Proven Website Maintenance Routine for your Peace of Mind

Just like a car, your website needs maintenance. We follow this handy checklist to make sure your website is secure, backed up, and working smoothly.

If you notice something funny under the hood, please contact us right away.

Weekly Check-up

  • Check website performance in Google Analytics (to make sure traffic is flowing).
  • Compare each week’s list of new plugin and theme vulnerabilities to the software actually running on your website – and take action if you find one in order to keep your website secure! (Many people skip this step! We don’t.)
  • Check for any new Contact Form entries to make sure all leads and connections have been captured properly.

Monthly Pre-Maintenance Check-up

  • Test website performance & provide a report
  • Check overall domain & Domain Name Server health
  • Check for broken links and other errors  
  • Check Google Analytics
    • Check for any server or rendering errors
    • Check for any obvious issues
  • Briefly browse the site for anything out of the ordinary including:
    • Check your SSL Certificate condition & expiration date
    • Check Homepage
    • Check contact page; confirm clickable phone number link
    • Check Call to Action links
    • Check the mobile menu
    • Confirm Footer & social media links
    • Make note of possible improvements to performance, if possible (new content delivery network settings, caching optimization, etc.)
  • Check logs for any errors or warnings in cPanel or DirectAdmin
  • Confirm last known server-level backup was within the past few hours

Monthly Maintenance Routine

  • Log in to WordPress as Administrator
  • Backup before changing anything
  • Temporarily disable any caching plugins
  • Make corrections to anything needing attention or reconfiguration only if the things found above are not due to an outdated plugin
  • Update All Plugins
  • Update the Theme
  • Update WordPress core
  • Check for more Plugin and Theme updates if there was a core update.
    (sometimes there are new versions of plugins for the new versions of WordPress)
  • Check that your website (and server) is running the latest hypertext preprocessor programming language (PHP) available. If not, plan steps to get PHP updated.
  • Read about any new settings or features in the installed updates for each update. (Many people skip this step! We don’t.)

Monthly Post-Maintenance Routine

  • Re-test website performance and compare it to the pre-maintenance report
  • Re-enable any caching plugins
  • Test the website’s main functionality to make sure all seems well
  • If something is not right, troubleshoot or restore it to a working state
    • If we changed PHP settings, we’ll revert it back to the previous PHP version
  • Once the site is secure, clear, and running well, perform a final full backup
  • Send an all-clear email at the beginning of the next month 
  • OR, if there is an issue, we will send a proactive support ticket to start the conversation
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Quarterly Website Maintenance Routine

Worry Free Website Support Plan and above:

  • We routinely pretend your website’s server MELTED without any warning. At least once every quarter, we attempt to restore a recent backup file on a new server and test it to make sure everything is working and that all your data can be restored.
  • Why do we go through all this? We have heard and experienced a few situations that make us no longer trust backups – and neither should you. We know bad things can happen when you assume backups are working!
  • We’ll send an email detailing our findings and give you peace of mind about the restorability of your website.

Growth Optimizer Plan and above:

  • At least once a quarter, we’ll schedule a Growth Strategy Call to review the current state of your website. What do you want to improve? What growth would you like to see? We’ll help you grow your business by improving your website. This could include anything from a lead-generating funnel to eCommerce customization to optimizing existing offerings.

NOTE: If at any point we find something that we feel needs your urgent attention, we’ll reach out to you right away.

If you need real people to partner with you and take really good care of your WordPress website, look no further.

Stop worrying about your website today and get in touch: [email protected] or  https://wdw.click/help

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