Just like computer maintenance, webmasters forget that they need to perform WordPress website maintenance in order to keep their blog or website running smoothly.
Precautions before using this WordPress Website maintenance checklist
You are the webmaster so you will need to take responsibility for your website files. Before installing, deleting, optimizing, updating anything on your blog make sure you do the right thing!
- Backup your database: You can install a plugin to do this or do it manually. See the links below for more information.
- Backup your posts and pages: You can do this by entering your WordPress Dashboard, clicking on Tools in the left menu, then choosing export. This will take all your pages and posts, but does not always get your special settings or all of your images. This is why we also need to backup files as well. I have used this option to move a website into WordPress but just had to bring the images over manually.
- Backup your server files: You can access your WordPress website files through FTP. You will see all of your files in the installation directory where you first installed WordPress. For example if you install WordPress into the root of your domain then the files will be there. If you installed WordPress into a directory on your domain then they will be in that folder, looking something like this www.yourdomain/blog. Browsing your server is a lot like browsing through a computer.
- Backup your theme files: If I am upgrading my theme or moving my website I like to copy any customizations that I have made. For example I might have changed the CSS file or maybe I added some code to the header.PHP file. Either way I like to backup these files if I am changing something with my theme. If I am doing a full backup of my website or backing up all the files on the server, then it is not necessary for me to perform this step also.
- Use A script or software to backup the entire Website: In this case I like to use WPTwin as it will clone your entire installation including images, users, comments, in fact an exact replica of what you have on your website.
Cool resources for backing up your WordPress installation
http://codex.wordpress.org/Backing_Up_Your_WordPress_Files Backup your files
http://codex.wordpress.org/Backing_Up_Your_Database Backup your Database
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-db-backup/ WP database backup plugin
#1. Visit your website
This is my number one rule! Visit your own website as a visitor, not just in the dashboard! If you have your blinkers on and just go into your WordPress dashboard you will be missing out and the whole website functioning.
I visit my website every day. Sometimes I find errors myself, and sometimes people e-mail me and tell me. For example one time I went to my blog and clicked on a link on the homepage. It came up with a 404 error. If I did not visit the blog I would not know that there was an error. It turned out to be a plug-in I had installed, messed with the permalink structure, therefore making every link on my blog broken. Luckily I had seen this error before and picked it up straight away.
#2. Update your blog
WordPress makes it easy to update or blog. You will see a link to your updates in your WordPress dashboard and when there are updates, there will be a number next to the link.
When you see a number next to the updates link in the menu, all you have to do is click on the update link. This will take you to the WordPress updates page and you will be able to see all of the updates that your blog needs. This could be a plug-in or a WordPress theme, or even WordPress itself. Again, before doing any of this, I like to backup my website just in case.
#3. Check loading times
The loading times of your WordPress website are very important. It is like working on a slow computer. You simply get less work done, and when it comes to website visitors, they visit less pages on a slow blog. You want your website visitors to feel good about visiting many pages on your website so you need to make it load up quickly. Speeding up your website loading time has proven to not only bring in more income, but give your users a fantastic experience on your website.
#4. Check for broken links
Years ago one of my websites suddenly dropped out of the search engines and I had no idea why. I discovered it was because I had too many broken links on my website. At the time, I had never heard of this. Anyway I have repaired the links and my website went back to the previous rankings in the search engines. This was when I decided to add checking broken links to my maintenance schedule for my website.
Now in WordPress I use a plugin called broken link checker and it is free.
#5. Delete unwanted plug-ins
Everyone has plug-ins that they have installed into their WordPress website and either have deactivated them or have activated ones but are not really using them. these plug-ins are just taking up space and should be deleted. Of course, before doing so, you should backup your files just to be on the safe side. I also suggest that you deactivate the plug-in before actually deleting any files.
See this screenshot below. As you can see there is an inactive section for plug-ins. There is no real reason why there should be inactive plug-ins on your blog.
#6. Delete unwanted themes
Many Webmasters install new WordPress themes and always forget to actually delete them afterwards. You only really need to keep the one that you are using, and also the default WordPress theme. This is usually used for when your theme crashes, as you can always switch to the default theme.
