Why your WordPress site needs regular maintenance
Updates, security and backups: the jobs that keep a WordPress site healthy, and what happens when they slip.
Ever updated WordPress, a theme or a plugin and found something broke? Sometimes it's a button out of place. Sometimes it's the whole site. WordPress is open source and built from lots of parts made by different people, so updates don't always play nicely together.
Here's why looking after your site matters, and what can go wrong if nobody does.
Updates never stop
Even if you never touch your content, WordPress, your theme and your plugins keep releasing updates. Many of them fix security holes. Leave them too long and you're running software with known weaknesses, which is exactly what automated attacks look for.
Doing the updates is only half the job. A plugin can stop working, or clash with another one, straight after an update. The timing and the testing afterwards are what keep the site running.
Security is a moving target
Out-of-date plugins are the most common way small business sites get hacked, often without the owner noticing for weeks. Keeping everything current won't make a site bulletproof, nothing does, but it massively reduces the risk and limits the damage if something does happen.
Mistakes happen
Having the keys to your own site is great. It also means it's easy to delete the wrong thing or knock a layout out of shape. It happens to all of us, even people who work on websites every day.
Backups are your safety net
A copy of your site from yesterday or last week is a lifesaver after a hack or an accident. Our hosting plans include automated daily backups, so there's always a recent copy to restore from.
How we can help
Our WordPress & plugin updates service is $65 + GST per update. We take a full backup first, update WordPress core, your theme and your plugins, check the site still looks and works right, and roll back anything that misbehaves. Some clients book one a quarter, some do it themselves. Either way, don't leave it a year.
It covers the updates themselves. It doesn't include site or content changes or additions, which we're happy to quote separately.
Not sure where your site's at? Get in touch and we'll take a look.