What Happens When You Don’t Maintain Your Website?
Did you know that 42% of WordPress sites contain at least one known security vulnerability due to outdated or unpatched plugins, themes, or core files?
In today’s fast-paced digital world, a website is a business’s first impression and often the main channel for connecting with customers. However, simply launching a website isn’t enough. Regular maintenance is needed to ensure that your site remains secure, functional, and effective at delivering your business goals. Ignoring it can lead to security vulnerabilities, poor performance, and missed opportunities.
Security Risks
Outdated software is one of the biggest security vulnerabilities for websites – especially WordPress. Hackers often target sites with outdated plugins, themes, or WordPress core installations to exploit weaknesses. Without regular updates:
- Your site becomes vulnerable to malware, phishing scams, and data breaches.
- A hacked site can damage your reputation and lead to costly downtime.
Performance Issues
Websites with unoptimised images, bloated code, or unused plugins can experience a number of issues. Significantly, speed is a key factor affecting your Google Search ranking:
- Slow load times frustrate users and increase bounce rates (the rate of visitors who leave without visiting any other pages on your site).
- Error messages can be displayed highlighting broken links or incomplete page loads, in turn harm your credibility. Google research shows that even a 1-second delay in load time can reduce conversions by 7%.
SEO Decline
Search engines prioritise well-maintained and structured, fast websites in rankings. Neglected sites:
- Drop in search engine results, leading to reduced visibility.
- Miss out on opportunities for organic traffic growth.
The Benefits of Regular Website Maintenance
Enhanced Security
Basic WordPress security is exactly that – basic. The good news is that you can improve the security of your site through taking on basic maintenance yourself and enhancing with plugins. Today, WordPress allows you to turn on automated updates to automatically update plugins and themes. However, if you have a complex site you may want to manage this process yourself ensuring compatibility when upgrading.
- Read about how to automate updates to WordPress core, plugins, and themes to close security loopholes.
- Firewalls and malware scanners, such as Wordfence and Sucuri, offer real-time protection.
Faster Performance
We have already mentioned how important fast performance is. There are a few things you can do here yourself. It is especially important to size images correctly and look at tools to help implement strategies such as ‘lazy loading’ (loading images only when they are needed). The good news is that there are a number of plugins which can be added to your WordPress environment to help you.
- Regularly optimising your database and images ensures pages load quickly. We use TinyPNG.
- Tools like WP Rocket or WP-Optimize can help improve caching and minimise load times.
Increased Credibility
- A fully functional, error-free website projects professionalism.
- Customers are more likely to engage with a business that appears reliable and up-to-date.
Compliance and Accessibility
- Regular maintenance ensures your site meets legal requirements, such as GDPR compliance and accessibility standards.
What Should Website Maintenance Include?
Whether you manage your site yourself or are looking for the service from others, at a minimum a comprehensive website maintenance plan covers:
Regular Backups
- Scheduled backups ensure your site’s data can be restored in case of a breach or crash.
- Tools like UpdraftPlus or VaultPress make backups seamless.
Software Updates
- Ensures compatibility between plugins, themes, and the WordPress core.
- Protects against vulnerabilities introduced by outdated software.
Performance Monitoring
- Regular audits identify issues like slow pages, broken links, and unoptimized images.
- Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to measure performance.
Spam Management
- Anti-spam plugins like Akismet keep your site clean and user-friendly.
Why Choose Digiphore as your Website Management team?
We understand the challenges business owners face, from limited time to technical expertise. That’s why we offer tailored website maintenance packages that ensure your site stays fast, secure, and up-to-date.
What you get with our service:
- Weekly updates for your WordPress core, plugins, and themes.
- 24/7 monitoring to identify and resolve potential issues before they escalate.
- Monthly performance reports, so you can see the impact of our work.
Conclusion
A well-maintained website is essential to building trust, ensuring security, and driving business results. With Digiphore’s expert maintenance services, you can rest easy knowing your site is in good hands – allowing you to focus on what you do best: growing your business.
