It is quite common that some of the Wordpress users keep the tasks, important for fast, smooth and search engine-friendly website, on the backside of the Wordpress.
You must indeed learn about phpMyAdmin, modifying. htaccess so that it can be beneficial to you on the long run. Simultaneously, have enough knowledge so that your website doesn’t fall in the value of disrepair.
This post is all about the tasks you should be performing to improve your website in the way it needs to be in.
Backup Your Website
Backing up your website means having your website insured and this should be the first task on your list.
When you talk about backups, you need to keep in mind a few points:
· Your backups must be kept at multiple locations like the cloud storage.
· Minimum of 3 backup versions must be kept over a specific period of time. If your website hacked earlier, and if you keep a backup of its clean version, then it can be the worst idea.
· Do not just keep the backup of the database, but even your files.
You can find ample of ways to create your website backups, including plugins like BackupBuddy, via Cpanel and as an integration of their hosting packages, daily automated backups are provided by a few hosts.
Keep Your Files Up to Date
Backing up your website is very important, but keeping your Wordpress core, theme and plugin up-to-date lies in the same class of importance.
Wordpress Core Files
If you want yourself from being hacked, you need to keep your Wordpress up-to-date. When you install Wordpress, hosting companies facilitate you with an auto-update checkbox which is quite appreciable.
Plugins
Plugins are the backbone of Wordpress. There are approximately 38000 plugins from which you can choose the one appropriate for your task. You must consider 4 things before choosing one:
- Was it created by someone who is reputable?
- Is it compatible with your current version of Wordpress and was it updated?
- In case of issues, is any support provided?
- Does it have a fine number of active installs?
When you need to maintain your plugin, you need to keep in mind 2 rules:
- Once installed, keep them updated.
- Delete the plugins you are not using.
Keep in mind that if your plugin works well today won’t necessarily work well after a few days.
Themes
The rules for plugins that are mentioned above apply for themes too. Whenever you find an update for your installed themes, make sure you have your theme updated. Have a backup of your site and if you customize it, make sure you do not overwrite with the updated version.
Maintain your Database
Clean up your database to get rid of all the junk Wordpress can collect to have a smooth and quick run.
If you have an appreciable amount of content on Wordpress and if you include plugins, it will undoubtedly have a large database and also the fine amount of “overhead”.
Consider your database to be a library that is organized by Dewey- decimal system. You can assume some books can be borrowed and returned and it doesn’t take much time for an organized thing to get muddled.
A plugin WP-Sweep can be like your own personal librarian. It will keep each and everything cleaned up and in a tip-top, well-organized manner.
Review Functionality
A good user experience can be provided by checking and maintaining your website’s functionality. Surprisingly, all the small details are sometimes overlooked.
Test Browser & Device Compatibility
You must test manually if you own more than two devices and make sure it works on all platforms.
Test your Forms
You must test your forms to make sure they are functioning well if it’s your primary point of contact.
Check Navigation
If a user clicks on the link and is directed to the wrong site, or worse, if nowhere at all, nothing frustrates him more than that. Check if every link is responsive and directs the user to the proper site.
Find and Fix 404 Errors
You will find a 404 error on the screen if the bot is unable to find a page. It will undoubtedly result in a bad user experience.
An SEO spider, Screaming Fog can help you thoroughly check the website and see if it doesn’t show 404 error.
Measure Page Speed
Google Page Speed Insights can help you check your page speed as it is a significant ranking factor from Google. You can help your website to gain speed by doing the following:
- Use a well coded theme.
- Use a hosting company that encourages content delivery network.
- Images on your site must be optimized.
- Always compare your page speed before and after addition of a plugin.
Check Your On-Page –SEO
Though the importance of on-page SEO is decreasing due to increasing in the smartness of Google’s algorithm, there are still some basic guidelines you need to follow:
- H1 tag should be used for your title only.
- Use your keyword in the URL, keeping the URL user-friendly.
- If your content has some specific topic, make sure you use your keyword at least once in a few hundred words.
- Add an appropriate Meta description to each page and post.
- Add outbound links to relevant sources or references.
- Images used by you should be optimized.
Review Your Security
You need to get some security tips regarding your site if you want to prevent it from being hacked:
Look for anything suspicious
You need to check on three points that can consume hardly a few minutes:
- Plug your URL in a tool called Sucuri that will check for malware and make sure you are using a current Wordpress version.
- You must perform a regular check over your website and examine the content present in it.
- You can pull up your indexed pages by putting your website in Google using “site:yourdomain.com”.
Consider a Security Plugin
When security is concerned, you must keep all files up-to-date, use a strong username and password and use a free plugin called Limit Login Attempts.
Even if you are not satisfied with the important aspects and want to still take your security up a notch, you can head towards plugin. All In One WP Security & Firewall and iThemes Security Plugin can be taken into consideration.
