To stand out online, authors need to ensure that they have a fully developed website today.
A reader’s first impression of you is shaped by how you display your works which makes a website a straightforward yet effective way to hawk your books, blog posts, or even your image.
This all sounds very good, however, a lot of people believe that managing a website is an arduous task and too time-intensive.
The reality is, that you do not need to spend a lot of man-hours on your WordPress author website’s maintenance.
All you need is the right tools along with the correct plan, and you can manage your website without spending too much time on it.
Web surfing has become easier for people who wish to write, so this means that authors have their go-to set of tools to help them out.
This guide aims to equip authors who like writing on a more hands-off style of writing with the tools they need to tackle and get a basic grasp of the generally daunting task of website maintenance.
We will look at important routine tasks to be done alongside useful tools while creating a realistic timetable that accommodates the busy life of every author.
Adopting these tactics guarantees minimal investment of time while ensuring better security, and efficiency, as well as upkeep of your website and customer engagement.
1. Why You Need WordPress Website Maintenance
WordPress website maintenance includes activities that are performed regularly to keep the site safe, working, and relevant.
Maintenance involves the execution of multiple tasks such as updating software and plugins, backing up data, and monitoring performance.
For publishers, in particular, a proper maintenance schedule is essential not just to safeguard their work, but also to ensure that their visitors have the best experience.
Those sites that are properly maintained tend to get more traffic, better ranking on search engines, and consequently, greater book sale numbers.
Despite its importance, the maintenance of a website is seen by most authors as too technical or complex.
The reality of the matter is that most maintenance activities require little technical expertise and are easy to automate.
A basic understanding of WordPress maintenance, along with its recognition of its importance, can help authors take charge of their online platforms in a stress-free manner.
Step by step, this guide will present the most important tasks for authors in a more civilized manner, thus allowing you to do what you like to do – write.
2. Key Maintenance Tasks for Authors
Your website as an author on WordPress should be updated and maintained regularly to get the most out of it.
These weekly, monthly, and even quarterly activities are done to make maintenance manageable and to make sure that all important tasks are performed on time.
Weekly Tasks
Make sure that you reserve some time during the week to make important changes and updates to your site.
The first thing you should do is update WordPress’s core software along with the plugins and the themes.
This is important since the performance of the site and security are dependent on how current the software on the site is.
Outdated software can cause a site to be attacked, or other pieces of software may not work with the site leading to functionality problems.
Check to see if the load time and responsiveness of the site are working adequately.
Software like Google PageSpeed Insights can measure how effective and efficient the webpage is.
Also, ensure that your site does not have active broken links or any error pages that can damage your SEO or aggravate the visitors.
All of these activities will ensure a seamless experience for users on your site and increase the likelihood of them returning to your other content.
Monthly Tasks
Allocate time each month to perform deep maintenance tasks over and above just updating the system.
For starters, it is essential to back up your website data. In the event of something going wrong, a backup can assist to restore everything.
Through the use of backup plugins such as UpdraftPlus or BackupBuddy, backups can be set to run automatically as well as backed up to the cloud.
Next, think about how you will go about improving your content. This means also reviewing specific meta tags and keywords to ensure they are still relevant.
Perhaps it is time to add new ideas to old blog posts to refresh them.
Lastly, check your security settings and algorithms by scanning using Wordfence or Sucuri Security.
Regular scans will help assess your site for any potential vulnerabilities and malware.
Make it a habit to assess these features to better secure your site while boosting performance.
Quarterly Tasks
Now and then, more thorough upkeep of your website is critical to ensure that everything is functioning optimally.
Begin by applying the latest updates to the themes and plugins as this not only boosts security but also adds new features that enhance functionality.
Subsequently, access Google Analytics or Jetpack Insights and evaluate your visitors’ behaviors.
Quite frankly, tailoring your content’s creation and layout management can only be done when you know how your readers engage with your site.
