Keeping Your WordPress Site Humming Along
Over 30% of all websites run on WordPress. With great power comes great responsibility – the responsibility to keep your site up-to-date, secure, and running smoothly. I learned this lesson the hard way when my site was hacked after failing to update an outdated plugin. It took nearly a week to restore everything and was a sobering wake-up call on the importance of disciplined WordPress maintenance.
This article will provide best practices for keeping your WordPress site humming along through routine updates, leveraging built-in maintenance mode features, tools to automate the process, and tips for communicating status to visitors during maintenance windows.
Why does WordPress maintenance matter so much?
Outdated WordPress installations are vulnerable to over 200 known exploits that can lead to hacked sites, malware infections, blacklisting by Google, and even complete site failures. Beyond security risks, failing to update means missing out on speed optimizations, new features that can enhance site capabilities, and potential incompatibilities with the latest browser and web standards.
The WordPress core team is dedicated to continuous security hardening and refinements – but site owners need to do their part in staying current. Industry stats show outdated software plays a role in 83% of hacked websites. Just as you wouldn’t drive a car without routine oil changes and tuneups, websites require ongoing maintenance for protection and performance.
Best Practices for WordPress Maintenance
In this blog post, we’ll explore WordPress best practices to seamlessly maintain your site without headaches or surprises. You’ll learn how to leverage built-in functionality like automatic background updates and maintenance mode to safely update WordPress, plugins, and themes. We’ll also cover must-have maintenance tools, how to budget for managed hosting services, and tips for clearly communicating status to visitors when your site is temporarily unavailable during maintenance.
Whether you are a do-it-yourself site owner or rely on a web development team, creating a culture and discipline of continuous WordPress maintenance is critical for a successful, secure site. Let’s get started!
Why WordPress Maintenance and Updates Are Essential
WordPress powers over 30% of all websites, making it the most widely used content management system in the world. With great power comes great responsibility – the responsibility to keep your WordPress site updated, maintained, and secured.
Outdated Sites Are Exploited Sites
Think your tiny little blog isn’t on the radar of cyber attacks? Think again. Outdated WordPress installations account for a staggering 83% of hacked websites. Failure to update opens the door for over 200+ known exploits that can lead to…well, it ain’t pretty. We’re talking malware injection, phishing scams, blacklisted sites…you name it.
By religiously updating WordPress core files plus all plugins and themes, you eliminate most vulnerabilities. It’s like putting on your virtual body armor to defend against digital baddies. Set this as a quarterly or bi-annual routine and security will be the least of your problems.
Speed Matters – Updates Optimize Performance
Let’s add insult to injury – that outdated version of WordPress isn’t just insecure, it’s slow too. The core geniuses are always finding ways to trim fat and improve performance with upgrades.
New features like cached data and lazy loading images can work wonders through incremental boosts over time. And let’s not forget the latest Gutenberg editor now packs built-in performance auditing tools. Harness them!
Downtime Is Not an Option
The average website needs near 100% uptime to thrive. Every moment of downtime chips away at revenue, organic visibility, and user trust.
The WordPress maintenance mode gives you a cloak of invisibility while safely performing updates in the background. Activate this to avoid any update-related downtime that loses eyeballs or sales. Customize the message so visitors know you’ll be back shortly!
…And That’s Just the Beginning!
We’ve only scratched the surface of why disciplined WordPress maintenance pays dividends…
Best Practices for Updating WordPress
Keeping your WordPress site updated is one of the most important maintenance tasks. Keeping WordPress and all plugins and themes updated to the latest versions will help boost security, site speed, and access new features.
Create Automated Backups Before Any Update
Backups are your safety net if anything goes wrong during an update. Before updating anything on your WordPress site, create a full site backup using a plugin like UpdraftPlus. This will let you roll back changes if something breaks. Set up automated daily or weekly backups as well for redundancy.
Have a Staging or Testing Server
Test all WordPress updates on a staging server before updating your live site. This isolates you from any risks or downtime. Using a managed WordPress host helps provide staging sites to preview updates. If you don’t have one, install a local testing server.
Update WordPress Core First
Always update the WordPress core software first before updating any other plugins or themes. This ensures continued compatibility. Schedule WordPress updates to automatic for hassle-free maintenance.
Next Update Plugins
After the core WordPress update, update all plugins next. Check plugin changelogs first to spot any compatibility issues with the new WordPress version. Disable plugins if needed before updates.
Finally, Update the Theme
The last step is to update your WordPress theme after updating the core and plugins. Preview theme changes on your staging site first before updating the production site live theme.
Enable Auto-Updates Where Possible
To simplify maintenance, enable automatic background updates for WordPress core software, plugins, and themes where appropriate. This ensures they stay updated without effort. Monitor initially to spot any issues.
Schedule Maintenance Windows and Use Maintenance Mode
Plan a weekly or monthly maintenance window to perform WordPress updates. Put your site into maintenance mode to avoid visitor disruption and hide errors if they occur during updates.
Following structured WordPress update best practices will lead to a well-maintained site with maximum uptime and productivity. Stay vigilant with updates and backups to avoid becoming part of the 83% of hacked sites running outdated software.
