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Creating a website is one thing, but it’s a whole new different story when it’s about maintaining it. One small mistake at any point and you are looking at unwanted consequences. So, the pressure is high in making sure that everything is done right and working as they should.
If you are doing everything depending on what you see fit, it is easy to overlook certain aspects of your WordPress website. To make things worse, it is those little things that can bring the most severe effects.
Stop worrying about things going wrong. Make sure that everything is running as they should by following these best practices.
Run Updates in a Controlled Environment
When you are making changes to your website, unpredictable things can happen. One thing may not work as expected and can render your entire website useless until you find what’s wrong and fix it.
During your downtime, you are losing visitors. If it is a business website, you are losing revenue.
If your downtime becomes more of a routine (which will be the case because updates and changes are necessary), you lose credibility and the long-term loyalty of your visitors.
Fortunately for you, there is a solution. Simply run everything in a controlled and simulated environment. Only update the live website when you are sure that everything will work as they should.
To create a test environment, you are going to need an app. One that is commonly used is Local. The best part is that it is free. So, you can make everything flawlessly perfect without adding an additional penny on your operational expenses. It’s a complete win.
Update Themes and Plugins
According to SEO expert Vikas Rana, updating themes and plugins are vital for the security of your WordPress website. It might be an obvious thing to think about, but doing it isn’t really as common. How many times have you put updates on hold just because you think that you can always do it next time?
Unfortunately, not updating as soon as possible is not harmless. There can be security issues with older versions that weren’t there before and it can be harder to fix a website that is infected by malware than it would have been to update everything.
Another thing, there will always be performance improvements with every update. It can be small or big, but even the slightest addition to convenience can make all the difference in converting a visitor or customer into a repeat one.
Guarantee a Mobile-Friendly Website
According to a survey, 51% of the content is viewed on a mobile device. That is a little bit over half of the global internet traffic. Therefore, if your website is not mobile-friendly, you are looking at a huge potential market lost.
Fortunately, if you are running well-maintained themes and keeping plugins up to date, you are not going to have any problems. Your website will be well-optimized for the mobile setting.
However, if you are running a custom site design, it is when things start to get a little tricky. You are going to need to keep on testing to make sure that everything is working as smoothly as they should.
Difficult? Yes. Tedious? Yes. Is it worth it? Yes.
Add SSL Certificates to Every Site
Never compromise the data of your visitors. If there is one thing that you should prioritize, it is their well-being.
One way to do this is with an SSL certificate. You likely know what this does, but if you are still a beginner, the simple explanation would be is this is what keeps the interaction between your website and visitors secure.
Before, this is only important if you are running an eCommerce website or anything that involves handling vital information. However, today is a whole different story. Even a personal blog can benefit from having an SSL certificate.
For one, Google has been flagging sites without one as insecure and that little warning can be enough to push away first-time and long-term visitors.
Compress Your Images
You wouldn’t expect that a simple image can make or break your website. While one won’t make a huge difference, not knowing how the size of your photo impacts your site will mean you are not just doing it on a single image.
To put it in simple terms, a big image means it takes time to load and therefore, makes your site slower. Compressing it to make it lighter can breathe in new life by making everything more convenient to the visitor.
So, should you start compressing your images? You should. Stop making this common mistake, it can bring your website a long way.
This article by wpbeginner covers 5 best WP image compression plugins with the comparison. You can choose any one of them that suits you to reduce image size and improve your site speed in return.
Without a doubt, creating and maintaining a WordPress website is both difficult and tedious. However, the important aspect to keep in mind is that it is not impossible.
You should never simply rely on hoping that everything works flawlessly. As they say, hope is not a strategy you can rely on.
By following these best practices, you are looking at further improving the performance and quality of your website. You might think it is more of a hassle, but in the long-term, it makes things easier and more convenient.
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