WordPress is a powerful content management system that’s just about everywhere online. However, good sites know that ongoing maintenance isn’t optional at any stage, it’s downright mandatory. Given that there are only so many hours of the day that you can build your business and patrol your site for security purposes, it makes sense to turn this task over to someone else who truly understands the process. What process, you may ask? The main aspects of WordPress maintenance can be broken down into four key components as well as many sub-tasks. This article will go into them in greater detail.
1. Backups
Quick question: is your site backed up right now? Chances are pretty good that you still aren’t doing as many backups as you should. How many backups are right? Well, it depends on how often your site changes. If you aren’t running a dynamic site, you may get away with weekly or bi-monthly backups. However, most people are running sites that have content that changes all the time. If this is your situation, it makes a lot more sense to get someone to do weekly and daily backups. Daily is our favorite frequency, because disaster can strike at any time. What if your server went down and couldn’t be restarted? Hardware failure does indeed happen, even on the server level.
2. Security
Good security makes looking at threats in a different way. After all, it’s not a matter of whether or not someone will try to attack your site, but when. Many predatory people online realize that software has vulnerabilities, and online software like WordPress is not an exception to this rule at all. The development team does try to close vulnerabilities as fast as possible, but no one team can stop everything. That’s why it’s up to the site owner to defend their site against attacks. Given all that you have to do in a single day, do you really want to try to learn the ins and outs of WordPress security? Chances are good that you’d rather avoid that type of thing.
3. Support
Ongoing support is key to having a great site that’s properly secured. If you need to reach out to someone you should be able to get that done. On the other hand, if you’re still trying to make sure that everything is done on your own time, there will come a point where you drop the ball. How much will that cost you if you’re attacked? How much will it cost if you can’t control a runaway plugin or a theme? These are all things that can impact your bottom line tremendously.
4. Monitoring
How much is your time worth? Wouldn’t it make more sense to outsource the tasks that you aren’t good at, leaving the other stuff for someone that can handle all of the different tasks involved in keeping your site secure? Having an outside company monitor your website means that you have more time to follow your passions. Isn’t that why you became an entrepreneur in the first place?
Overall, these are the main aspects to keep in mind while considering WordPress maintenance. If you aren’t planning to be a super technical person anytime soon, or you just want to take one more thing off your to-do list, why not start looking for this task to be handled by someone else?