Why You Need a WordPress Maintenance Plan
WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) in the world powering 64% of all websites…. Version 5.9 of WordPress alone has been downloaded a massive 69 million times (and counting). Content creators love WordPress because it gives them the tools to easily update their site. WordPress’ flexibility also means that it can be used for a vast array of sites; so whether you want to run a personal blog; an online shop; or a multinational company, it should be able to provide you with what you need.
In some ways WordPress has been a victim of it’s own success and as the largest CMS it is also a prime target for hackers. WordPress needs to be regularly updated to keep one-step ahead of the bad guys and in order to implement incremental improvements. The use of third party plugins in WordPress that can add so much functionality to your website can also come at a cost as some plugins act as gateways for hackers trying to insert malicious code into your site… leading a real headache for you and your business (loss of time, revenue and reputation).
Here are some of the steps we take to secure your site if you sign up to one of our WordPress maintenance plans.
Identifying Potential Problems
Before we do anything on any site we check out any potential issues. Is the theme coding up to scratch? Is the site reliant on insecure plugins? Has the site been hacked already? Are login usernames and passwords insecure? We only take on websites that reach minimum standards, but if you need help getting your website up to scratch we might be able to help with that.
Backups – For Peace of Mind
Next we backup your site. Regular backups ensure that if there is an issue you can roll back to a previous version of the site. If you are on our hosted packages we back up your site on a daily basis. We also make backups before each update. Backups are held on a separate server to keep them completely separate to your WordPress install.
Update WordPress Core, Plugins and Themes
The bread and butter of WordPress maintenance. WordPress releases minor updates of its’ core code every few weeks and more major updates every 3 or 4 months. It is important to keep on top of these updates in order to keep your site secure. We’ll need to keep plugins and themes up-to-date too.
We’ll update the core WordPress CMS, plugins and your theme. If you have a premium theme or plugin you purchased from somewhere like Themeforest are using we can even arrange to have that updated. If a theme or plugin is no longer kept up-to-date we’ll let you know and make recommendations for alternatives if appropriate.
If your dashboard looks like this it is time for an update!
Hardened Security
WP Care provides hardened WordPress security on all our hosted installations. This includes actions such limiting access to certain files on your WordPress installation, limiting the number of attempted logins to guard against brute force attacks, addition of SSL certificates and sFTP file transfer. We also provide malware scanning to make sure everything your website is virus free.
Uptime Monitoring
We monitor your website. If there is an issue we will know about it almost immediately and can work to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Sometimes it can be something as simple as the client forgetting to renew their domain name, but if there is an issue we can try find out what the problem is.
Support – We’ve Got You Back
Depending on your website package we can provide different levels of support. We provide support via email, ticketing system, chat and phone. WP Care let’s you talk to an actual person… feel free to call is on (01) 969 6215.
More Services
Need more services? Other services we provide include:
- Virus removal
- WordPress installation (core, theme and basic plugin setup)
- WordPress migration
- Pagespeed optimisation
- Theme customisation
- Help with custom content
- Payment integration
- SEO services
Find out more about our WordPress support plans, hourly rates or contact us directly for more details.