Finally, think about purging some of the useless data from your database, like spam comments, or older revisions of posts.
This may dramatically enhance site speed and performance. Many optimization plugins offer integrated database cleaning tools that simplify this task.
3. Tools to Simplify Maintenance
Thanks to the availability of many tools intended to ease the workload, a WordPress author website provides no reason to be a nightmare to regularly maintain.
The right plugins can accomplish most of the above-mentioned tedious chores.
Backup solutions like UpdraftPlus or BackupBuddy are among some of the important plugins available.
You can set them up so that your entire site, including the files and databases, is backed up automatically and saved on a regular schedule.
That way, you always have a copy on hand should something go wrong.
A vital component of WordPress is security plugins, and tools like Wordfence or Sucuri Security serve as real-time breaches and threat scanners.
Security plugins offer firewall protection along with scanning the site for any malware.
These tools protect content from hackers while maintaining ease of use and no extensive technical skills.
Performance Optimization plugins such as WP Rocket and Autoptimize can drastically increase loading speeds by automatically caching files and optimizing images.
This enhancement not only changes the user experience positively but also improves search engine ratings.
Adding these tools to your website management strategy saves time on maintenance, so more focus can be directed towards readable content.
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4. Creating a Maintenance Schedule
Setting a maintenance schedule should be at the top of your list of ways to maintain your WordPress author website since it allows the site to be maintained without feeling out of control.
Balance is the key and coming up with a structured schedule that helps you write and accomplish tasks gives the best results.
First, decide which tasks require daily focus and which ones will be performed on a weekly or monthly basis.
For instance, only a few minutes each week may be necessary to check for updates. However, this may yield major long-term benefits in security and functionality.
You could also use digital calendars or task management applications such as Trello or Asana to give reminders for maintenance activities if they are done often or not (every day, week, month).
This way, you will not forget to carry out tasks because alerts will be sent whenever it is time.
Also, keep time in your schedule for maintenance — these appointments are just as important as writing deadlines!
There are different mental efforts involved to complete different tasks, so by making sure you devote at least a small portion of your week/month towards these tasks, everything will run effortlessly and avoid the panic behind the scenes.
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5. Troubleshooting Common Issues
Even with the most regular and rigorous upkeep, you may face issues on your WordPress author’s website every once in a while.
Keeping certain troubleshooting measures in mind can be useful when such problems pop up from time to time.
Some common issues that you might face are slow loading speeds resulting from unoptimized images and excessive usage of plugins.
Both can prevent visitors from engaging further. To quickly fix this problem, first consider using performance analysis tools known as GTmetrix or Pingdom Tools.
They will provide you with in-depth insights regarding what might be causing the slowdowns.
Another common issue people often face is dead links which occur due to removed pages or outdated content.
Not only are these aggravating for users, but they also greatly reduce SEO rankings over time.
Make use of link-checking tools such as Broken Link Checker from time to time to discover any dead links on your site so they can be amended accordingly.
In case you run into more severe issues like sudden and recurrent crashes or error messages, for instance, the infamous white screen of death, consider getting someone professionally certified through the WordPress Support Forum or WordPress specialized freelance developers.
You can always focus on important elements of your content if you know what issues to expect alongside appropriate troubleshooting in the first place.
No doubt, there is more than one way to seek external help.
Read also: How To Use WordPress for Authors with Online Courses
Conclusion
You do not need to use WordPress as an authorial website as an unending tedious task. On the contrary, it can be readily assimilated into your writing practice while simultaneously getting better over time from a security and user perspective. With the aid of such specialized tools (such as these backup systems), authors can greatly simplify their processes by understanding and maintaining essential tasks from weekly updates to quarterly analysis, without compromising on the seamless functioning of the systems behind the scenes. When you plan just a bit by using personalized schedules that revolve around individual-backed needs and are proactive towards common issues, you will be surprised at just how easy maintaining everything is as you will have more time to focus on what matters: writing compelling stories.