See the screenshot below. I investigated one of my websites and found eight extra themes installed. this also means that eight of these themes need to be kept up to date as having out of date themes and plug-ins can leave you open to hackers. Therefore it is better to only have the theme you are using, and the default WordPress theme.
#7. Optimize your database tables
To optimize database tables, I use WP-DBManager. It is a free plugin available from the WordPress Plugin site and it lets you take control of your database. It also allows you to delete unwanted tables but you would have to be careful with this. Using this plugin to optimize your database does really speed up your website. I like to delete old database tables that have been created by plug-ins that are not using any more. If you are not experienced then you should get some help when doing this as you can crash your entire website by deleting the wrong database table.
#8. Delete spam comments
Many webmasters do not realize that most of us that own the new Premium Commentluv plug-in are using this to control spam comments on our websites as it includes G.A.S.P which ads in sneaky hidden fields that bots think they should fill out. Us humans can’t see these hidden fields so we cannot obviously use these input areas. Therefore my stress with spam has turned to almost ZERO because of this plugin.
Now my maintenance for spam simply includes visiting the spam section of the comments, and deleting them. The CommentLuv plug-in is so good that it does not even put the wrong comments in the spam sections either, like Akismet used to do.
In the screenshot above, you can see that the Commentluv plug-in picks up comments that are too short, have too many links in them, and comments where people have not stayed on the page long enough. For example, if you try to put a comment on my website before 60 seconds, obviously you haven’t read the post yet, so Commentluv warns you.
#9. Check on your security
A big part of your website maintenance is security, especially as it is so easy to lose entire websites from entirely avoidable attacks. There are so many aspects to WordPress website security but here are a some quick tips:
- keep everything updated
- remove the default admin username
- do not allow just anyone to register
- do not make anyone admin
- move your htaccess file
- install a security plugin
- make a fantasticly difficult admin password (I know – no such word!)
I haven’t had a chance to write an article about this subject and I am not sure if I should as it might become another ebook! One of my favourtue articles about securtiy is from Smashing Magazine, Securing your WordPress website. This article is amazing and still only touches the surface.
Anyway, there are plugins to use but I am sure they will not do it all for you. I like to use a plugin http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/bulletproof-security/. Please comment below and let us know what plugin you use?
#10. Posting maintenance
Every time you post a new article you need to see what effect it will have on your blog. For example you might not have positioned the image correctly or even set it to show up as a thumbnail for the homepage. There are many things that can go wrong.
One good example is when people have added <div> Tags into the HTML section of your WordPress post. If the code is not added in correctly and the tag is unfinished, you might find that your sidebar of your WordPress website now appears at the bottom of the page. This is what an open <div> Tag can do.
This brings me to my next WordPress website maintenance check-list item.
#11. Validate your Website
Oh no not another maintenance job. This job can be pretty big. You really should validate your RSS feed, your CSS, and maybe your HTML. Get the best validation tips from WordPress.org http://codex.wordpress.org/Validation
#12. Check your stats
Checking your stats should be a regular thing that you do. I often find problems that are occurring through searching through my website stats. For example there might be a high exit rate on a certain page or maybe you will notice that your feed isn’t working and you are not getting traffic from your RSS subscribers. There are 1 million things you might see when you check your stats to your website.
#13. Check Your Download Links
Don’t you just hate it when you go to download something and the link does not work? Hmm. Well this is why I like to check my download links as I like to deliver what I promise. Of course we are only human though, but making the effort is a step in the right direction.
Make a WordPress Website maintenance schedule
If you know me, you know I have loads of lists and schedules. I love them! Here is an example of a WordPress website maintenance schedule.
Daily
- Visit your website
- Backup Posts and Pages
- Check your stats
Weekly
- Backup everything
- Plugin updates
- Check broken links
Monthly
- WordPress core updates
- Backup the backup
- Check your stats in detail
- Validate
So why?
My REPORTS are already FREE so you only need to sign up here if you are:
- Serious about building websites and making money.
- An action taker!
- Not a time waster.
- A positive person.
This post was written by...
mitz – who has written 197 posts on Lets Build Websites.
