WordPress maintenance is the carrying out of a certain set of procedures to optimize a website. Creating good content is not enough to make sure that a website becomes popular. Some maintenance activities help in presenting the content of a website in a way that it is more appealing for the visitors of the website.
Here are a few things that website owners can do to make their websites more attractive and friendly for users.
Optimize Images and Other Media
Images and other media on a website may lower the loading speed. So, while carrying out WordPress maintenance it is advisable to check for images that may be too large or too small and resizing them according to the optimum size. This will help the website to load faster and improve the experience of those who visit the website.
Remove Clutter from The WordPress Database
All the content, comments and customizations of a website are stored in the WordPress database. Over time, a ton of spam comments and additional clutter may be collected here. This may affect the uploading speed and the overall experience of those who visit the website. Removing this clutter from time to time will help prevent the website from slowing down.
Get Rid of Spam Comments
All the spam comments on a website are stored in Comment Spam WordPress Plugin. The owner of a website should review the comments in this folder and delete the ones that are spam while restoring the ones which are not and may have been wrongly added to this plugin. If not reviewed within a certain amount of time then all the comments will be deleted and the owner may lose some real comments as well.
Check for Dead Links and Remove Them
At times, owners may have added incorrect links which lead to error 404 pages when a visitor clicks on them. Running a links check during a WordPress maintenance helps owners to find out all the links which are not functioning properly. These must be removed or new links which function well must be added.
Make Sure That the Website Is Upgraded to The Latest Version
Frequent updates for WordPress websites are visible on the WordPress homepage. Owners should download these upgrades to ensure that their website is working at the optimal speed with all the latest available features.
Back Up the Contents of The Website
The owner of a website must schedule backups of all the content, comments and customizations to either their own system or to the host server database. This ensures that the contents will not be lost even if there is a technical glitch in the website. These backups must be scheduled more frequently if the amount of content uploaded to a website is high.
Check the Statistics of The Website
Website statistics give information like what is the demographic of those visiting the website, which posts are most liked and shared etc. So, while carrying out WordPress maintenance the owner must make sure to check these statistics. This helps the owner to figure out what kind of content the visitors enjoy more. If they upload more of the similar type of content, they may get more visitors. Thus, improving the rankings of the website.
To conclude
WordPress maintenance is an important part of running a website. It is almost as important as curating good content for the website. So, owners must take care to carry out these maintenance tasks from time to time. A website that is not properly maintained obviously does not attract visitors. It can also be a nightmare for the owners.
