Do you want to make sure that your WordPress website runs smoothly in the long term, doesn't slow down and doesn't cause you any worries? Then you need to take care of regular WordPress maintenance. This guide will show you all the steps you need to take to maintain your website yourself.

Create regular backups

Before you get started with everything else, make sure that you create regular backups of your WordPress website. This is the only way to ensure that you can always return to a working version of your website if something goes wrong.

Believe me, at least once in your career as a website owner, a backup will save the day! If your WordPress website or WooCommerce online store is here at Raidboxes, you don't have to worry about backups. In this case, daily backups are automatically created for you, going back 30 days.

If your website is hosted by another host, I recommend using the free UpdraftPlus plugin or a similar plugin to create backups. Set up the backup plugin correctly so that it automatically creates backups so that you don't have to start them manually all the time.

I recommend that you check whether the backups have been created correctly as part of your WordPress maintenance workflow. That way, you can sleep soundly and are prepared for any eventuality.

Updates to WordPress, the plugins and themes

The most important aspect of maintaining your WordPress website is updating WordPress itself, as well as the themes and plugins.

Outdated software is one of the most common reasons why WordPress websites become infected with malware or similar. However, this is not the only reason why updates are so incredibly important, but also because of new functions, bug fixes or incompatibilities with other plugins.

Smaller WordPress updates are now carried out automatically (unless you have deactivated this function) and there is also an automatic update function for plugins and themes in WordPress. In your Raidboxes dashboard, you can specify in detail which components should be updated in the background and which should not.

Personally, I prefer to update the plugins and themes myself. Quite simply because I can immediately check and fix any problems that may occur as a result of the update.

If your website is hosted by a host such as Raidboxes, WordPress is automatically updated for you. See the article Advantages of managed WordPress hosting.

After performing the WordPress updates, check your website. Pay attention to display problems (they are usually very obvious if they occur) and be sure to check important functions such as newsletter registrations, purchases in the store, logins for customers and similar.

If you want to be on the safe side before updating, you can create a staging site and test the new versions there first. This way, your live site remains untouched and you can try out various updates at your leisure.

Raidboxes also has an integrated function that allows you to create a 1:1 image of your website with just one click. Alternatively, you can also use the WP Staging plugin.

Update PHP version

WordPress is based on the PHP scripting language. As the technology is constantly evolving, you should always keep an eye on the PHP version of your WordPress hosting.

The key here is always to strike a balance between using an up-to-date version and not using the latest version. With both outdated versions and the latest versions, it often happens that WordPress, plugins or themes are not compatible with them and cause errors.

Most people who run a website completely forget the PHP version. This leads to them creating a WordPress website, but then having the same (usually outdated) PHP version active for many years. As a result, errors can gradually occur.

Don't worry, you don't have to check for a new version every two days. The PHP version is actually not updated that often. We're talking about several months and sometimes even years.

Most hosters will send you an e-mail notification if a PHP version is so outdated that you need to change it in any case. However, in my opinion, it is wiser to take action yourself.

Whether you use Google every six months to check whether your PHP version is still up to date, subscribe to the newsletters of your favorite WordPress experts or read along here in Raidboxes Magazine: there are many ways to find out about a necessary upgrade to the newer PHP version.

Correct broken links

With a growing website, it is completely normal for links to "break" from time to time. Both with internal linking and with outgoing links, it happens again and again that an existing link suddenly leads to a 404 page.

Not only does this give your website visitors a poor user experience, it's also not a good thing from an SEO perspective. Of course, you don't have to keep opening all your pages, clicking on links and searching for broken links. There are much more efficient solutions for your WordPress maintenance.

If you use an SEO tool such as ahrefs, Semrush, Sistrix or one of the many others, you will usually find a report on "broken links" in the site audit module of the tool. You can even view the broken links in the free ahrefs webmaster tools.

Alternatively, you can install the free Broken Link Checker plugin on your website. It shows you broken links and lets you correct them directly from an interface. This saves you having to open different pages and posts and is much faster.

Although you can specify how many resources it is allowed to use in the plugin settings, I recommend that you only activate the plugin when it is in use. Leaving it active all the time is a drain on your server's resources. It is also not necessary to search for broken links all the time.

Another little tip: The Broken Link Checker has a default setting that highlights broken links for visitors. If you don't want this, you can deactivate it in the settings under "Link settings".

Set up and check uptime monitoring

Strictly speaking, of course, this step is not something you need to do every time. However, to ensure the smooth accessibility of your website, automatic monitoring of the website and the server is mandatory.

An uptime monitor tool monitors your website for you and informs you if it suddenly becomes unavailable. This is also a central component of ongoing WordPress maintenance.

In the screenshot you can see the accessibility of my website, checked by the Pulsetic tool. If my website is no longer accessible for any reason, the tool sends me an email and I can take care of the problem. Fortunately, this happens so incredibly rarely here at Raidboxes that it has only happened to me once in over five years.

You can use UptimeRobot for your website, for example, or Pulsetic, which I use. Both have a free plan that is absolutely sufficient for most WordPress websites.

Keep an eye on the loading time of the website

Again, you don't have to do this on a weekly basis, but I would recommend checking your website load time regularly. See also the article Making WordPress faster and the associated e-book from Raidboxes.

Installing new plugins, changing settings, changes to your host and other actions on your website can affect the loading time. When was the last time you checked how fast your website actually loads and whether it (still) meets the Google Core Web Vitals?

It's best to run your website through a performance tool such as GTmetrix or, of course, Google PageSpeed Insights once a month or every other month.

If your WordPress website performs well in these tests (for example, as in the screenshot above), then you don't need to worry about anything else. However, if you get significantly worse scores here or notice a downward trend compared to your last test, then look for the performance problems and fix them.

Check the functionality of the WordPress website

Although I have already recommended that you check the functionality of your website after carrying out updates, I would like to go into this again separately here. I can well understand that you're happy with your WordPress maintenance when everything is done and you don't feel like clicking and checking your website any longer.

Here is my appeal to you to do it anyway! To get straight to the point: For most websites, functions such as purchases in a store, subscriptions to a newsletter, contact forms or bookings are the absolute most important goals. However, these functions are also the most prone to errors.

JavaScript errors after an update, compatibility problems after installing a plugin or switching to a new PHP version: there are many reasons why something can go wrong here. If your business depends on these functions, you should also check them thoroughly!

So my tip is to create a checklist in which you note down all the important functions. Get into the habit of going through this checklist regularly. Believe me, there's nothing worse than suddenly realizing that no purchases have been made in the last two weeks because the shopping cart page was corrupted during an update ...

My conclusion on WordPress maintenance

WordPress maintenance doesn't have to be time-consuming and annoying. But it definitely needs to be carried out regularly to ensure the smooth functioning and security of your website.

During your weekly or bi-weekly maintenance, simply remember to update WordPress, plugins and themes and then check the functionality of your website. Also set up automated backups, as well as an uptime monitor that checks the availability of your website and notifies you if it is offline.

I would go through and check the PHP version and loading time about once a quarter, just like the broken links. If you stick to this procedure, you'll have less work and a well-maintained WordPress website in the long run!