WordPress constitutes a core content management component and backbone for many organizations, and for good reason. Its track-record as a reliable open-source content management system (CMS) has contributed to its popularity—WordPress currently runs over 34% of all websites worldwide. There is also an abundance of plugins and frameworks that extend functionality and essential features that most modern websites include—for example, they will be optimized for Search Engine Optimization (SEO), include a responsive design (for mobile devices), have enhanced speed performance, and social media integration.
While WordPress offers wonderful solutions for organizations looking to simplify and streamline their content strategy, there are definitely some maintenance considerations you should account for. If you are running the self-hosted version of WordPress, the core software behind WordPress is updated frequently. Most, if not all of these updates, address functionality improvements and security issues that have been revealed by the active community of developers who work with WordPress. Without these updates, websites can become slow, vulnerable to security breaches, or flat-out break.
Let’s take a look at how WordPress maintenance plans can help keep your website stable.
WordPress Security Concerns
Because WordPress is such a widely used content management system, it tends to be exploited frequently by hackers who are performing malicious activities. The development community also reports security concerns, which are usually addressed quickly. So, don’t ignore the importance of maintaining the security and integrity of your website. If your site is hacked, it could cause irreparable damage to your organic SEO traffic, your Pay-Per-Click (PPC) initiatives, and the loyalty of your customers —not to mention potential legal complications if you are running an eCommerce store, for example.
With a comprehensive WordPress maintenance plan, your websites’ core functionality and behavior can be carefully kept up to date. Beyond periodic security patches and upgrades, maintenance plans can draw on the power of continuous monitoring to ensure that potential security concerns are promptly identified and addressed. From DDoS attacks to unauthorized login attempts and malware injections through vulnerable code, a variety of real-world digital concerns warrant you to consider WordPress maintenance. Mitigating security threats will help you avoid potentially disastrous consequences of a prolonged website outage.
Always Have Website Backups
Even seemingly secure websites can prove vulnerable to attacks. No website is 100% impenetrable. While security enhancements should be a critical element in your maintenance equation, increasingly savvy hackers are capable of breaching websites that are thoroughly protected. That is why including regular backups of your files and database—which will help you quickly recover from a worst-case scenario—is a good idea.
If someone is able to hack into your WordPress website to compromise your files and database, you will be able to easily restore from a previous clean version of your website. Ongoing backups help ensure that you are always prepared to recover from a security breach, no matter how small or critical it may be.
The User Experience
When someone visits your website, they expect it to load fast and to be fully functional. Even seemingly minor issues can leave them feeling frustrated and lacking confidence in your website—which will likely mean they abandon your website altogether and never return.
A bad User Experience (UX) can be a byproduct of many factors. One of the most common causes of bad UX is broken functionality. Usually, these types of glitches exist because of conflicts with WordPress plugins your site is dependent on. WordPress plugins are a necessity (to a certain degree) but they could present compatibility and security issues if they are not maintained by the third-party vendors that develop them. Unfortunately, not all vendors are vigilant about keeping their plugin software up to date with new WordPress core software upgrades that are rolled out.
A solid maintenance plan will include updates to both the WordPress core software and plugin software that your website is utilizing. This will help ensure your customers have the best possible experience and don’t experience any “glitches” on the website. Of course, thorough testing of the entire website is required after upgrading to help ensure this.
We Offer A Comprehensive WordPress Maintenance Plan
There is no substitute for a comprehensive WordPress maintenance plan that keeps your website healthy and secure. Help ensure that you are delivering the very best product and experience to your customers. WordPress maintenance is easy with Zero Gravity Marketing. We do all the heavy lifting and dirty work, while you rest assured that your website is in good hands.
Contact us today to learn how our WordPress maintenance plans can help keep your organization’s content management efforts on track.
