Learn how to maintain and protect your website from spam, malware, and human error.

Now that you have a website, you may think you can just set it and forget it. Not so lucky. Your website is like a plant. You need to water it, give it sunlight, prune, protect it from bugs, and re-pot it from time to time.

Keep your version of WordPress updated

The first thing is always keeping your version of WordPress up to date. You can check on this and automate it through your dashboard, and you can do the same for plugins when they have updates. If ever you have issues with your website after an update, the first thing I always do is de-active plugins one by one to see if one of them may be causing an issue. 

Remove old plugins, themes, and users

If you have plugins and themes you’re not using, remove them from your site. And if you have users on your site who aren’t active, remove their user accounts. 

Schedule regular backups

Backups are another very important part of maintaining a website. Make sure your hosting provider is saving backups of your website, or that you have a plugin doing it. The last thing you want is to lose all your hard work! 

Use secure passwords

Keep your website, and hosting accounts secure with a strong password and two-factor authentication where available and don’t install anything you’re not confident in. 

Run speed tests

You can also run regular speed tests on your site to check the health of your site. If your website is super slow, you may want to compress some of your images.

Run broken link scans

You can also regularly check the health of your content by running a broken link scanner and broken page scanner. Cleaning up old content is a great way to maintain your site but also to keep on Google’s good side. 

Keep up your credit cards on file

And lastly, don’t let your account expire! I have helped so many people who have gotten confused about their hosting, and domain, and WordPress logins and which services they have active, and letting their accounts expire accidentally because of a failed payment.

In summary, keep your software up-to-date, have secure passwords, and set aside time to do health checks on your website and you should be on track.