Essential Website Maintenance Tasks You Shouldn’t Ignore

Building a website is just the first step, but keeping it secure, fast, and fully functional is where the real work begins.

A slow-loading page, broken links, or missing security and CMS updates can frustrate visitors and even drive them away.

However, a website that is regularly maintained performs better and builds trust with users. Everything works the way it should, without surprises.

The good news? Website maintenance doesn’t have to be difficult. In this guide, I’ll walk you through the steps to keep websites running smoothly.

Website Maintenance Checklist

A website isn’t something you set up once and forget about. It requires regular care to stay secure, fast, and functional.

Below, I’ll walk you through the essential website maintenance tasks that I follow to keep websites running smoothly.

1. Software Updates

Keeping your website updated is one of the most important things you can do to prevent security risks and keep everything running smoothly.

WordPress itself, along with different themes and plugins, releases updates regularly. These updates patch vulnerabilities, fix bugs and sometimes add new features.

If you ignore them, you leave your site open to hackers, compatibility issues, and performance problems. I’ve seen websites break because an outdated plugin stopped working after a major WordPress update.

I’ve also seen security breaches that could have been avoided just by applying a simple patch. If you want a website that runs reliably, you need to stay on top of updates.

2. Email Deliverability Checks

WordPress uses PHP mail to send emails, which isn’t always reliable. Many web hosts block or limit this function, causing emails to fail without you even realizing it.

That’s why checking email deliverability should be part of your regular website maintenance routine. If someone fills out a contact form, requests a password reset, or places an order, they expect an email confirmation.

But if those emails never arrive or land in spam, it can create serious problems like missed messages, lost leads, and unhappy customers. However, I’ve learned that fixing email deliverability isn’t complicated. You just need the right setup.

The best way to make sure emails get delivered is by using SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) instead of PHP mail. SMTP sends emails through a proper mail server, which improves delivery rates.

I recommend Easy WP SMTP because it’s easy to set up and works with most email providers. I recommend configuring it with SendLayer for maximum deliverability.

One feature I find really useful is the email dashboard. It keeps a record of every email sent from the site, making it easy to track delivery and catch any issues early.

I’ve relied on this many times to spot and fix failed emails before they cause bigger problems by checking individual log reports.

Another great option is the email backup feature. If the primary SMTP server goes down, the plugin can reroute emails through a backup service, so users still receive important messages.

This keeps everything running smoothly and ensures notifications don’t get lost, which is crucial for a reliable user experience.

3. Security Monitoring

A website is only as strong as its security. If it’s not monitored regularly, it becomes an easy target for hackers, malware, and brute-force attacks.

Security threats can slow down your site, steal sensitive data, and even get your domain blacklisted. That’s why keeping an eye on security is very important. I’ve seen a case where a site got hacked because a simple vulnerability was left unchecked.

It wasn’t even a complex attack, just an outdated plugin that opened the door. Since then, I ensure security monitoring is always running in the background. I know what you’re thinking, how can you manually check for security issues every day?

Well, security plugins like Wordfence can do all the heavy lifting for you. It is one of the best firewall and malware scanners for WordPress. It monitors login attempts and blocks bots and hackers from brute-force attacks.

The free version is great, but the premium version offers real-time protection. Security threats aren’t always obvious, and you don’t want to wait until your site is compromised to act.

4. Regular Backups

If you’ve ever lost important files on your computer, you know how frustrating it can be. Now imagine losing your entire website. Years of work gone in an instant because of a server crash, malware attack, or accidental mistake.

It happens more often than you’d think… I’ve seen websites go down due to a bad update, a hacking attempt, or even a simple human error.

Without a backup, recovery can be expensive or sometimes even impossible. That’s why regular backups are one of the most important website maintenance tasks you should never skip.

Automated backup plugins can do all the work for you. I recommend using Duplicator Pro, which lets you automate backups and store them in cloud storage services like Google Drive, Dropbox, or Amazon S3.

It creates a full website copy, including files and databases, so you can restore everything in minutes. I’ve had to restore a website from a backup more times than I can count. Each time, I was grateful I had a recent copy ready to go.

5. Performance Optimization

Website speed is one of those things that you don’t notice when it’s good, but you definitely notice when it’s bad.

If a site loads too slowly, people leave before they even get a chance to look around. And search engines? They take note of slow-loading pages and rank them lower in search results.

I’ve seen businesses lose customers just because their site took a couple of extra seconds to load. You see, speed isn’t just a technical detail. It affects user experience, SEO, and conversions.

The good news? You don’t need to be a developer to make your site load faster. A few simple fixes can cut load times and improve performance right away.