I am addicted to internet marketing and making money online. Who wouldn't want to live that life? I started out with one website as a hobby and now have over 20. Building websites and making money online is not that hard. You have to actually take action to make money...that is the biggest hurdle! :)
{ 72 comments… read them below or add one }
nice tips Mitz almost using all plugin downloading broken link checker to check links but does this plugin automatically redirect/remove all link?
rohit kothari recently posted..Google Play-Download Temple Run Game for Android [Review]
Really great point you discuss with us. Its very helpful for my blog.Thank you so much for sharing this post.
abhinav recently posted..Movavi Video Editor Software
Once you create a management schedule, it will become habit to you. And then it won’t be a tough task to keep an eye on the all important aspects on your WP site………….Really very good post
Tanik recently posted..How to make money from facebook (Bangladesh)
Creating back up for your files is very important in WordPress website maintenance. We all know that web is not a safe place for anyone and there are people on the web who simply loves hacking others website.
I do think that we should keep a regular check at or site,timely updates are quite important for a blog’s maintenance,but you have listed out many points and i will surely keep these points in my mind from now on
abhishek recently posted..The New GameLord: Alienware X51
Good information – we have a wordpress website and blog which we had written for us a year or two ago – providing the content and working on the last details can be exhausting – but it is important to remember that you are only just started once the site goes live.
Dave MacLellan recently posted..Rofin Lasers Perform in Medical Device Production
Quite good checklist I guess will have to spend sometime making all things right there are quite a few useless plugins and themes on my blog. Thanks for this
Aman Arora recently posted..How To : Create Partition On Your Pendrive
I definitely hear you on #1. I did a theme change and things were looking great while signed in. Signed out and realized I had a hot mess on my hands.
Hi Mitz! Great article. Just wanted to mention that for anyone who uses Chrome as their primary browser or even operating system (like Chromebook users), there are a number of really good free Wordpress extensions available by searching “Wordpress” in the Chrome Web Store. Some of them have to do with notifications, checking stats, catching/moderating spam comments, posting about the page/blog post you’re looking at (kind of like clipping bookmark-style add-ons). There are even more for people who have their blogs hosted by Wordpress, but I haven’t tried those yet. The “Wordpress Stats extension for Chrome” by Place for Bloggers, in particular, is really handy if you check your stats constantly and want to save time rather than clicking on the “stats” in Jetpack over and over again.
Deleting unwanted plug-ins is one of the best pieces of advice in this post. You tend to forget about plugins you don’t use anymore, deactivated but still on the site. Once I cleaned these up my load time decreased significantly. Thank You.
These are great tips. I thought your best tip (which really wasn’t even a tip at all), was your cautious suggestion of backing up everything and how to do it. Backing up your site is sooooo important! Thanks for emphasizing this.
Scott recently posted..What is Hard Money?
Yes i simply had to mention this!! Just in case..
In terms of Optimizing WordPress, try this plugin. WP-Optimize. It’s relatively simple for newbies.
Ricardus recently posted..Defer Parsing of JavaScript in WordPress for Faster Initial Loading
Thanks for this Mitz. I wasn’t aware of some of these procedures and have been doing what I now can see was a hit and miss back-up procedure. But now, I’m going to use your post as a check list to make sure I do it all methodically and properly.
Thank you. You are a fountain of wisdom!
Dave E Wilkes recently posted..How to Feel Better About Yourself in One Easy Step
oh man great post! I always forget to remove old unwanted plugins and check for broken links. I think im going to print this post out and use it as a checklist haha. Thanks!
matt smith recently posted..Steam Gets Rayman Origins Demo
Hi matt
Yes this is all important stuff! Now you know you can go and keep up with it all…:)
mitz recently posted..Grabbing Those Extra Affiliate Sales – Earn Extra Money
oh that reminds me! I really need to delete old spam messages and with so many hundreds of posts I need to get rid of old revisions too!
thanks for the post Mitz , there goes my sunday morning!
Andy Bailey recently posted..Which works better? – video or text based sales pages – my split test results
Oh sorry Andy!!! It will probably take your Sunday arvo too!
mitz recently posted..Build a Website – The First Steps
haha yeah so true! actually I just found out that my scheduled posts are missing their schedule so that’s the evening taken for troubleshooting too! arrgh, now look what you did!
