4 Tips For Maintaining Your WordPress Website Post-Launch

When embarking on a website project, the launch date can seem like the light at the end of the tunnel. However, similar to purchasing a new home, your website still requires maintenance and regular upkeep even after the site has launched.  

While most clients stay on top of reporting, updating content and imagery, and creating new content, there are various technical components that require upkeep but tend to be forgotten.  Below are 4 areas that tend to fall by the wayside once a website is launched:

Submitting Your xml Sitemap to Search Engines:

By submitting your website’s xml sitemap to the search engines, like Google and Bing, you alert them to the updated structure of your website and allow it to be re-crawled with the most up-to-date content. This ensures that they are serving the most updated versions of your pages in response to relevant search queries, which impacts your organic website traffic.  

Some SEO plugins, such as Yoast, manually connect the sitemap to the search engine, automatically pinging the search engines to re-crawl the sitemap when updates are made.

Creating / Reviewing SEO When Updating Content:

One of the benefits of a WordPress site, is the ability to easily create new pages without a website developer.  However, in addition to creating content and uploading imagery, you will also want to create and/or update the SEO associated with that page to ensure it accurately reflects the most up-to-date content and focuses on a unique keyword.

Notating Any Renewals and Recurring Costs:

While most WordPress templates or themes are a one-time purchase, there are some that have recurring license renewal fees so double check to ensure there are no future costs associated with the template license.  

In addition, take note of your domains expiration date. If possible, make the domain auto-renewed via credit card as a safeguard (also note the expiration date and the card being used to account for any future changes). By letting your domain expire, the website will be immediately inactive and you run the risk of losing the domain altogether.  

Maintaining and Updating Backend Elements:

Staying on top of upgrades preserves the functionality and integrity of your website while providing enhancements including security patches, upgraded functionality, and other updated elements.  We recommend utilizing a website coder and/or developer to install the updates to ensure any customizations and functionalities are not affected by the update and assist with any troubleshooting.

Plugins that are part of the theme will be accounted for in the theme’s updates, however, any additional plugins will have to be updated separately, as updates are available. After performing any upgrades or updates, you should review the site, specifically any links and forms, to ensure functionality is still intact.

By staying on top of these technical components, you will preserve the integrity and functionality of your website and continue providing your visitors with the intended user experience.