5 steps to reduce the cost of WordPress website maintenance

Are you a website owner looking to reduce the cost of WordPress website maintenance? Do you want to find a better way to support your site without breaking your piggy bank? Well, we can help.

I want you to compare being a WordPress site owner to being a homeowner. Both these items require constant work, which also means a constant flow of money. A website and a home are never-ending investments.

But, these costs do not have to be catastrophic. Here’s how?

Consistency.

If you own a home and do absolutely no repairs, upgrades, maintenance service, etc., and then all of a sudden you want to sell your home. You will need to either sell under value for someone to renovate it or shove out a big chunk of change in order to get your home up to code.

The same is with your website. The longer you leave things to fester, the more there will be to do and the more it will cost.

So what can you do? Do minor repairs, upgrades, and maintenance as required. Do not wait until the last possible minute to do it. Or wait till you have a fire on your hands to begin work. Being ahead of the curve is crucial to avoid a big invoice.

It costs less to update things as they come than to fix major problems. Let’s get into more detail about how to reduce the cost of WordPress maintenance services.

Why you should want to maintain WordPress sites regularly?

Maintenance tasks for your WordPress sites should be a priority. Since it’s essential for ensuring the smooth operation of your website. Maintenance can provide things such as additional protection, key features, etc.

But most importantly, WordPress maintenance done even once a month is less expensive than fixing a major problem such as a website crash. Even if you were to pay for WordPress support and maintenance services for an entire year it would still be less expensive.

Why is ongoing maintenance services less expensive?

Let us give you a real-life example. A customer comes with a WordPress website that has not been updated, maintained, or supported for over a year. The customer has not done anything to their site. Nor have they hired someone to do anything on their site.

The list of maintenance tasks has gone from updating a few plugins plus the WordPress core to updating over 20 plugins plus major WordPress upgrades. Installing the newest version of WordPress is no longer an update but an upgrade. This is a much bigger change.

So what does this mean for WordPress support & maintenance developers?

Now our WordPress developers have to do a number of things before they can even get to updating this customer’s site.

First of all our developers have to set up the project all over again. This is essentially rebuilding your site from scratch. Then they need to reacquaint themselves with the project to relearn how things should work, where files are located etc.

Once they do that they can now move on to locating the source of the problem. So why did the website crash? Or why is WordPress sending us so many error messages? Once they have found the root of the problem, they need to fix the errors.

Now once that is complete they can update plugins. Chances are there will be 10, 20, 30, or more plugins that require an update. As opposed to just a handful of plugin updates. Finally, they need to fix anything that may pop up after introducing all these updates.

What does this all mean?

Well, it means that our developers will spend a lot more time doing all these tasks than if the customer were to maintain their website on a regular basis. It’s simply not worth waiting to maintain your website.

Also, it will cost the customer a big chunk of change for all these services. The cost will be exponentially greater than if they were to pay for monthly maintenance services.

Trust us, it is far less expensive to hire professional WordPress maintenance services than to leave your website unattended. The longer you wait, the bigger the build-up of errors and updates. All this build-up will just leave you with a huge bill to pay.

How to reduce WordPress website maintenance costs?

There are a number of things that you can do to reduce the costs associated with WordPress site maintenance services. The biggest one is updating your website on time as opposed to waiting for months on end. The next two key factors to lower your maintenance services cost include:

• keeping your site secure
• and database optimization.

Step 1 to reduce WordPress website maintenance costs: Update your website on time

Updating your WordPress site on time is key to lowering maintenance service costs. You should update the WordPress site right when WordPress core releases a new mini update. This way you create less work. You do not want to wait months or even a year before updating WordPress core.

The proper way to run WordPress core updates:

When you use website maintenance services they will run updates on a staging site. And only after making sure that everything is secure, will they move the website edits to production.

This way you minimize downtime of your website. And developers can eliminate major issues without affecting overall website performance.

