7 Simple WordPress Maintenance Tips to Keep Your Website Fast & Optimized
Published: 2020-08-13 11:31:42

You install so many plugins on your WordPress site to make your site look great. You add so many features on your site to enhance your site. You add widgets to your site to make it look appealing. But what about the speed and functionality of your site? Time is everything today and in this digital age, things happen at a great pace.

If your site loads slowly, then it can affect the traffic of your site. Sluggish WordPress site decreases the conversion rate and causes poor search ranking. The bounce rate of the website is also affected by slow speed. Just as you work on features and updates, you need to work on maintenance too. Regular maintenance is essential to keep your WordPress site secure, optimized and fast. Also, a fast website can engage users and make your website rank higher.

## What Causes Slow Website Speed?

Many factors cause slow website speed and affect the loading time. If there is a plugin overload on your website, it causes slow loading. Do remove plugins or widgets that you don't use on a regular basis. If the images are not compressed properly or if there is an incompatibility with a browser, it causes the site to load slowly.

Heavy WordPress themes can also cause the site to run slow at times. Page and post redirects can also cause this problem. Also, if your WordPress website is not updated regularly, it can cause your website to work slower.

## Simple WordPress Maintenance Tips

### 1. Take  Regular Website Backups
If you are working on maintenance of your WordPress site, then it's important to take a full backup of the website. You should have a backup of the database, content files, plugins, and themes. If a manual update goes wrong, you can always restore back your site to similar settings. 

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/bly3i4p1grmd1j1kylbh.png)

You can use WordPress plugins like [BackWPup](https://wordpress.org/plugins/backwpup/) or [BackUpWordPress](https://wordpress.org/plugins/backupwordpress/) that can help you with the process of backup. You can also ask your web hosting company to take a backup of your site. Service providers can also help you with the process of backup. Store your backup in Cloud storage or in a hard disk file of your computer.

Once you take a backup of your website, restore it in your test server. Unless you don't involve a technical person, it'll be difficult for you to take a full backup of your site. Even if you take a full backup of your website, restoration is important.
 
Most people with a WordPress website keep three backups for the site in case of an emergency. The three backups can be stored on the computer, your external hard disk drive, and Cloud storage. So, take a back up after every one/two months to maintain your WordPress website.

### 2. Monitor the Security and Functionality of Your Site 
Your website security is as important as any other feature of the site. If you regularly monitor your site's security, it will prevent hack attacks and virus. A great security feature also optimizes your site and helps in faster loading. Regularly check for malware, virus and blacklist status. You can use plugins and tools that can help you with this function. [Sucuri Security](https://wordpress.org/plugins/sucuri-scanner/) is a great WordPress security plugin that can help to check the safety feature of your website.

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/tvixlbtjlgmwc53i5aey.png)

Check for links that are not redirected on the site. You can manually check for the functionality of your site by entering "site: yoursitename.com in Google. This lets you know about various suspicious elements if any and alerts you to remove them.
 
You can use security plugins to completely safeguard your website. Use [All In One WP Security & Firewall](https://wordpress.org/plugins/all-in-one-wp-security-and-firewall/) or [iThemes security plugin](https://wordpress.org/plugins/better-wp-security/) to monitor your security. This protects your website against hacking attacks and malware.  Your site can function in a proper way with regular safety alerts and check-up. A clean website ensures the good health of a website. After you check for security, do run a speed test for your website.

### 3. Database Maintenance 
Cleaning up your site's database will help to optimize your site. Your posts are saved on virtual files on the website. The database is cluttered because of posts and installation of plugins on the site. This affects the normal speed of your website making it slow.

The database of your website is like the dust of your home. It just adds on and accumulates without reason. Post revisions, spam comments, table overheads and files that are not in use affect the database of the website. A combined database or cluttered database can make your WordPress website slow and sluggish. 

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/rp92m2v4rxhrqucd4k7b.png)

You can manually clean your database or use a plugin that will help you with this. While the [WP-Optimize plugin](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-optimize/) is quite popular, another plugin you can try out is [WP-Sweep](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-sweep/). This plugin, too, helps to clean and organize your database. You need to install the plugin to your WordPress site, once installed, head to the tools option of the site.

You need to choose the ‘sweep and clean option’ for the clean up of various tables. There is an option of ‘Sweep All’ at the bottom that you can use for cleaning up. But, this option can eliminate your saved drafts too, so you need to be careful. Stick to manual sweep option if you have time. 

