Maintaining a website is crucial for businesses and individuals alike.
WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems, powering millions of websites globally.
However, merely setting up a WordPress site isn’t enough; consistent maintenance is essential to ensure optimal performance and security.
Here are the 20 most important reasons for having a WordPress maintenance plan.
1. Security Enhancements
A WordPress maintenance plan ensures your website stays protected against the latest security threats.
Regular updates to WordPress core, themes, and plugins patch vulnerabilities that hackers could exploit.
If you allow your WP install updates to slip, your site could become vulnerable and subject to hacking attempts.
2. Improved Performance
Routine maintenance includes performance optimisation tasks like database cleaning and cache management, which keep your site running smoothly and efficiently.
Performance is important for SEO. Google (et al.) do not like a slow website, so if your site slows down and delivers a poor user experience, you could see it start to drop in the search engine results.
3. Regular Backups
A maintenance plan typically includes automated backups. In case of data loss or a security breach, you can quickly restore your website to its previous state.
One of the key things about backups is that they should be restorable.
If your backup solution takes a copy of your site’s files, these can then take over an hour to restore, should the worst happen.
One-click backups and restores are a basic minimum requirement for your hosting and website.
4. SEO Benefits
Maintaining an updated and well-functioning website can improve your search engine rankings.
Regular maintenance ensures your site meets SEO best practices, from speed optimisation to fixing broken links.
As we have mentioned above, an up-to-date and fast website can boost your search rankings. If you are doing any form of content marketing, it’s crucial that your site is well-built and fast.
5. User Experience
A well-maintained website offers a better user experience.
Regularly checking for broken links, updating content, and ensuring fast loading times keep visitors engaged and satisfied.
Remember that the search engines, too, like good user experience.
6. Compatibility Issues
WordPress themes and plugins are regularly updated.
A maintenance plan ensures these updates are compatible with your site, preventing potential conflicts that could cause downtime.
If something does go wrong with a plugin update, you can also be sure that your WP maintenance team will be on hand to get it sorted for you in a timely
Get ad-hoc WordPress maintenance.
We offer ad-hoc support for sites that just need a quick tweak.
7. Reduced Downtime
By regularly monitoring and maintaining your site, you can prevent unexpected outages and minimise downtime, ensuring your website is always available to users.
The last thing anyone needs is for their website to go offline during a busy period or shortly after you send out an email marketing campaign.
8. Professional Support
A maintenance plan often includes professional support from WordPress experts who can resolve issues promptly and efficiently, saving you time and frustration.
What could take you hours to figure out can often be fixed in a matter of minutes by an experienced WordPress developer – this ultimately saves you time and money in the longer term.
9. Peace of Mind
Knowing that your website is regularly maintained and monitored provides peace of mind.
You can focus on your business without worrying about the technical aspects of your site.
This can be especially true if you’ve just started a new position and have inherited a website.
10. Enhanced Functionality
Regular updates and maintenance can add new features and functionalities to your website, keeping it current and competitive.
11. Compliance
Staying updated with the latest WordPress versions ensures compliance with web standards and regulations, such as GDPR, ensuring your site adheres to legal requirements.
Having the correct form of Cookie management on your site is also crucial for compliance; having a banner saying that the site uses cookies is not enough.
12. Cost Efficiency
Regular maintenance can prevent costly repairs and emergency fixes.
Addressing issues proactively is often more cost-effective than dealing with significant problems later.
13. Content Management
A maintenance plan ensures your content remains relevant and updated, helping to engage and retain your audience.
Here at Toast, you can use your support time for any website-related task: its not just for development work, we also do copywriting, on-page SEO and design work.
14. Analytics and Monitoring
Ongoing maintenance includes monitoring your website’s performance and analysing visitor data, helping you make informed decisions to improve your site.
Depending on your requirements, we can add the Google Tracking code or get into more advanced analytics such as keyword tracking and site audits which further enhance your site.
15. Spam Management
Regularly updating and maintaining your site helps manage and reduce spam, keeping your site clean and professional.
This is particularly true of sites with commenting available; without the right plugins in place, they can be overrun with spam.
16. Brand Reputation
A well-maintained website reflects positively on your brand. Regular updates and smooth performance enhance your credibility and reputation.
People make split-second decisions about brands when they land on their websites.
If your site is glitchy or not working correctly, this can cause significant damage to your brand and cost you customers.
17. Accessibility
Ensuring your website is accessible to all users, including those with disabilities, is part of regular maintenance, improving usability and compliance.
This is another legal requirement for your site and must be addressed.
18. Customisation
A maintenance plan allows for ongoing customisation and improvements, ensuring your site evolves with your business needs.
As experienced WordPress developers, we can extend your site, adding new functions as needed and making the site work harder for you.
19. Learning and Growth
Working with professionals as part of a maintenance plan provides opportunities to learn about best practices and new trends in website management.
This, in turn, can mean that over time, you are more able to manage aspects of your site yourself; you can then use your support and maintenance time for other important tasks such as on-page SEO.
20. Focus on Core Business
With a maintenance plan in place, you can focus on your core business activities without being distracted by technical website issues.
This can be one of the main reasons to get a WordPress maintenance package in place. We’re all busy, and for the less experienced WordPress user, it can be a real time thief.
Having an on-hand team of experienced WordPress developers makes your life easier!
Get a free 30-minute WordPress maintenance consultation.
A WordPress maintenance plan is not just a good idea; it’s necessary for anyone serious about their online presence.
It ensures security, enhances performance, and keeps your site updated and relevant, providing a seamless experience for your visitors and peace of mind. Investing in a maintenance plan is a proactive step towards sustaining a robust and successful website.
