Why WordPress requires maintenance

As you probably know, WordPress is a incredibly popular and powerful platform for creating websites and applications. Unfortunately a downside of this popularity is that it has increasingly become a target for hackers.

That said, there are thousands of talented developers from all around the world who are constantly working to improve WordPress as platform and also to make it as secure as possible. In order to take advantage of all this hard work, you need to keep your WordPress website and it’s related components up to date.

For this reason I provide regular WordPress maintenance as a service to many of the businesses and organisations that I work with. Here is some information about what this typically involves.

Initial maintenance and setup

Firstly we will need to get your site up to date and setup with any third party services that may be required. The amount of work required at this stage is dependent on the size, complexity and condition of your site. Typically it’s a few hours work and involves the following tasks.

• Updating WordPress core
• Testing and launching plugin and theme updates
• Providing solutions to any issues or conflicts that might arise from updates
• Implementing basic best practices for WordPress security

Additional services that maybe required at this stage include:

• Setting up an automated backup service
• Setting up a third party storage for automated backups
• Setting up security services
• Dealing with comment spam

Routine maintenance

Once the initial maintenance tasks are complete a routine of monthly maintenance begins. This involves monitoring your site and once a month, performing any maintenance tasks that are required to keep your site up-to-date, backed up and secure.

This typically takes less than an hour to complete. If it looks like it will take any longer, I will touch base with you for approval before proceeding with the work.

Monthly maintenance tasks typically include the following:

• Updating WordPress core
• Testing and launching plugin and theme updates (including security patches)
• Providing solutions to any issues or conflicts that might arise from updates
• Making backups or monitoring automated backup services (if setup)
• Monitoring security service logs (if setup)
• Monitoring the site for any other issues

Please note the cost of this maintenance service is based on my hourly rate.

If you would like some help with the maintenance of your WordPress website, please feel free to get in touch.