WordPress Site Maintenance (updated for WordCamp Raleigh 2014)

Responsible [digital]
Home Ownership @thewebprincess

thewebprincess.com
@thewebprincess
facebook.com/thewebprincess
Dee Teal
#wcraleigh

c Maintenance
Insurance c
c Security c Pest Control c Efficiency

Back me Up
How will your back up get created?
Where will it be stored?
How will you restore from that backup?
#wcraleigh @thewebprincess

How to Back Up
Let your host take care of it
Learn how to do it manually
(for those of us who are technical)
Install (and use) a WordPress backup plugin
Pay someone to do it for you.

Backup Plugin Options
1. VaultPress - $5-$15 monthly
2. Backup Buddy - $80USD (annually if you want to
be able to update it)
3. WP Backup to Dropbox - Free with paid
extensions

Where will the backup live?
Hint: NOT on your server - send it offsite

How will you restore it?
Hint: Practice restoring it

Schedule
regular backups

Stay up to Date
WordPress core
Allow auto updates
Update your Plugins
Update your Themes (a word of caution re child
themes)

Take Out the Trash
Delete extraneous revisions
Delete draft posts
WP Clean up (plugin)
Delete unused plugins and themes
credit: epSos.de - https://www.flickr.com/photos/epsos/5575089139/

Declutter
Optimise your Database
WP Cleanup (plugin)

Keep on top of Broken Links
Google Webmaster Tools - Web based
Screaming Frog - Desktop Tool
Broken Link Checker (plugin)

Stay up to Date
WordPress core
Allow auto updates
Update your Plugins and Themes
Delete unused themes and plugins

Avoid Defaults
Don’t have a user called admin
(or siteadmin, webadmin, administrator etc.)
When you install WP, change the database table prefix
from wp_ to anything else
Change DB Prefix (plugin)

Keep the Doors Locked
Use a strong key - enforce strong passwords for all users
- passwords like this (note: this is not my password)
AgDBJpxfcid7BnaTi9Eg
Use a password keeper
1Password, Last Pass
Pro tip: Don’t use the same password for everything

Use a Security Screen - (plugin)
1. BruteProtect - Free
2. WordFence - Free (has a Pro option) OR
3. iThemes Security - Free (has a Pro option)
4. Sucuri Website Firewall - (Premium)

Get an SSL Certificate for your Site
Transfer of data is secure and encrypted
Particularly useful on login pages and contact
forms where customer data, sales information
and passwords are being transferred
Google is starting to give sites with an SSL
certificate a better ranking

Spam, Spam, Spam
1. Akismet - Spam Plugin
Free for personal sites - $5 p/m if you make any money i.e.
advertising/affiliate
2. WP SpamShield - Free
3. Disqus - alternate comment system and plugin
4. Registration Honeypot - for those with open
registration on their sites

The Need… for Speed
1. Bounce rate
2. Search ranking
3. Conversion
4. Page views
5. Reader satisfaction
6. Revenue
#wcraleigh http://www.copyblogger.com/website-speed-matters/ @thewebprincess

How to Test your Site Speed
1. http://webpagetest.org
2. http://tools.pingdom.com/
3. https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/
4. http://gtmetrix.com/

How to Read Results
1.DNS redirection - Pink
2. SSL Handshake - Purple
3. Server Response - Blue
4. WordPress/Application response - Yellow
5. Content download

Page Speed Performance
1. Read the Recommendations
2. Find solutions that help remedy these
issues
3. P3 Profiler is a useful WP plugin to see
which plugins are slowing your site down

How to Improve Results - in WP
1. WordFence - has a caching engine built in to
store static pages of your site.
2. Other caching plugins include WP Super Cache,
Hyper Cache, W3 Total Cache - my hot
favourite. WPRocket (premium)
3. Page Speed - will help sort out a couple of the
top recommendations from tests like Enable
Compression and Leverage Browser Caching

How to Improve Results - on the Server
1. Add a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to
serve your static content.
2. Consider a service like Cloud Flare - a lot of
hosts offer free Cloud Flare integration with
your site.

c Maintenance
Insurance c
c Security c Pest Control c Efficiency
http://thewebprincess.com

Questions?
Dee Teal
http://thewebprincess.com
@thewebprincess

Image Credits - (Mostly found via Photo Pin photopin.com)
Insurance - https://
www.flickr.com/photos/
dhilowitz/4560586060/
- David Hilowitz
Backup - https://
moionet/3752752293/ -
moionet
Server Room - https://
www.flickr.com/photos/traftery/
4773457853/
- Tom Raftery
Lego Postman - https://
stavos52093/12361203415/
- stavos
Restore - https://
woolner/753867268/
- Wooly Matt
Calendar - https://
42931449@N07/6812481635
- photosteve101
Maintenance - https://
75905404@N00/7126146307/
- OZinOH
Trash Bins - https://
www.flickr.com/photos/epsos/
5575089139/
- epSos.de
Shreddings - https://
didmyself/7685630558/ -
Daniel Kulinski
Security Locks - https://
josemanuelerre/11434605616/
- josemanuelerre
Avoid Defaults - https://
kaptainkobold/5181464194/
- Kaptain Kobold
Door Locks - https://
pizzagirl/4578900453/
- jainaj
Security Screen - https://
donut2d/36831870/
- donut2D
Pests - https://www.flickr.com/
photos/uncoolbob/
8405718181/
- uncoolbob
Speedometer - https://
thibaud_saintin/13441220173/
- Thibaud Saintin
Tunnel - https://
w4nd3rl0st/12491208355/
- w4nd3rl0st
Other uncredited royalty free images purchased from Bigstock Photo, or created by the author

Dee Teal
thewebprincess.com
@thewebprincess

WordPress Site Maintenance (updated for WordCamp Raleigh 2014)

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