This tutorial is part of our WordPress Management tutorial series. In this tutorial, we provide a WordPress maintenance checklist to help you perform a complete WordPress maintenance routine.

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WordPress Maintenance Checklist – Putting It All Together

(WordPress Maintenance Process)

If you have followed our WordPress Maintenance Tutorials where we break down each step of the WordPress maintenance process and show you how to perform each task in logical sequence, then it’s time to put it all together.

In this section, you will learn how to put the entire WordPress maintenance sequence together, and download a practical checklist that you can print and follow to help you perform a complete WordPress site maintenance routine.

WordPress Maintenance Checklist

Use the checklist below to complete your WordPress site maintenance:

	Maintenance Step	Comments	Tutorials
	Have access to all records and details (logins, passwords, registrant contact details, renewal dates, etc.):	Website Domain(s), DNS records, Nameservers Webhosting Webmaster accounts Plugins & Themes Licenses, registrations, and subscriptions 3rd-party services
	Log into your WordPress site		view
	Go to your dashboard		view
	Check if WordPress version, plugins, or themes need updating	Don't do this until you backup your site!	view
	Check & repair broken links	Don't do this until you backup your site!	view
	Delete comment SPAM	Don't add SPAM to your backup files	view
	Delete unnecessary/unused media files	Do this regularly (e.g. every few months)	view
	Log into your hosting account	Ignore this step if using automated backup tools.	view
	Optimize and back up your WordPress database	Ignore this step if using automated backup tools.	view
	Backup your WordPress files	If not using automated backup tools, zip the folder containing both the WordPress files and the SQL data file.	view
	Upload backup files to secure offline storage account	Ignore this step if using automated backup tools.	view
	Go back into your WordPress Admin
	Put your site in Maintenance Mode	Display a maintenance page to visitors while you perform updates, changes, and other maintenance tasks	view
	Update WordPress to latest version	Only if update is required. If automated method doesn't work, use manual method instead.	view
	Update your WordPress plugins (deactivate/remove unused plugins)	Only if update is required. If automated method doesn't work, use manual method instead.	view
	Update your WordPress theme(s) (remove unused themes)	Only if update is required. If automated method doesn't work, use manual method instead.	view
	Review site reports	Warning, expiration, or subscription renewal messages Statistics (site, analytics, hosting) Uptime reports Logs
	Perform any additional maitenance work required:	Content changes/updates Fix broken links Changes to design/layout Install new plugins or themes Integrations with 3rd-party services Security fixes Optimization tweaks User data deletion requests License and subscription renewals
	Generate any required reports:	New installations Site performance SEO Optimization reports Security
	Log out of your WordPress site.		view
	Test and review site to make sure everything is working ok.
	Your WordPress site maintenance is done.
	Errors or Problems? Try this ...
	Troubleshoot WordPress Errors	(If required)	view
	Restore WordPress Data	(If required)	view
	Reinstall WordPress Site	(If required)	view

Download The WordPress Maintenance Checklist

WordPress Maintenance Process – Video Walkthrough

The video below walks you through a complete WordPress maintenance routine performed live on a WordPress site.

As this video was created using an older version of WordPress, the maintenance routine uses manual methods to backup WordPress data and upgrade the WordPress software and plugins. Use the automated backup and upgrade methods we recommend in our tutorials to perform the maintenance process significantly faster.

Congratulations, you have completed our WordPress maintenance tutorials! You should now be able to perform a regular WordPress maintenance routine on your website or blog in just a few minutes and keep your site, plugins, themes, data and files fully up-to-date and backed up.

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