Andy Bailey recently posted..Which works better? – video or text based sales pages – my split test results
Opps I forgot to tell you your scheduled posts were not working as my guest post was late…but then it did publish so I didn’t say anything!
mitz recently posted..10 Point SEO Checklist for New WordPress Webmasters
Keeping your wordpress installs and plugins up to date can really become annoying. Especially if you have several websites running wordpress. However, I do like the fact that it is being kept up with and improved.
Mike Peters recently posted..Savannah Apartment Finder
I agree that it can be a big job when you have a few blogs but I am glad it is keeping up with the times also.
mitz recently posted..20 Often Forgotten Website Traffic Tips
Hi Mitz -
I actually made a hard copy of this one when I received the email!
What I loved about this article is the sanity-check – which may sound a little weird, maybe, but what I mean is this: I started working on my site about 15 months ago. At the very beginning, I was completely buried is setting up development & test environments, dealing with how to perform backups, where to get real-time customer support when needed (why I love HostGator and now even Andy’s CommentLuv site), how to access my database – all these types of things. It all took me so much time to even get a *rough* feeling of control over the platforms, and it gets incrementally better now with each passing month.
It’s true one could argue you may not really need to worry about such stuff when you’re starting out, but the reality will is that things always break. So, it won’t be very long before you get burned on something. Entropy and disorder always win over the long haul in our Universe!
In fact, one of the first things that happened to me was a loss of database connectivity – had to figure out how to repair a table. When you know how to do it, it can take 5 minutes, but until you figure this out – your whole site is down. (And you panic.) It’s *not* cool!
Also very good to hear I’m not the only one messing with my theme code. You want it to be just right, after all. The problem for me has been a loss of ability to have the theme updated now; I’ve made some fundamental changes. If I update – it all breaks. (I lose all of my customizations which include some I made for plug-in compatibility.) This is a problem I know I’m going to get bitten by eventually, I know. What worries me most are browser upgrades.
Anyway – beautiful summary of the rigor, the pitfalls, the steps you can take to optimize and the proactive scheduling. There are definitely a few items in here I’ll incorporate moving forward that I hadn’t heard of before – and maybe a few more plugins to download, to buy and to test.
Just a few final points in this LONG comment:
1) You were spot-on regarding the Spam filtering in CLuv premium – has been fantastic!
2) Getting that “broken link checker” plug-in top of my plug-in addition list for now.
3) One item I’ve found useful in backups is a full home directory copy from HostGator. I do this once a week – essentially grab *everything* (excluding the DB files) which is compressed into a single zip file. In this way, I backup ALL of my HostGator sites in one compressed file. I’ve never *had* to restore at this level, but it’s a sledgehammer approach: just in case. I then grab each separate database as well. The whole effort takes about 10 minutes, and most of that time is just waiting for the downloads.
Thanks again for another awesome summary. When will you publish “WP Websites Done Right: The Mitz Collection” for consideration as a NY Times Best Seller??
Saturday morning here — time for me to grab a chain saw an get outside now. Spring finally!!
Mark recently posted..Tree Planting 101
WOW Mark that is a long comment! I really appreciate your great comments here!!
You should be writing articles about all these cool things you are learning! You seem to really go in depth with the tech stuff which is very much needed info for others!
mitz recently posted..5 Basic Google Analytics Tracking And Researching Tips
Thanks, Mitz – It’s my pleasure: you’ve really helped me move forward such a long way in just a few weeks of coaching. Your articles are truly outstanding – so incredibly relevant and useful. Maybe I can write a guest post on your site if you like – “The Top Five things I’ve learned from Mitz – So Far…”
All kidding aside, I’d be happy to – just let me know!
Mark recently posted..Tree Planting 101
Please do!! I could learn from this too! I would love to know what information people think is important from my blog so I can do more! That would really help me know what content I should be supplying!!!
Hope you are not joking!!
Not joking at all – you got it! Will have something for you by month’s end. (I can usualy only “do justice” to about one article per month with work.) All I ask is that if I “blow” the Guest Author process in any “newbie,” kind-of-way you help so that I don’t do anything silly!! Actually, learning to “Guest Author” will now be another thing I’ve learned from you, huh?
More to come…
Mark recently posted..Replacing a Bathroom Toilet
Hi Mitz -
You don’t have to publish this comment – but I tried to sign up for a guest author account twice through the “Guest Post” link you have down in your footer. I just wanted to see if you got those requests through the system – or maybe I botched that somehow? I started an outline so far! Thx…
Mark
Though initially you may not worry about all those things, you need to pay attention as your site grows one step after another. With platforms as user-friendly as WordPress, you certainly don’t need to worry about how you will manage all those things.