Step 2 to reduce WordPress website maintenance costs: Keep your site secure

Putting in extra site security measures will also prevent any issues later down the line. These issues will likely be more expensive. WordPress developers during maintenance services will add code to make your website more secure.

Updating your WordPress core on a regular basis will also make your site more secure. This is due to the fact that WordPress releases these updates to patch up any holes that hackers preyed on in the previous version.

Another way to boost security on your WordPress site is by installing a security plugin to your site. One that we personally recommend is WordFence.

Step 3 to reduce WordPress website maintenance costs: Optimize your website & the database

Optimizing your WordPress database regularly can help reduce the cost of maintenance services. A key step in optimizing your website is deleting duplicate files, unused media files, and outdated pages.

Another element of website database optimization includes developers removing any redundant code or data.

They may also optimize your images. They can do so by converting your media files into WebP format. This format compresses the file without ruining the quality. But the file is small enough to keep your database running.

Lastly, our developers will also implement a cache. This way you reduce the number of requests that your site handles. It is not processing unnecessary HTTP requests.

Step 4 to reduce WordPress website maintenance costs: Fix issues properly the first time

So a big problem when we are trying to run WordPress maintenance and support by ourselves is not fixing issues the right way the first time. This can also happen if you are using a freelancer or agency that is not an expert in WordPress support.

When you do not fix the problem properly, you are increasing your bill for maintenance services down the line. Plus it’s usually like a domino effect, where one thing going wrong will slowly set off other elements to stop working properly.

It is crucial to fix bugs and errors the right way the first time, to avoid a larger bill or bigger problems. In some cases neglecting your website and not fixing issues right away can lead to a website crash. Once your website crashes, WordPress developers have to build your site from scratch. Now that can be very expensive. It’s better to just take small problems as they come, than wait for a big explosion.

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Step 5 to reduce WordPress website maintenance costs: WordPress support plan

Another way you can save money on WordPress maintenance services is by signing up for a 👉WordPress support plan 👈. We have three different plans available:

• WordPress maintenance services & plugin updates once a month
• WordPress maintenance services & plugin updates twice a month
• WordPress maintenance services & plugin updates once a week

You can choose either of these depending on personal preference and the size of your website. This way you are always on top of key updates & maintenance tasks.

7 ways to reduce WordPress Website Maintenance effort

Here are 7 things to do on a regular basis in order to reduce the effort that surrounds WordPress website maintenance service. By reducing the effort around maintenance services, you are also able to reduce the cost of WordPress website maintenance.

Update WordPress Core regularly

WordPress maintenance is a major task even if you do decide to do it once a week. Moreover, updates to the core WordPress may vary in size and complexity. Now updating WordPress core fixes security problems it’s a good idea to use this immediately.

But by doing so, the software may change the way it functions. This includes the insertion of new WordPress Editors. It’s highly recommended for users make a backup before installing any changes.

Plus it is always recommended to have professional developers run your updates. This way they run updates on a staging site, fix any bugs, and then move it all onto production.

Update or install the newest WordPress plugins

You want to make sure that when using WordPress plugins you are installing the newest versions. The newest WordPress plugins will be the most compatible with the current version of WP.

Also, when you consistently update already installed plugins you can also be sure that they are compatible. Not to mention you do not have to worry that feature on your page suddenly stops working.

Uninstall unused WordPress plugins

If you are not using a WordPress plugin uninstall it and remove it from your plugin library. There are a few reasons for this tip:

• unused plugins take up space in your database that could be used for something else
• unused plugins may cause security problems
• unused plugins can also slow down your site, at least from the WP admin perspective

If something no longer serves you get rid of it. If you ever need the plugin again, you can always reinstall it from the library. But if at the moment you don’t need it, then delete it.

Create regular backups of your WordPress site

There are three reasons why creating a backup of your WordPress site regularly is important:

1. Backups will allow developers to return to the old site if anything goes wrong
2. A backup is likewise vital if you’ve been hacked or data has been stolen.
3. It is also valuable to have a backup if something fails or gets accidentally deleted.

