potential issues such as a form on your website not working correctly and your company missing out on a huge lead due to a faulty form. Regular maintenance ensures that your website is running at its best possible speed, which can improve user experience and search engine rankings. Slow loading times can sabotage even the most expertly optimized pages, leaving them hopeless in their pursuit of Google rankings.
A critical element of regular website maintenance is security. WordPress is a popular platform, which means that it is a common target for hackers. While WordPress developers do their best to avoid security vulnerabilities in the code, they do happen from time to time. Many WordPress core updates address these very vulnerabilities. By keeping your website up to date and taking steps to secure it, you can reduce the risk of your website being hacked or compromised. This includes updating your website’s theme and plugins, as well as regularly backing up your website’s data. These updates help because they address the known security vulnerabilities in the WordPress platform that can be exploited by hackers. By keeping your website up to date and implementing security measures, you reduce the risk of your website being hacked or compromised. Regular backups also ensure that you have a recent copy of your website that can be quickly restored in case of unexpected events, minimizing downtime. A data retention policy for backups also helps to keep your database optimized by avoiding the storage of unneeded data. Overall, regular website maintenance helps to maintain the security and stability of your website, protecting it from potential attacks and ensuring its smooth operation.
In addition to security and performance, regular website maintenance should also span/include keeping your website’s content fresh and up-to-date. This includes updating your website’s pages and blog posts as well as removing any outdated or irrelevant information. This can help to improve the overall user experience, and it can also help to keep your website’s search engine rankings high as you establish authority over keywords. When your website’s content is fresh and relevant, you can attract more visitors and retain them for longer.
A vital component of regular website maintenance is ensuring that your website’s design and layout are up to date, and fall within your established brand guidelines. A website that looks outdated can give users a poor impression and can even drive them away. When’s the last time you audited your bounce rate? By regularly updating the design and layout of your website, you can ensure that it looks modern and professional. Make sure all layouts are mobile-friendly and responsive, essential for providing a great user experience on all devices.
Regular maintenance can also help to improve your website’s search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is the process of improving the visibility of a website in search engine results. By regularly updating your website’s content and meta tags, you can improve your website’s visibility within search engine results. This can help to attract more visitors to your website and increase your online visibility.
Lastly, a key consideration of website maintenance is a review of your website’s analytics. By regularly monitoring performance metrics, you can quickly identify any issues or areas that need improvement. Pay attention to your website’s traffic, bounce and conversion rates, as well as identifying which pages have the best engagement. When regularly monitoring analytics, you can make informed decisions about how to iteratively improve your website’s performance and attract more visitors.
Regular website maintenance is essential for ensuring the smooth functioning, security, and health of your website when using the WordPress platform. By keeping your website up to date, securing it, keeping your content fresh and relevant, updating the design and layout, improving SEO, monitoring analytics and making regular backups, you can ensure that your website is running at its best and providing a great user experience. Don’t neglect your website: give it the regular TLC it needs to thrive in the digital world.
Note: This is a general post and should be reviewed before publishing as it’s always recommended to follow best practices and guidelines of your website hosting provider, WordPress and other relevant authorities.
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