Once you create a management schedule, it will become habit to you. And then it won’t be a tough task to keep an eye on the all important aspects on your WP site.
Thanks for providing us with this great checklist, Mitz.
Obaidul Haque recently posted..Interview with Guest Blogger – Ann Smarty | Search Engine Journal
The only lists I have ever made regarding business is: Weekly lawn mowing, snow plowing and email. Since building websites entered my life, all I do now is make lists via excel spreadsheets. Of course all glory to you Mitz for opening my eyes and not relying on my brain to remember everything. There is so much involved to make a successful blog/website, that I could not imagine being 60 years old trying to remember everything. Checklist: SEO, maintenance, passwords, etc.
Sometimes, I have found, Askimet sends good comments to spam for deletion.
BulletProof Security, I uploaded, installed and made the necessary changes on 6 websites in less than one hour. Of course 2 months ago this would look overwhelming to me, but you have simplified things for me personally, I am not AFRAID to try new things.
I love ComLuv(and you), it is such a great tool for bloggers and those who are looking for great reads and traffic to their sites.
Load times have proven crucial for my overall bounce rate, which is now under 10%, THANK YOU MITZ!
Bryan Ring recently posted..3 SEO Tips For More Web Page Visibility
Hi, I need a backup plugin. Which of the three are you using? I think I’ve tried the third one before but it didn’t work…
Great points Mitz.. Maintenance really is very important.. Thanks for sharing to us your tips and steps.. Maintenance will be easy for now on..
Vanessa recently posted..Tips To Get Pregnant
Such a kind of helpful post Mitz, when you have a plan to have a Wordpress site the maintenance is the first thing to consider. Anyway, love your checklist it helps a lot. Thanks!
Nicholle Olores recently posted..Timber Doors
This is quite a comprehensive and exhaustive check-list of WordPress backup plan.
Thanks for posting this.
Rob recently posted..Paleo Diet Recipes to Lose Weight
Nothing in life is easy. If there was an easy way to make money everyone would be doing it. Yes I do so agree with you that’s what makes it good, the work you put into reaching it. It’s a great feeling. Thanks for visiting and commenting.
Kevin recently posted..Hotels in Dubai
These are some helpful A to Z tips to maintain our Wordpress Site.
Mitz, I appreciate this great effort by you. I think I should do all the above steps right now and I already did the backup after reading this.
Thanks a lot again for sharing this post with us.
Vishvast recently posted..5 Free WordPress Themes of January 2012
Such a nice checklist for wordpress! You’ve really made a nice summary of the most common blogging mistakes in the wordpress scene. The most useful point of yours for me was to make the daily, weekly and monthly schedule from the blog, that could make really easier and controllable the scheduling and managing of the blogging activity. Thanks for sharing this helpful article!
Julie recently posted..dentists london
this tutorial is soooooo helpful, it covers everything, I think your tip about backing everything up is the best one. ive learnt the hard way far to many times now!!
Mitz, I didn’t know about WPTwin. thanks for letting me know about that.
I have my server settings set to backup every 3 days. so if I inadvertently have a failure, I can restore everything. I may miss a day or two, but it is an added safeguard for when I don’t always back everything up properly before doing maintenance or upgrades.
Yes WPtwin clones your exact blog. But if you are using your server, I also would not mind losing a few days as long as I can get most of it back.
I like Backup Buddy for the backup solution, its a paid tool but does a good work and easy to restore also.
We should always have a checklist or a calender to remind us about important activities.
Sanjeev recently posted..GroupHigh – An Easy Solution For Blogger Outreach
this looks like a pretty solid list of recommendations. I was actually looking to make a maintenance list myself but seeing this one, I think I have found a solid base now, thanks!
Mirjam recently posted..I´m Back At The Keyword Academy With a New Shiny Badge to Show Off!
Glad you like it Mirjam. Feel free to improve on this list and I will add it into the article! I know I have probably missed a lot of steps.
