Running a flawless website is more than just adding unique content and designing stunning web pages; you need to regularly ensure certain tasks to avoid WordPress related glitches. After launching a website successfully, you are only halfway there; for a website to perform smoothly, WordPress maintenance tasks should be carried out on a regular basis.

Most of the daily tasks are easy and don't require any expertise in web development. In this article, we will be talking about daily measures that you need to take in order to ensure a glitch-free browsing experience for your users. 

Optimization Of WordPress Database

Like every other CMS, WordPress also stores the entire website information in a database. As your website starts to grow, the database starts accumulating unnecessary information, like discarded posts and incomplete drafts, which greatly affects the performance of a website.

The unnecessary information stored in the databases may affect the daily website operations, like loading, downloading, and daily data backup. Therefore, it is a best practice to clear your website's database after every short interval. In short, you need to optimize the WordPress database. 

The database can be easily accessed through the hosting control panel; however, clearing the data manually will take a lot of time; especially, if you haven't done it in a long period of time. Optimizing databases is a quite complex process because finding the tables you need to clear up is no easy job. Hence, we recommend using plugins that will automatically do the job for you.No doubt, database optimization is a task that takes both time and expertise, but it is crucial if you want the most out of your website.  

Website Backup

If you don't like starting from scratch, always have a backup!

It is a helpful practice that comes in handy in every situation, where you can face the risk of losing it all. Just imagine yourself clearing the most challenging part of a game or completing hours worth of work; suddenly, the software crashes, and you will have to start from the very beginning because you didn't create a backup. 

Similarly, having a recent backup of your website gives the surety to a more secure and smooth website. In case of any unpleasant situation - like security threats or website crash - all you will need to do is restore the saved backup. 

It is astonishing that most businesses avoid this practice; all it takes is to install a plugin that will create a backup at a regular interval of time. However, we don't recommend relying completely on the plugins as they may go down for maintenance, leaving your data at risk. Manually saving your data is a practice that will keep you prepared for any uncertain moment. 

Regularly Update Passwords

Updating your admin password after short intervals is the simplest WordPress maintenance task; it simply can't get easier than this. Unfortunately, admins even don't follow this rule seriously. 

By doing so, you will mitigate the security risk that is at its peak currently. Encourage other members who have access to your web page to do the same. Also, keep these things in check while setting up a password for your website account:

  1. Always use a strong password with a combination of alphabets, numbers, and different characters.
  2. Every member should have a different password know only to them
  3. Your website password should be unique to your web page; you can't have the same password as your other accounts on digital mediums.

Furthermore, WordPress also gives a two-step authentication facility. That means if some outsider tries to log in to your website, you will be notified on your cell phone immediately. This authentication can save your data and prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.

You can also take the help of password generators that will help you come up with strong passwords and remember them for you as well.

Daily Website Performance Check

Optimization is the key to attracting web traffic and generating a significant amount of leads. Therefore, just optimizing your website database won't do the job; you need to optimize your entire website to ensure maximum performance. 

The easiest way of checking your website's efficiency is to run regular performance tests. Usually, the website owners do it once or twice after the website launch and then completely forget about it. You have updated so much after the initial launch; all those content changes, added plugins, customized themes, and much more. These changes affect your website performance if kept unchecked. In the end, your website will become slower, buggy, and difficult to use.

A poorly performing website leads to an unsatisfactory user experience, increases website bounce rate, and can kill the credibility of any web page.

Get Rid Of Broken Links

On reviewing the old content of your website, you will realize that some of the external links that you put in your blogs don't exist anymore. These broken links can cause some real damage to your website's credibility. Too many broken links make your website look unprofessional, and it may lead to an increased bounce rate as the viewers get confused.

Checking your website for broken links on a regular interval is a necessary step of a WordPress maintenance regime. However, going through every link is not practical, especially if you have a large website. For such case scenarios, we recommend using a tool named WP Broken Link Status Checker.

Keep The Themes And Plugins Updated

The best part of having a WordPress based website is that you get to play with thousands of options; this wide variety of themes and plugins can add vital functionality to your web page. 

Honestly, these updates are not just the perks, but they have now become essential for a website's smooth functioning. New plugins don't go well with the old ones, causing glitches, malfunctions, and bugs on the websites. And like the bugs in nature, no one likes these bugs as well.

Furthermore, older versions of the software are more prone to cyber attacks as they can be compromised easily due to old technology. To avoid all these hassles, you just need to check the tabs for plugin updates; it is that simple.

Scan Your Website For Spam

Spam content is toxic for a website because it may make a visitor feel insecure. Safe browsing is a real thing in 2020 because people are afraid of losing their valuable data to malware.

The best way to a spam-free website is to stop it from entering in the first place by installing anti-spam plugins. However, the plugins are not that effective if your site entertains a huge amount of traffic; there are chances that some span content may slip through. You will need to manually go through the site and delete the spam material by yourself. 

Wrapping It Up

The smooth website operations at the front-end are only possible because of the daily WordPress maintenance tasks carried out in the background. The tasks are simple and sometimes boring, but the benefits you reap are uncountable; not only do they keep a website free from glitches, but they also keep a website safe and secure from cyber threats. 

While many of these tasks are easy to perform by yourself, there are some procedures that should be carried out under expert supervision. In such cases, hiring a professional service is always the best bet.

Author: Umar Ilyas - сurrently managing the digital content at Techxide.