### 4. Check for Spam Comments 
Internet marketing is common today, so marketers keep commenting on blogs to increase the inbound links. Spam comments not only affect the site's performance but also speed at times. You need to pay special heed to the comments section of your site to eliminate the headache of spam comments.

Manually sorting spam comments can be time-consuming. So, you can use special spam filters and spam plugins for your WordPress site. A plugin such as [Akismet Anti-Spam](https://wordpress.org/plugins/akismet/) can help you with the option of a spam filter. This plugin is effective to block unwanted marketers or offenders. You can simply report to the main community if there is excess spamming of comments on your WordPress website.

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/zuyq3uzkbd0m4wn64e3r.png)

You can also use a unique commenting platform '[Disqus](https://wordpress.org/plugins/disqus-comment-system/)' that helps to manage the comments on your website. It also helps to reduce the database queries on the server of your website. It offers a comprehensive comment management feature that lets you block or white list the members through IP address or email ID.

Moreover, you can also add Captcha plugins to your WordPress site. This also helps to sort unwanted comments on the website. Sorting of comments as flagged and genuine can help to increase the speed of your website. 

## 5. Check for Broken Links 
Broken links leave a bad impression on your website user or visitor. Broken links also affect the SEO and the functionality of a website. It's important to check for broken links but it's difficult to do it manually. If your website has a clean linking structure, the speed will also be optimized. 

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/yaoau5fticlv7xf5r61k.png)

You can use a specific plugin to check for broken links like [Broken Link Checker](https://wordpress.org/plugins/broken-link-checker/). Install it on your site and head to tools. You'll find the broken link option, you can either edit the link or remove the link.

Another way to check for broken links is through Google Search Console. It lets you find the crawl errors. Check for the links that appear in the crawl errors. You can fix the broken links by creating a new post or page by using the URL structure of your website. You can also redirect links by using free redirect plugins or SEO plugins for your site. 

## 6. Optimize the Speed of the Site 
The speed of the website is an important ranking factor for Google. The website that loads in a second increases user engagement and makes browsing a lot easier. This not only improves the average dwell time but also the page views of your WordPress website.

[Optimizing your WordPress website for speed](https://capsicummediaworks.com/actionable-wordpress-optimization-tips/) plays an important part. Know about all the tricks that help your site featured on the first page of Google. If the website speed is good, it also affects the traffic rank. A user always prefers a website that loads faster and it's great in speed.

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/0h6dtnbciqtjnacgegcs.png)

You can simply visit the [Google PageSpeed Insight](https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/) and check for speed optimization solutions for your WordPress site. When the website codes are optimized and well-managed scripts are in place, it'll only help to speed up your website. 

Also, regularly check your website speed on various speed test checker online platforms. You'll know the exact reason for the slow loading time of your site. Always check for speed when you update or install any new plugin, as the installation of some plugins can cause slow speed at times. 

## 7. Update Your WordPress Site Regularly 
Regular WordPress updates are important to optimize your site. If you don't update your site and plugins regularly, it can be risky. As WordPress is an open-source website, it's most vulnerable to malware and hack attacks. Even the source core is available to hackers so it can cause considerable damage to your website.

Every time you find a notification for updates, simply click the option. Updates hardly take time and most updates come with security patches. Regular updates for WordPress also fix minor issues of your website. If you have purchased WordPress themes for your site, you should check for manual updates too.

Updates help in proper functioning and also ensure complete safety. Do you know that outdated plugins account for 25% of hacked WordPress websites? This was proved in Sucuri's analysis. 
So, check for regular updates in your dashboard area. Click the Update button and you are sorted. If there is no notification in your admin area, you can also check for manual updates for WordPress plugins and themes. Updating your website is as important as working on your site. Regular updates are good for the health of your site. Also, always keep a check on the WordPress core update feature.

### Conclusion
[Maintenance of your WordPress site](https://bigrockcoupon.in/wordpress-maintenance-checklist/) is important if you want to keep it secure and functionally best. Improve the core usability of the website. A proper speed test is a must on a regular basis along with the update feature. Also, make sure that all the browsers are compatible with your website. Check for spam comments and redirects them to your site.

Your website loading speed has a direct link with your site's functionality, so maintain your site to increase your loading speed. Also, check your site’s navigation links and contact forms. It's also important to take a complete backup for your website. Thus, if you have a WordPress website, then do follow the above tips for optimization.