Respect the old adage that goes “always save & backup your work” to save yourself a lot of stress and money.

Take care of the security of your WordPress website

Keeping your WordPress website secure is essential in today’s digital world. Hackers can gain access to your website and cause serious damage if you don’t take the necessary steps to protect it. Fortunately, there are a few simple measures you can take to make sure your WordPress website is secure.

You should start by making sure that all of the WP security plugins and malware scans are up-to-date and running properly. You should also consider hiring a professional WordPress developer who can help with malware removal. They also help with hacker prevention, and other security measures.

Finally, be sure to keep an eye on any new security updates or patches for your WordPress website. This way you can stay ahead of any potential threats.

Use only the best & most trusted WordPress plugins

One rule that we follow is only installing WordPress plugins that are necessary and that are trustworthy.

When you install too many plugins you run the risk of having security issues. Each WordPress plugin has a different creator, so the code quality also varies. In many cases, there will be holes in the code that may cause security breaches.

Also, when you install too many plugins you are slowing down your website. Not to mention you are overloading your database which can slow down the server.

If you need a plugin add it, but if it’s not necessary think twice. We have a 👉 list of WordPress plugins 👈 that are worth having on your site.

Use Cloudways web hosting service for your WordPress websites

Using the right web host for your WordPress site is also crucial. Many WordPress site owners come across various issues with their web host. Some of these issues include security issues, not scalable and probably the biggest is it’s not made for WordPress. A web hosting service that we recommend is Cloudways because of the following advantages:

• ultra-fast, no delays in loading
• based on a cloud infrastructure
• has additional cache layers
• gives developers the ability to manage the production and development aspect that is connected to the repository
• the server is adapted to WordPress
• offers a high level of security
• easily scalable

Check out 👉 Cloudways 👈 to learn more and save some money on web hosting services. Also, when you choose the right host reduce the cost of WordPress website maintenance.

Bonus: Hire Professional WordPress Maintenance services to do it all for you

If you are a WordPress user and want to make sure that your website runs smoothly and is secure. Then hiring Professional WordPress Maintenance services is the best way to go. Choose the best WordPress maintenance services to help keep your website up-to-date, secure, and running optimally.

Whether you are a small business or an enterprise, Professional WordPress Maintenance services can help. They can help you manage all sorts of WordPress maintenance tasks. Tasks such as plugin updates, theme upgrades, security patches, backups, and more.

With the help of these services, you can ensure that your website is always running at its best. Furthermore, they also offer ongoing support in case any issue arises with your website. Also, when you hire WordPress professionals to run support on a regular basis you will reduce the cost of WordPress website maintenance.

TL;DR: Summary of how to reduce WordPress website maintenance tasks & cost?

There are a few ways in which you can reduce the cost of WordPress maintenance services. They include:

1. Update your website on time
2. Optimizing your website database
3. Keeping your website secure
4. Fix issues properly the first time
5. Take advantage of a WordPress support plan

The biggest key to minimizing the costs associated with WP maintenance is consistency. If you on a regular basis let’s say once a month give your website to professional developers for support and maintenance services. You will save money in the long term. Any issues will be resolved at the snap of a finger. Big problems such as website crashing will not occur. And all updates will be more on the minor side. As opposed to major upgrades that can introduce a lot more changes than your neglected site can handle.

Some basic maintenance tasks that developers will tackle include WordPress core updates and daily backups. Along with plugin and theme updates. Other key aspects of a 👉 maintenance plan 👈 that can be tackled by experienced WordPress developers include:

• taking care of website security
• suggesting the best website hosting service
• optimizing your database
• removing unused plugins
• and more

If you are curious to learn more about how to reduce the cost of WordPress website maintenance services, drop us a line, and 👉 let’s chat 👈. We can talk you through our custom plans and figure out which would maintenance plan would best suit you and your needs.