WordPress Maintenance Checklist (Small-Business Friendly Guide)
Keep your WordPress site fast, secure and stress-free with this practical checklist. I’m based in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk and help small businesses across the UK with ongoing WordPress support.
Quick Checklist (Summary)
- Daily off-site backups
- Weekly core, theme & plugin updates
- Security scans & firewall enabled
- Uptime monitoring with alerts
- Monthly performance checks (cache, images, Core Web Vitals)
- Broken links & 404 review (redirect where needed)
- Forms/checkout tests & email deliverability
- Database & media clean-up
- SEO health (sitemaps, indexing, Search Console)
- Legal & accessibility basics (cookies, privacy, alt text)
No time? Try my WordPress maintenance — backups, updates, security, performance and support.
Why WordPress Maintenance Matters (Especially for Small Businesses)
- Protect enquiries: avoid downtime and broken forms losing leads.
- Security: outdated plugins are the #1 risk on WordPress sites.
- Rankings & conversions: speed and UX affect Google visibility and sales.
- Prevention beats cure: fixing hacks and outages costs more than preventing them.
No time? Try my WordPress maintenance — backups, updates, security, performance and support.
Simple Maintenance Schedule
Every Week (10 minutes)
- Make a backup (so you can roll back if something goes wrong).
- Run WordPress updates (WordPress, theme and plugins).
- Quick check: open your homepage and one key page — does everything look normal?
Every Month (15–20 minutes)
- Send a test message from your contact form (make sure the email arrives).
- If you sell online: do a £1 test order or booking and make sure the confirmation email arrives.
- Clean up: delete spam comments and any plugins you don’t use.
- Phone check: view your site on your phone — is it fast and easy to use?
Every 3 Months (30 minutes)
- Passwords: change any weak ones. Remove logins for people who no longer need access.
- Photos: replace any heavy/slow images with smaller versions.
- Pages & services: check prices, opening hours and key pages are up to date.
- Safety check: make sure the padlock (SSL) shows in the address bar.
Prefer a done-for-you approach? See WordPress maintenance plans.
Common Problems & Quick Fixes
- Website has white screen after update: rollback to previous backup, check error logs, disable offending plugin.
- Emails not sending: set up SMTP; test contact & order emails.
- Slow admin area: too many plugins, PHP version, database clutter, object caching.
- Hacked site: take offline, restore clean backup, change all credentials, scan, patch, review users.
If fire-fighting is routine on your website, a structured WordPress maintenance plan will help.
Grab a simple one-page PDF with tick boxes you can use each month.
When to DIY vs Hire Help
- DIY: small brochure site, low change rate, comfortable with staging & backups.
- Hire: e-commerce, bookings, membership, custom code or limited time.
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 help — without the headaches.
Let’s Get Your Website Sorted
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Frequently Asked Questions
Update core, themes and plugins weekly (after a fresh backup). Apply urgent security patches as soon as they’re released.
Use a staging site, create a backup, run updates, then test key journeys (homepage, contact forms, checkout) before pushing live.
Plugins help automate tasks, but you still need a proper process for backups, updates, security, performance and testing.
Look for strange users or files, spam pages in Google, sudden slowdowns or disabled security. Run a malware scan and review logs.
Yes. I offer ongoing WordPress maintenance with backups, updates, security scans, uptime monitoring and performance checks.
