WordPress Maintenance Checklist for Small Businesses

A WordPress maintenance checklist turns “I should probably look at the website” into a short list of jobs with a schedule. WordPress sites are made of software that changes constantly, and a site that is left alone gradually becomes slower, less secure and more likely to break. This checklist covers what to do weekly, monthly and yearly, in plain language.

Before you start: one rule

Always take a backup before you update anything, and know how to restore it. Most website emergencies come from an update that went wrong with no backup to go back to.

Weekly

• Check that backups are running. Look at the date of the most recent one.
• Apply plugin and theme updates, then look at the site to make sure nothing changed.
• Visit the site as a customer would. Open the homepage and one or two key pages on your phone.
• Send a test through your contact form and confirm it arrives.

Monthly

• Update WordPress itself when a new version is available.
• Run a security scan for malware and review any warnings.
• Check for broken links and fix or remove them.
• Review your content. Hours, prices, staff and services change, and out-of-date details cost you customers.
• Remove plugins you no longer use. Each unused plugin is one more thing that can go wrong.
• Look at site speed. A page that has become slow usually has a cause you can find, such as a large image.

Every few months

• Test a restore. A backup you have never restored is a hope, not a plan.
• Review user accounts. Remove logins for people who no longer need them.
• Change important passwords for the website, hosting and domain accounts.
• Check Google Search Console for errors and pages that have dropped out of search.

Yearly

• Confirm your domain renewal and that the card on file is current. A lapsed domain takes the website and email down together.
• Check the PHP version your hosting runs. Old versions stop receiving security fixes.
• Check that the SSL certificate renews, so the site keeps loading with https.
• Review the whole site for pages, plugins and features that no longer earn their place.

When to hand the WordPress maintenance checklist to someone else

None of these jobs is difficult, but they need doing every week, and the risky ones need someone who can fix the site if an update breaks it. Many owners decide their time is better spent on the business.

That is what a WordPress maintenance plan covers. Ours include hosting, daily backups, software updates, troubleshooting, malware and virus protection, and support tickets for changes, with plans from $160 a month. If your site was built by someone else, our WordPress website takeover moves it to us first. Tell us about your site and we will recommend a plan.