The Complete Guide to Essential WordPress Maintenance Tasks

As a WordPress expert with over 15 years of experience managing WordPress sites, I can tell you that regular maintenance is crucial for keeping your WordPress site running smoothly and securely.

While it may not sound exciting, consistently performing small maintenance tasks prevents huge headaches down the road!

In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll arm you with the knowledge to keep your WordPress site in tip-top shape. You‘ll learn:

• The 13 most critical maintenance tasks for WordPress sites
• Step-by-step how to easily perform each task
• When and how often to do key maintenance items
• Expert tips to be an effective WordPress site maintainer
• How proper maintenance improves site performance, security, and longevity

I‘ll also share examples from my experience highlighting maintenance disasters that could have been avoided.

Trust me – taking the time to establish WordPress maintenance habits will give you peace of mind knowing your site is protected and operating optimally.

Let‘s get started!

Why You Should Make WordPress Maintenance a Priority

Before we dive into the maintenance tasks themselves, I want to emphasize why consistent WordPress maintenance should be a top priority:

Prevents Outages and Errors – Regular tasks like backups and updates prevent disastrous downtime and errors.

Saves Time – A little maintenance avoids hugely time-consuming disasters down the line.

Improves Performance – Updating plugins, optimizing images, and database cleaning improve site speed.

Enhances Security – Be proactive against hacks by closing vulnerabilities through updates and audits.

Increases Revenue – Well-maintained sites earn more by delighting users through uptime, speed, and great experience.

Boosts SEO – Maintenance tasks improve site health signals that impact search engine rankings and visibility.

Avoids Emergencies – Reduce middle-of-the-night emergency maintenance when you stay on top of tasks.

Provides Peace of Mind– Maintaining your site lets you rest easy knowing everything is ship-shape.

When you ignore maintenance, it‘s only a matter of time before issues arise. I‘ve seen clients lose thousands in revenue from downtime, reputational damage from hacks, and many other disasters that proper maintenance could have prevented.

Don‘t wait for an emergency to scramble into maintenance mode. Instead, dedicate a little time each week to stay ahead of problems.

Now let‘s explore the specific maintenance tasks you should perform regularly.

13 Essential WordPress Maintenance Tasks

Here are the WordPress maintenance activities I recommend for most sites. I assign each a frequency based on its importance and how often key settings change.

You can use this as a checklist to build your own maintenance schedule.

Monthly

• [ ] Change passwords
• [ ] Manual backups
• [ ] Security scan
• [ ] Check for updates
• [ ] Review comments
• [ ] Test forms

Quarterly

• [ ]Plugin/theme review
• [ ] SEO audit
• [ ] Optimize images
• [ ] Performance review

Twice a Year

• [ ] Database optimization
• [ ] Find and fix 404 errors
• [ ] Fix broken links
• [ ] Update Personal Data policy

Yearly

• [ ] Review web host
• [ ] Site restore test
• [ ] Cybersecurity audit

Let‘s explore what‘s involved in each of these tasks.

1. Change Your Passwords (Monthly)

Hackers can crack weak passwords and even strong ones given enough time and computing power. That‘s why best practice is to change passwords regularly.

When: Change passwords at least every 90 days.

What to Change: WordPress admin passwords, FTP passwords, hosting account passwords, etc.

How to Change Passwords:

• WordPress: Users > Your Profile > New Password

• cPanel: Home > Passwords > Password Manager

• FTP: In your FTP client, edit user account

Tips for New Passwords

• 12+ random characters
• Unique for each account
• Consider a password manager

Rotating passwords minimizes the chances of unauthorized access.

2. Perform Manual Backups (Monthly)

While automated WordPress backups are great, periodic manual backups are still recommended.

When: Monthly

Why It‘s Important:

• Confirms automated backup is working properly.

• Allows downloading backups to store off-site.

• Provides a clean restore point if needed.