Seriously, I am a fresher to WordPress CMS and it’s just this month that I started having one. I use Hostgator as my hosting and I was having an automatic backup. I am not sure though if it is reliable. I might consider using a third party software. I’m still getting the hang out with the plugins so I don’t have much on my WP site. I only knew one thing that is in my maintenance list. And that is to install updates whenever possible.
I use bulletproof-security plugin to prevent SQL injection in my database also up to date every script according to their auther. This will help me a lot.
Thanks Mitz for the advice! The only thing I’m doing from the list above is deleting spam comments. Now I know that I should back up my files too. Well, about the broken links, did you only brought back the links with the same links or you changed it with new one? Over all another great post Mitz!
Juphet Mislang recently posted..My Blog’s Traffic has been Increasing
Thanks Juphet! Yes make sure you backup!!!
mitz recently posted..My Daily Blogging Routine Exposed!
I’m not really familiar in other tips that you mentioned. It is really a big help for me, you’ve always
shared useful tips on your every post. That is why I keep coming back here.thanks!
Irk. Off to go backup the database. I use Dr. Link check for my links. Completely painless.
The guidelines are really excellent and this will remind the website owners while to maintain their website properly. But I need urgent help from you as I feel you have great experience on this. Some days before my WordPress blog sites are deactivated and it is showing no longer available. I put a lot of hard work and now I am totally frustrated. Any help is highly appreciated. I look forward to hear from you. Thanks in advance.
You post is a life saver! Sure I’ve come across other posts like this but your post has a specific scheduling included so thank you very much. I’ve never come across the validation procedure. That is something I need to try.
Porfirio Hampe recently posted..Oscars 2012 Winners: A Night to Remember
Hi MItz,
nice tips for maintaining our websites. Checkout the broken links and delete the unwanted things are really important…….
thanks for such a nice article……..
Prakash recently posted..Best WordPress Themes Free Download
Glad you find it useful Prakash!
mitz recently posted..Drag and Drop Sales Page Maker
Hi Mitz
I am definitely going to have to revisit this post as there is so much in it, but a couple of questions:
1. When CL catches the spam comments or you mark something as spam, do you know if it remembers the spammers and stops them commenting again? I have had some comments get through where the person writes something like “this is a great post you should try x product”, so I haven’t deleted the spam folder thinking it might stop future comments. So does that slow your site down not deleting the spam comments?
2. How do you change your sign on name from admin? I set up my main site which was only my second site and that is how I was taught! But I see the problem, if they crack your password they can easily get in!
I use Broken Link Checker – it’s fantastic, it will send you an email as soon as you upload a new post if there are any broken links, beats going through every link on your site to check!
jan recently posted..Is fish safe to eat?
Hi jan
1. I would say that Wordpress should remember if you mark a comment as spam.. As for commmentluv catching spam, you can set it to reject short comments and many other options.
I do not believe there is a reason to store spam comments on your blog. It might not slow your blog yet but might eventually. It is like keeping all deleted files in your recycle bin on your computer..Eventually it will cause a problem.
2. To tell the truth I haven’t tried changing the admin but the other way around this is to put an amazing password in place.. Ultra secure like Wd4%_9(!k7$^0
mitz recently posted..Successful WordPress Website Checklist
Thanks Mitz
The only problem is if you have an ultra-secure password – how do you remember it? I have about 50 notes in Outlook now with all of my password info – not the actual password but hints so that I will remember. Some sites give you a password that you can’t change so they need to be stored and some of them are just as is, as they are too difficult to remember and you couldn’t just give yourself a hint!!
jan recently posted..Hormones and weight gain – are your hormones making you fat?
I think your tip about backing everything up is the best one. I always back up my university work so that if theres a computer disaster, I still have my work and don’t have to panic!
Harriet recently posted..Sony Ericsson Xperia X8
Your tutorial is rather helpful!Thanks!
As I’m a blog owned, it’s very important for me to have my site running smoothly without any errors and problems.
Hello MITZ,
Great post for a beginner and you have mentioned all the important tools.We all have problems in beginning but if we are aware of these tools then the problem will be very less.
Great article, lots of useful information for me to use in regards to managing my Wordpress website. I’m still fairly new to Wordpress but I’m excited every time I’m able to find an article like this. Thanks.
