15 essential tasks to keep your WordPress site fast, secure, and professional

Do you have a WordPress website? Then you already know how important it is to keep it running without errors, fast, and protected. What you may not know is that neglecting WordPress maintenance can jeopardize your SEO positioning, user experience, and even the security of your site.

In this guide, you will find a detailed list of web maintenance tasks recommended by experts, which you can easily implement to ensure that your WordPress site is always in top shape.

1. Perform automatic backups

Backups should be your first line of defense. Schedule daily or weekly automatic backups and store them off-server (Dropbox, Google Drive, S3, etc.). A reliable plugin like UpdraftPlus or BlogVault can help you.

2. Keep WordPress, plugins, and themes updated

Updates fix security flaws, improve performance, and compatibility. Check at least once a week for new versions available from the administration panel or enable automatic updates.

3. Check site security

Use tools like Wordfence or Sucuri to scan your site for malware, hacking attempts, or compromised files. Also, strengthen access with two-factor authentication and hide the login URL.

4. Delete unused plugins and themes

Every plugin or theme is a potential entry point for attackers. Delete everything you don't use, even if it's disabled. And make sure to install only software from trusted sources.

5. Optimize the database

Over time, WordPress accumulates unnecessary data (revisions, spam, transients, etc.). Use WP-Optimize or WP Rocket to clean and optimize the database without touching a single line of code.

6. Optimize images

Large images slow down your website. Use a plugin like Smush or ShortPixel to automatically compress and resize images without losing quality.

7. Check for broken links

Broken links negatively affect SEO and user experience. Use a tool like Broken Link Checker to find and fix them regularly.

8. Monitor uptime

Make sure your website is always available. Services like UptimeRobot or Jetpack can notify you instantly if your site goes down.

9. Test contact forms

A non-functioning form means lost leads. Regularly test all forms to ensure they are working correctly.

10. Review and clean up comments

Delete spam comments and approve pending ones. This improves the user experience and keeps your site clean.

11. Check your site's speed

Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix to analyze your site's speed and get recommendations for improvement.

12. Review SEO settings

Make sure your SEO plugin (like Yoast SEO or Rank Math) is configured correctly and that your pages have appropriate titles and meta descriptions.

13. Check mobile usability

Use Google's Mobile-Friendly Test to ensure your site is easy to use on mobile devices.

14. Review user roles and permissions

Regularly check that users have the correct roles and permissions to avoid security issues.

15. Analyze website traffic

Use Google Analytics to understand how users interact with your site and identify areas for improvement.