Website maintenance is one of those necessary evils. It has to be done regularly, but it never seems to get any easier. Thankfully, a number of tools and plugins out there can make this job a little less evil.
1- Back Up WordPress
Before you start tweaking, cleaning or maintaining, you need to backup your website. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore the backup and turn it back to where you were before. You can do this from your main control panel (in your hosting account), but you can also use a plugin like Automatic WordPress Backup plugin to do it automatically.
2- Put the Site into Maintenance Mode
If you’ll be working on the front end of a website, you could worry visitors, especially if menus change or visual features disappear. You can hardcode a message stating you’re working on the website, but if you want something quick and easy try the WP Maintenance Mode Plugin.
3- Cleanup the Data
WordPress has a terrible tendency to save useless information such as page revisions and spam comments. These can be deleted and removed by hand, but it can take a lot of time. With a plugin like WordPress Cleanup, however, you can automatically delete and remove all of this useless information and save room for the important stuff.
4- Eliminate Unused Items
If you upload batches of photos or use your site to manage personal photos that you share online, you likely have a number of unused images sitting around. The DUI – Delete Unused Image Plugin will help you easily identify and remove all the images you no longer need.
5- Find Dead Pages
You can’t fix missing pages you don’t know are missing. You can find a list of 404s in Google Webmaster Tools, but you can also have a list of the 404s sent to you in an RSS feed or by email? The 404 Notifier works wonders for this and makes this normally overwhelming job much easier.
6- Redirect Broken Links
Next, you’ll need to set up redirects for each of these broken links. You can write these directly into your .htaccess file, but you can also use a plugin to do it all right from your WordPress dashboard. If you’d like to track 404s and write redirects all in one step, try the Redirection plugin.
7- Check for Broken Links
As time goes on, places you’ve linked out to, images you’ve included, and videos you’ve used can disappear and move. By installing the Broken Link Checker Plugin, you can automatically track them all. It will tell you which ones need your attention and you can easily make the necessary repairs.
8- Make the Necessary Updates
Updating your plugins, themes, and software not only gets you the latest features, but it also improves your site’s security. The sooner you do the updates, the better. If you find you don’t visit the dashboard of your website often, however, it can be tough to see when updates are available. WP Updates Notifier will send you an email as soon an update is available.
9- Set Up Internal Links
Internal linking helps users as well as your search rankings, but keeping up with it and remembering which pages link to a particular page. If you haven’t kept a record of them, this job can be huge. The Internal Links Check plugin can help you by adding a list to the post edit screen.
10- Check Overall Site Security
Security is one of the most important elements of a site. Unfortunately, it can be hard to identify all of the weak areas in your site. The Ultimate Security Checker plugin can be a great help. It automatically scans your site and grades it, so you always know where you stand and what can be improved.