Leveraging WordPress Maintenance Mode
Activating Maintenance Mode Manually
WordPress has a handy built-in feature to help site owners seamlessly maintain their websites called maintenance mode. This mode essentially puts up a temporary landing page for visitors while you work on updates behind-the-scenes.
When WordPress core, plugins, or themes need updating, maintenance mode activates automatically to change what people see when they visit your site. Instead of getting error messages during the update, visitors will view a customizable notification page letting them know your site is undergoing routine maintenance.
Rather than seeing your blog offline or with glitchy content during upgrades, you can provide updates and let visitors know when your site will be back up. The default WordPress maintenance mode page simply says “Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. Check back in a minute.”
Customizing Your Maintenance Mode Screen
While maintenance mode turns on automatically at times, you can also activate it manually. This is useful when you need to do theme customizations, test new plugins, work on the backend design, or make structural changes without affecting user experience.
To activate it manually in WordPress, go to your dashboard and navigate to Settings > Maintenance Mode. Toggle the button to “On” and visitors will immediately start seeing a customizable notification page instead of your regular site front-end.
Communication is Key
Rather than just displaying the default boring message, you can create a customized maintenance page that matches your brand. Add your logo, images, custom copy and styling.
You can reassure visitors of the temporary nature of the maintenance and provide updates on when they can expect full access again. Providing an email subscription is also handy during this downtime so you can let subscribers know when the site is back up.
A creative, on-brand maintenance page improves user experience and makes sure your site still creates value during routine upgrades. It presents a professional image rather than looking like your site is broken.
No matter what route you take with maintenance mode customizations, communication is vital. You don’t want visitors thinking your site is down permanently.
Provide social media updates leading up to scheduled maintenance sessions. Send email newsletter updates to subscribers alerting them of maintenance windows.
Keep visitors looped in, be transparent about timelines, reassure them the site will be back, and utilization of the built-in WordPress maintenance mode feature helps minimize disruptions during crucial website upkeep.
Maintenance Tools and Services
Maintenance Options
When it comes to keeping your WordPress site updated and properly maintained, you have a few options. Doing it yourself is the most affordable but also time-consuming. Hiring a professional WordPress developer typically costs around $85 per hour. There are also some tools and managed hosting services to consider that can save money compared to a developer.
Free Tools
One of the most popular free backup plugins for WordPress is UpdraftPlus. This lets you easily backup your entire site and restore it when needed. Configuring automated backups before any site changes is a smart maintenance practice.
P3 (Plugin Performance Profiler) is another handy free tool that helps detect plugins that may be slowing down your site. Finding and disabling problematic plugins can give your site a nice speed boost.
Managed WordPress Hosting Services
There are a growing number of managed WordPress hosting providers like WP Engine and Kinsta. For a monthly fee, these services will handle all your WordPress site’s maintenance, updates, backups, and monitoring. Prices start around $30/month for sites with up to 25,000 visits per month. Higher-traffic sites around 100,000 visits/month usually cost about $100/month.
Most managed hosts offer staging sites where you can preview updates before deploying to production. Automated daily backups are also standard. For the set monthly cost, these services eliminate the hassle of manual maintenance. Just be aware of traffic limits with basic plans.
The Importance of a Maintenance Routine
Regardless of whether you choose a managed service or DIY, having a consistent maintenance routine is key for WordPress success. Follow best practices like scheduled updates, backups before changes, and performance checks. Leverage tools to automate what you can. Your future self will thank you the next time a WordPress update rolls around!
Maintaining Your WordPress Site: Final Thoughts
As we’ve explored throughout this article, keeping your WordPress site updated and running smoothly is critical for security, speed, avoiding downtime, and leveraging the latest features.
While the task may seem daunting, having a regular maintenance plan in place makes all the difference. Set reminders to backup your site, clear out unnecessary data, and schedule updates. Automate what you can, test changes on a staging site, and use maintenance mode to avoid issues.
The costs involved with maintenance vary widely based on your technical skills and site traffic. Budget WordPress hosts start around $5 per month, while hiring a WordPress professional can run $100 per hour. For most small sites, learning to maintain WordPress yourself using free tools is perfectly sufficient.
Adhering to these best practices pays dividends in the long run through improved performance, higher search rankings, and ultimately more site visitors. Just like changing the oil in your car, dedicating time to maintain your website ensures it will keep running smoothly for years to come.
The next step is to commit to a WordPress maintenance routine that fits your abilities and site needs. Start small by enabling automatic background updates or reviewing plugin usage. Build from there with regular backups, core updates, and site performance checks.
Stay tuned for more WordPress tips and advice here on the blog in the coming months. Let us know in the comments what maintenance topics interest you most!

Yours truly, head code sorcerer brewing web magic through finger tips for over a decade and counting! I pioneer blazing fast and secure digital foundations so brands can turn imagination into online reality without technical limits. My superpower? Guiding teams on expeditions across WordPress frontiers to conjure up exceptional possibilities from tucked-away blockchain innovations to reimagining site speed. Brewing bespoke digital experiences isn’t just a career – it’s a passion and endless quest so every website sings.