How to keep your site secure and running smoothly with WordPress Maintenance. Questions addressed: Why is WordPress maintenance important? What can happen if you don't maintain? What are the benefits of proper maintenance? How is maintenance done? What are useful plugins, tools, processes, and services? How often should maintenance tasks be done? When should each task be done? What if I hate maintaining WordPress? Blog post: https://optimwise.com/wordpress-maintenance-secure-smoothly/

1. WordPress Maintenance:
Keep Your Site Secure &
Running Smoothly

2. Chad Warner
Chad Warner
Founder and WordPress
Maintenance Specialist
OptimWise
> optimwise.com

3. Why Is Maintenance Important?
● Why is car maintenance important?
○ You want to keep driving your car
○ Invest in keeping it running smoothly and reliably
○ Be a responsible car owner
● Same concept applies to your website
○ Your business depends on your website
○ Keep site secure and running smoothly
○ Be a responsible website owner

4. What If You Don't Maintain?
● Site gets hacked
○ Sucuri: 61% of hacked WordPress sites are running outdated
software
○ Wordfence: “plugin vulnerabilities represented 55.9% of the
known entry points reported by respondents.”
● Site runs slowly
● Site breaks due to incompatibility
● Visitors stop using your site
● Google ranks your site lower (reducing traffic, leads, sales)

5. Benefits Of Maintenance
● Site more secure
● Site faster
● Site runs smoothly
● Have backup in case of issues

6. How Is Maintenance Done?
● Manually
● Plugins
● Host may do some, at least partially (backups, Core updates, some
security)
● OptimWise

7. ● Management tools
○ ManageWP
○ MainWP
○ InfiniteWP
○ Jetpack Manage
● Updates
○ Advanced Automatic Updates
● Backups
○ BackupBuddy
○ VaultPress
Plugins, Tools, Processes, Services

8. ● Uptime
○ Jetpack Monitor
○ Uptime Robot
● Security
○ Sucuri Security
○ Wordfence
○ Service like Sucuri
Plugins, Tools, Processes, Services

9. Plugins, Tools, Processes, Services
● Speed
○ GTmetrix
○ Pingdom Website Speed Test
○ Ask host what they recommend
○ If host doesn't have caching system, try plugin like WP Super
Cache
● Find Outdated WordPress Plugins
○ No Longer in Directory plugin
● Optimize Images
○ Imsanity
● OptimWise

10. ● Daily
○ Back Up
○ Monitor Uptime
○ Monitor Security
● Weekly
○ Install Updates
○ Moderate Comments
● Monthly
○ Review Front End
○ Review Back End
○ Check Backups
Maintenance Schedule
● Quarterly
○ Review User Accounts
○ Test Speed
○ Find Outdated WordPress
Plugins
○ Declutter Plugins
○ Declutter Themes
○ Declutter Media
○ Test Forms
● As Needed
○ Optimize Images

11. Ultimate Maintenance Schedule

12. Hate Maintaining WordPress?
● You don't need to do it yourself!
● Have a teammate do it
● Have OptimWise do it

13. Slides & Notes
optimwise.com/maintain-gvl/
The Ultimate WordPress
Maintenance Schedule
optimwise.com/wordpress-maintenance-schedule/

14. Chad Warner
Chad Warner
Founder and WordPress
Maintenance Specialist
OptimWise
> optimwise.com

15. Q&A

16. 1. Audit your site. Are any maintenance tasks undone?
2. Catch up on incomplete maintenance.
3. Review your maintenance processes. Are there any gaps?
4. Improve your maintenance processes, using your internal team or
outside help (such as OptimWise).
Challenge

17. Slides & Notes
optimwise.com/maintain-gvl/
The Ultimate WordPress
Maintenance Schedule
optimwise.com/wordpress-maintenance-schedule/