How to Manually Backup your WordPress Site

1. Login to WP Admin

2. Go to Tools > Export

3. Select "All Content"

4. Generate Export File

5. Download and store the backup externally

Bonus: Test actually restoring the backup to a staging environment to verify the process works when needed.

Regular manual backups supplement automated solutions for maximum WordPress site protection.

3. Security Scans (Monthly)

Hackers are constantly probing sites for newly discovered vulnerabilities to exploit. That‘s why it‘s critical to regularly scan your WordPress site for potential security holes.

When to Scan: Monthly scans give you regular checks to catch issues early.

Why It‘s Important:

• Closes vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit

• Spots malware or suspicious files

• Provides peace of mind your site is secure

How to Scan:

1. Use a security plugin like Wordfence or Sucuri

2. Correct any issues the scan detects

3. Review scan logs for any suspicious activity

Regular security scans take the guesswork out of site security.

4. Check for Updates (Monthly)

Outdated WordPress software is a security liability, since bugs and exploits are frequently found. That‘s why staying updated is mission critical.

When to Check: Monthly updates ensure you never fall severely behind.

Why It‘s Important

• Security fixes to close vulnerabilities

• Site improvements and new features

• Avoid getting left behind on older versions

What to Update

• WordPress Core
• Themes
• Plugins
• PHP version

How to Update

• Use auto-updates for core updates
• Manually update themes and plugins

Staying updated to the latest WP versions eliminates preventable security risks.

5. Review Comments (Monthly)

Comment spam is an ongoing battle. Moderating pending comments allows you to catch any spam not blocked automatically.

When to Moderate: Check pending comments weekly, delete spam monthly.

Tips to Control Comment Spam

• Use Akismet and other anti-spam plugins

• Quickly approve valid comments to train spam filters

• Monitor spam blocked and adjust plugin settings accordingly

• Enable CAPTCHAs if spam persists

• Disable comments altogether if spam is unmanageable

Regular comment moderation keeps spam under control.

6. Test Forms (Monthly)

It‘s easy for contact forms, email signup forms, surveys, and other site forms to break without notice. Testing ensures they work.

When to Test: Monthly form testing ensures they work when needed.

How to Test Forms

1. Navigate to each form on your site

2. Fill in fields and submit the form

3. Verify the submission was received

4. Follow up if submissions are not coming through

Common Form Issues

• Incorrect mail server settings

• Deactivated plugins

• Blocked emails

• Security filters

• Outdated contact info

Confirming forms work each month ensures no lost leads or sales.

7. Plugin/Theme Review (Quarterly)

While WordPress can automatically update most plugins and themes, it‘s possible for some to fall through the cracks.

When to Review: Quarterly review ensures nothing is severely out of date.

Why It‘s Important

• Premium plugins may require manual updates

• External service connections can break on updates

• Abandoned plugins left unmaintained

What to Look For

• Update notifications within WP admin

• Changelog listings of updates

• Review premium licenses are active

• Check versions against WordPress.orgPlugins

Regular plugin and theme reviews supplement automated updates.

8. SEO Audit (Quarterly)

As an experienced WordPress SEO expert, I recommend auditing your SEO details quarterly to maximize search performance.

When to Audit

• Quarterly SEO checkups catch any issues

• After major site changes

• When traffic or rankings decline

Why It‘s Important

• Find new SEO opportunities and quick wins

• Diagnose issues hurting performance

• Stay on ranking trends and algorithm changes

SEO Audit Checklist

• Site speed optimizations

• Improve page titles and meta descriptions

• Enhance content for ranking keywords

• Fix technical SEO issues like 404s

• Build more quality backlinks

• Monitor search ranking positions

Consistent SEO audits keep you ranking high in search engines.

9. Optimize Images (Quarterly)

High-resolution images load slowly. Optimizing images saves bandwidth and speeds up sites.

