WordPress Maintenance Checklist for Small Businesses in Bury St Edmunds
Keeping your WordPress website secure, fast and problem-free is essential — especially for small businesses in Bury St Edmunds and across Suffolk, where customers rely on local search to find reliable services.
I’m Anne at Afford Web Design. I support small businesses throughout Suffolk (and across the UK) with friendly, ongoing WordPress maintenance and support so websites stay updated, secure and enquiry-ready.
This plain-English checklist walks you through the key tasks to keep your site healthy — and shows when it’s easier (and often cheaper) to hand it over to a professional.
Book a Free Website Review
or explore WordPress maintenance plans
Quick WordPress Maintenance Checklist
- Daily off-site backups
- Weekly WordPress, theme and plugin updates
- Security scans and firewall enabled
- Uptime monitoring with alerts
- Monthly performance checks (cache, images, Core Web Vitals)
- Broken links and 404 review (redirect where needed)
- Forms and email deliverability tests
- Database and media tidy-up
- SEO health check (sitemaps, indexing, Search Console)
- Legal and accessibility basics (cookies, privacy, alt text)
No time to keep up? My WordPress maintenance plans handle backups, updates, security and performance so you can focus on running your business.
Why WordPress Maintenance Matters (Especially for Suffolk Businesses)
A well-maintained website protects enquiries, supports Google visibility and prevents costly downtime. Many of the small businesses I support in Bury St Edmunds, Stowmarket, Newmarket and Ipswich experience the same issues:
- Lost enquiries from broken contact forms or emails not sending
- Security risks from outdated plugins
- Slow websites affecting SEO and sales
- Expensive fixes when problems are ignored for too long
A proactive approach — whether you DIY or use a done-for-you plan — is the key to a reliable, stress-free WordPress site. If local visibility matters to your business, it’s also worth improving your wider foundations with local SEO in Suffolk.
Simple WordPress Maintenance Schedule
Every Week (10 minutes)
- Run WordPress, theme and plugin updates
- Create a backup before updating
- Check your homepage and key pages for errors
Every Month (15–20 minutes)
- Send a test message via your contact form
- If you sell online: place a small test order to confirm checkout emails work
- Delete spam comments and remove unused plugins
- Check your site on mobile for speed and usability
Every 3 Months (30 minutes)
- Update weak passwords and remove old user accounts
- Replace heavy images with optimised ones
- Review key pages (services, pricing, opening hours, contact details)
- Ensure your SSL padlock is active
Prefer a done-for-you approach? Explore my WordPress maintenance plans. If your site is hard to update or constantly breaking, a website redesign may be a better long-term fix.
Common Problems & Quick Fixes
White screen after an update
Rollback to the previous backup, check error logs and disable the plugin or theme causing the issue. If this happens often, it’s a sign your site needs structured maintenance or a cleaner setup.
Emails not sending
Set up SMTP and test contact and order emails regularly. This one issue alone can quietly lose you enquiries. If you’d like help fixing this quickly, see website updates and content changes.
Slow WordPress admin area
Common causes include too many plugins, an outdated PHP version, database clutter or missing caching. My WordPress support includes performance tuning to keep things running smoothly.
Hacked site
Take the site offline, restore a clean backup, change all credentials, run security scans, patch vulnerabilities and review user accounts. If you want peace of mind, ongoing WordPress maintenance reduces the risk dramatically.
If fire-fighting has become routine, a structured plan will help.
DIY may suit you if:
- Your site is a simple brochure website
- You rarely change content
- You’re comfortable with backups and staging
Hiring help is usually better if:
- You run e-commerce, bookings or memberships
- You don’t have time to manage updates safely
- Your website breaks after updates
- You want proactive security and faster performance
Prefer a calm, done-for-you approach? See my WordPress maintenance options or
book a free website review.
Let’s Keep Your WordPress Site Fast, Secure & Stress-Free
Ongoing updates, proactive security and friendly support — without the headaches.
If you’d like help keeping your website healthy (and turning visitors into enquiries), I’m happy to take a look.
Let’s Get Your Website Sorted or explore WordPress maintenance plans
Frequently Asked Questions
Weekly is ideal for most small business websites, with a backup taken before you update.
Backup first, update in stages (plugins, then theme, then WordPress core) and check key pages afterwards.
Not usually. A simple routine and a reliable backup setup is often more important than adding another plugin.
Signs include strange redirects, new admin users, warnings from Google/your host, sudden slowness or unfamiliar plugins.
Yes. I offer friendly, done-for-you WordPress maintenance and support for small businesses in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk and across the UK.
If you’d like to get started, book a free website review and I’ll recommend the best next step.