Great post. I have a couple of dumb questions, though. Do I have to save my websites on my computer each week? Is there anywhere else I can save them – like somewhere on my hostgator files for example? I’m really terrified that I’ll do something wrong and mess up my sites I’ve worked so hard (sometimes blindly) to sort out. I’ve seen various updates on my dashboard for ages, but am scared to touch them in case something goes wrong.
On the dashboard of my newer wp site, the widgets etc went to the bottom of the page when I did something (I still don’t know what). They’re still there, as I can’t figure out how to get them back to where they belong. However, the front of the site looks fine, so I’m not going to touch anything else.
So far, I’ve had a few moments where I thought I had completely wrecked the site. I see I definitely have to work out a way to get my head around this, or hire someone to do this stuff for me.
Nick, what? You’ve confused me even more. I’m going to lie down now and cool my head off
Anne recently posted..Diy Tutorials
I have lost complete websites before but with Wordpress we have so many backup options..
the easiest way to make sure you have your posts and pages is to simply export them to your computer as shown above.
In Hostgator there are also backup options and I also have the WP-DBManager plugin to backup my database.
I guess I will need to write an entire post about backing up your website as there are many more details.
mitz recently posted..10 Point SEO Checklist for New WordPress Webmasters
i had pretty bad experience with my wordpress website and also learnt the lesson, i lost some of my recent data as i updated my wordpress. Thanks for sharing such an important information.
Rizxi recently posted..LG Optimus 4X HD An Ideal Candidate For Your Next SmartPhone
I never delete unwanted plugins and themes. Thanks for sharing and my first step is to delete unwanted plugins and themes. I think keep the blog up to date is very important to protect our wordpress blog in secure condition.
Tan recently posted..How to Improve Good Customer Service Skills?
Yes I always delete unwanted themes and plugins as if they are not updated they become a security risk.
mitz recently posted..Build a Website – The First Steps
Hey Mitz
That’s an impressive maintenance list. Man there’s so much work to do on website maintenance. I’m guilty of severe negligence on my poor site. I might just go and visit her as a visitor and have a customer experience.
Oh yeah and I’m definitely installing broken link checker and deleting about 6 themes.
Thanks for the kick up the butt.
Rene’
Rene recently posted..Your Guide To Best Practices In Personal Finance
Hi Rene
Just make sure you backup your site first! This is the key to a stress free site.
mitz recently posted..Content Is Not The Only King Of WordPress Website Building!
I thought that I was doing a great job with my site but it turns out the the six things I am doing is less than half of your list. Learning more every day.
A note on #9, specifically passwords. If you make a change from using only lower case letters to lower and upper case, you don’t just double the number of password combinations, you increase it by two to the power of however many characters are in your password. So 4 letters results in a 16-fold increase of potential passwords.
A 4-letter password made up of only lower case letters has roughly 457k potential combinations, but upper and lower case letters yields 7.3 million combinations! Add in digits, 14.8 million. Special characters? Well, you get the point.
Nick
Nick Von Cover recently posted..Adding an Email Address Through cPanel
Great tips Nick! Thank you for sharing!
Wow.. Never realized I was missing out on so much.. I thought just backing up my database was enough.. I recently had to upload my database backup and realized I lost all my custom settings for my theme.. I figured that was just a part of the game. LOL.. I’ll definitely be checking into backing up my custom functions now…
and with the spam comments.. i don’t even like deleting them.. Askimet does a pretty good job but I want something that will remember every spam comment and block that ip address; or even the web address from ever posting again.. That would be perfect.. I’m going to get CommentLuv tho.. I really like the feature where commenters have to share before being able to pick out of their top 10 posts… Luckily for me, I’m a guest writer so i get 10 choices automatically.. LOL..
Great post Mitz.. Got me really rubbing my chin and whipping out the notepad on this one.. Got some things to work on… Thanks.
Dennis
Dennis Marshall recently posted..14 Of The Best Social Sharing Plugins For WordPress That ROCK!
Sorry to give you more work Deninis! LOL You know I have probably missed heaps of other jobs that could be on this list!
Hi Mitz,
I never think that just like PC we also need to WordPress Website Maintenance,but i think by doing that we can achieve more traffic and high SERP.Thanks for sharing these great tips.
Bhupendra recently posted..5 Ways to Make Money Online With Your Website