When to Optimize

• Test site speed quarterly

• Audit images when page load times increase

Tips to Optimize Images

• Compress losslessly to reduce file sizes

• Resize to the displayed size vs full resolution

• Lazy load offscreen images

• Serve images from a CDN

• Enable WebP image support

Tools to Optimize Images

• EWWW Image Optimizer
• Optimole
• ShortPixel
• TinyPNG

Quarterly image optimization improves WordPress performance.

10. Performance Review (Quarterly)

Many factors can degrade WordPress performance over time. That‘s why proactively monitoring site speed is important.

When to Review

• Quarterly reviews catch performance regressions

• After major site changes

• Anytime load times feel slower

Why It‘s Important

• Faster sites improve visitor experience

• Slow sites negatively impact SEO rankings

How to Monitor Performance

• PageSpeed Insights grades

• Pingdom or GTmetrix tests

• WebPagetest detailed analysis

• Check site with throttled and mobile connections

• Review server resource usage

Proactively monitoring performance keeps your site speedy.

11. Database Optimization (Twice a Year)

Slow database queries can drag down WordPress performance. Regular database optimization avoids this.

When to Optimize

• Twice annually

• When the database grows significantly

Why It‘s Important

• Improves database response times

• Reduces database size

• Frees up server resources

How to Optimize Your Database

1. Backup before optimizing!

2. Use a tool like WP-Optimize to clean, optimize and defrag

3. OR manually optimize:

   • Clean up database cruft

   • Defragment tables

   • Compress unused space

A well-optimized database powers a faster WordPress site.

12. Identify and Fix 404 Errors (Twice a Year)

Broken links and "Page not found" errors create a poor user experience. Identifying and redirecting 404 errors improves site navigation.

When to Fix

• Scan for 404 errors twice a year

• Or whenever broken link reports increase

Why It‘s Important

• Redirects users to relevant content, not a dead end

• Avoids losing rankings from dead links

• Improves site information architecture

How to Fix 404s

1. Use Google Search Console to find 404 pages

2. Identify any patterns (old URLs, common typos, etc)

3. Redirect invalid URLs to relevant pages when possible

4. Update site menus and navigation with correct links

Monitoring and redirecting 404 errors keeps site navigation smooth.

13. Find and Fix Broken Links (Twice a Year)

Over time, links within your content can break as sites reorganize content or go offline entirely. Finding and fixing broken links improves user experience and your reputation.

When to Check

• Scan for broken links twice annually

• Or when broken link reports spike

Why It‘s Important

• Visitors can access linked resources
• Avoids a jarring, unprofessional user experience
• Helps your site‘s credibility and rankings

How to Find and Fix Broken Links

• Use a link checker like WP Link Checker to identify broken internal or external links

• Review analytics for user-reported broken pages

• Manually check important site content

• Redirect or remove broken external links

• Update changed internal links with correct URL

Routinely checking links keeps your content current, credible and accessible.

Even More WordPress Maintenance Tips

To round out your WordPress maintenance knowledge, here are a few more handy tips:

Staging Site

Use a staging site to test changes and maintenance without impacting production.

Maintenance Mode

Put your site in maintenance mode during updates and intensive maintenance tasks to avoid public errors.

Secure Hosting

Switching to one of the best managed WordPress hosts provides layers of security, uptime and speed optimizations.

WordPress Error Logging

Enable debug logging to help troubleshoot site issues more easily.

Automation

Use site maintenance services or management plugins to automate time-consuming tasks.

WordPress Health Status

Install the Site Health plugin to get warnings for issues impacting your site.

Now you‘re fully equipped with expert knowledge to keep your WordPress site running smoothly! Just take it step-by-step using my maintenance checklist.

Stay proactive, and you‘ll save yourself countless headaches compared to scrambling in emergency reactive mode. Your visitors will enjoy an optimized experience, and you‘ll keep threats at bay.

Here‘s to a cleanly maintained WordPress site!