Your website is live, everything works and you don’t have to think about it. At least, that’s how it feels. But a WordPress website isn’t a brochure you print once. It’s software that keeps running, and software needs maintenance. In this article you’ll learn what WordPress maintenance involves, what happens if you ignore it and how to handle it smartly.

What is WordPress maintenance?

WordPress maintenance is everything needed to keep your website secure, fast and working. Think of:

  • Updates to WordPress itself, your theme and all plugins.
  • Backups, so you can always return to a working version.
  • Security: closing vulnerabilities and watching for suspicious activity.
  • Checks after updates: making sure forms, payments and integrations still do what they should.
  • Speed: a site that slows down costs you visitors and rankings in Google.

What happens if you skip maintenance?

At first you notice nothing. After a few months the missed updates pile up. Then things usually go wrong in one of these ways:

  • A vulnerability in an outdated plugin gets exploited. Your site is hacked, sends spam or is flagged as unsafe by Google.
  • Updating everything at once after a long time causes conflicts. Your site goes down or a form suddenly stops working, and you only find out when customers call.
  • No proper backup means recovery costs a lot of time and money, or sometimes isn’t possible at all.

The annoying part is that you usually only notice when it’s already too late. Maintenance prevents that.

Can you do it yourself?

Yes, you can. Clicking “update” isn’t difficult. The hard part is everything around it: making a backup first, checking afterwards that everything still works, and knowing what to do when an update breaks something. If you have the time and knowledge, you can do it yourself. If you’d rather have it taken care of, outsource it.

How often should maintenance happen?

Security updates should be applied as soon as possible. For everything else, a fixed rhythm works best, combined with automatic backups. More important than frequency is that someone actually checks your site after every update.

What does WordPress maintenance cost at Diepcreative?

At Diepcreative, WordPress maintenance costs €200 per quarter (excl. VAT), less than €67 per month. That includes a backup every 3 weeks including the database, checked updates of WordPress, plugins and themes, database optimisation, a weekly malware scan, extra login security and direct help when something goes wrong.

Want to know exactly what’s included? Read more about WordPress maintenance or get in touch for a free check of your current website.