• Optimize Images Before Uploading
  • Images are one of the biggest reasons a website slows down.
  • Before uploading, use tools like TinyPNG or plugins like Smush to compress images without losing quality.
  • If your site has a lot of images, consider lazy loading, so they only load when needed.
• Use a Caching Plugin
  • Every time someone visits your site, their browser loads files from scratch. Caching helps store copies of your pages so they load faster.
  • I recommend W3 Total Cache. It’s easy to set up and helps with page caching, browser caching, and more.
  • Some web hosts also offer built-in caching, which can speed things up even more.
• Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
  • A CDN stores copies of your site on multiple servers worldwide, so visitors get the fastest version possible.
  • Cloudflare and BunnyCDN are great affordable options for WordPress users.

These are just a few of the simple things you can do to optimize your website for performance. Check out this guide to speed up your website even more!

6. SEO Audits

If you want your website to stay visible in search results, regular SEO maintenance is a must. Search engines prioritize sites that are fast, secure, and regularly updated, while ignoring or even penalizing those with broken links, outdated content, or security risks.

I’ve worked on websites that saw a drop in traffic simply because of ignored SEO issues like links leading to dead pages, missing meta descriptions, and content that hadn’t been updated in years.

If you’re not using an SEO plugin, you’re making things harder than they need to be. One tool that has made SEO maintenance incredibly easy for me is AIOSEO (All in One SEO). Here’s why I use AIOSEO:

• SEO Site Audit – It scans the website for broken links, missing meta descriptions, and other common SEO mistakes.
• Redirection Manager – If I delete a page, I can easily redirect it to another URL, preventing broken links.
• Schema Markup – Helps search engines understand my content better, which can improve rankings.
• Automatic Sitemap Updates – Makes sure search engines always have an updated map of my site, so nothing gets overlooked.

Instead of manually checking SEO errors, AIOSEO flags issues automatically, making it easier to fix problems before they hurt rankings.

7. Content Updates

Keeping your website updated isn’t just about fixing broken links or security patches. Your content needs attention too.

Search engines favor websites that are regularly updated, and visitors trust sites that provide up-to-date, accurate information.

I’ve worked on sites where old blog posts and outdated service pages were quietly hurting rankings.

The moment I started refreshing content, fixing old data, and making small improvements, I saw traffic and engagement increase.

Here’s how to keep content fresh:

• Schedule Regular Reviews
  • Instead of randomly updating content when you remember, set a schedule.
  • I aim for quarterly reviews on key pages and annual updates for evergreen content.
  • Focus on pages that drive the most traffic and older content that hasn’t been touched in a while.
• Update Outdated Information
  • If an article mentions outdated statistics, old tools, or discontinued features, update them.
  • Replace old links with better, more recent sources.
  • If a blog post no longer aligns with your brand, tweak it to match your current message.
• Use AIOSEO for SEO Analysis
  • The AIOSEO plugin makes content reviews so much easier by identifying SEO errors, readability issues, and missing metadata.
  • It highlights which pages need updates so you’re not guessing.
  • The content analysis tool inside AIOSEO helps make sure your post is optimized for search engines without overstuffing keywords.
• Check for User Engagement Signals
  • Use MonsterInsights to see which posts are performing well and which ones need improvement.
  • You can track organic traffic, bounce rates, and engagement metrics without leaving your WordPress dashboard.
  • If certain blog posts or pages aren’t getting much engagement, figure out why and add new insights, visuals, or examples to bring old content back to life.

8. Spam Management

Spam might seem like a minor inconvenience, but if you don’t keep it under control, it can damage your website’s credibility and performance.

Whether it’s spammy comments, fake form submissions, or automated bots, allowing too much of it can clog up your site, slow it down, and even impact your SEO.

I’ve seen websites overrun with nonsense comments, irrelevant backlinks, and fake form submissions, and trust me, it makes a site look unprofessional fast.

• Use Akismet for Spam Comment Filtering
  • If you allow comments on your site, you need a tool that blocks spam before it appears.
  • Akismet is one of the best options. It automatically detects and filters out spammy comments, so your site isn’t flooded with nonsense.
  • I use Akismet on every WordPress site I manage, and it catches almost all spam before I even have to look at it.
• Prevent Fake Form Submissions with WPForms
  • If your website has a contact form, lead form, or newsletter signup, you’ve probably dealt with spam submissions from bots.
  • WPForms has built-in spam protection, including honeypots, reCAPTCHA, hCaptcha, and custom CAPTCHA fields, making it much harder for bots to submit junk data.
  • This helps filter out fake leads, so you’re only dealing with real people who are actually interested in your content or services.
• Block IPs and Blacklist Spam Sources
  • If certain IP addresses keep spamming your site, you can block them manually from your WordPress settings.
  • You can also create an email denylist in WPForms to stop repeat offenders from submitting fake forms.

You can follow this guide for more information on setting up WPForms’ best anti-spam features.

FAQs — Essential Website Maintenance Tasks

Website maintenance tasks are a popular topic of interest among our readers. Here are answers to some common queries about them: