Publishing a post does not mean your work on it is finished forever.
WordPress, themes and plugins receive updates. External information becomes outdated. Links break, contact forms stop working and privacy tools need checking. As a website grows, you may also discover gaps, duplication or internal links that should be improved.
That does not mean constantly rewriting everything.
Think of your website as a house. Each content hub is a room, the supporting posts are the furniture, and internal links are the doors and hallways connecting everything.
You complete one room, move on to the next and eventually return to make sensible improvements. You might rearrange some furniture or move something into a more suitable room.
You do not repeatedly empty the entire house, repaint every wall and start again.
Website maintenance should protect and improve what you have built without preventing you from creating the rest of it.
Three types of website maintenance
It helps to separate maintenance into three types:
- Ongoing protection: Updates, backups, security and removing software you no longer use.
- Checks triggered by a change: Testing the site after updating a plugin, changing some CSS, installing analytics or altering a URL.
- Planned content reviews: Returning to completed hubs to check accuracy, coverage, internal links and presentation.
All three matter, but they do not need to happen at the same time.
While you are still building the site, ongoing protection and change-related checks should continue. The larger content review can wait until you have completed enough of the content plan to assess connected posts properly.
Protect the site while you are building it
My immediate priority with Action With AI is still content production.
I am working through the supporting posts for each hub. Once those posts have been written, the hub page can be completed and used to connect them.
I do not want to stop after every few posts and redesign the site. However, there are maintenance jobs that cannot wait until the entire content plan is finished.
Keep WordPress, themes and plugins updated
WordPress software, themes and plugins receive updates to fix faults, address security weaknesses, improve compatibility and introduce new features.
When an update appears, you should not ignore it indefinitely.
Before making an important update, make sure a reliable backup exists. This is especially important before:
- Installing a new WordPress version
- Updating several plugins together
- Changing your theme
- Adding or removing an important plugin
- Making substantial technical changes
After updating, check the parts of the site most likely to reveal a problem. You do not need to conduct a complete technical audit after every minor update.
WordPress also includes a Site Health screen under Tools > Site Health. This can identify some security, performance and configuration issues that may need attention.
Understand how your backups work
Do not simply assume that your website is being backed up.
Find out:
- Whether the backup includes both the database and website files
- How frequently backups are created
- Where they are stored
- How long they are retained
- How a restore is requested or started
- Whether you can download your own copy
This became important to me when I used FileZilla to remove some old plugin folders that had not been deleted correctly. I accidentally deleted important plugin and website files and broke the site.
It produces a real sinking feeling when you think you may have destroyed years of work.
Fortunately, Wealthy Affiliate Site Support restored the site to the point before I made the mistake. It demonstrated why the worst time to investigate your backup arrangements is after something has gone wrong.
I later asked Wealthy Affiliate exactly what its backup system covered. Site Support confirmed that it backs up the complete website—database and files—every night. It can also generate a downloadable full backup when requested.
Other hosting companies and plans work differently. Backups may be included, sold as an additional service or left for you to arrange. Backup plugins may work on some hosting platforms but be restricted on others.
You do not necessarily need a particular backup plugin. You do need a complete backup arrangement that you understand and could use if the site had to be restored.
Our detailed guide to backing up a WordPress website examines these options more fully.
Remove plugins you no longer need
Every plugin adds more code to your WordPress installation. That does not make plugins bad, but each one should have a clear purpose.
I once installed a plugin that created accordion or concertina-style sections inside posts. It caused a significant reduction in site speed, possibly because of a conflict with other code. The site became noticeably faster again after I removed it.
Occasionally review your plugin list and ask:
- Do I still use this plugin?
- Is it compatible with the current version of WordPress?
- Is it still being maintained?
- Does another installed plugin already perform the same task?
- Did the site become slower or less stable after I installed it?
If you no longer need a plugin, deactivate it and check that nothing important has stopped working before deleting it through WordPress.
Avoid manually deleting plugin folders unless you know exactly what you are removing and have a reliable backup. My FileZilla mistake is a good example of what can happen.
Confirm who is responsible for security
Some managed and all-in-one platforms handle much of the server security, malware protection and technical monitoring for you. Other hosting plans leave more of the responsibility with the website owner.
Find out what your host provides and what you are expected to manage.
Basic precautions include:
- Using strong, unique passwords
- Keeping WordPress, themes and plugins updated
- Removing unused administrator accounts
- Avoiding plugins and themes from questionable sources
- Investigating unexpected users, warnings or website changes
You do not need to become obsessed with security. You do need to know that somebody is responsible for it.
Check the site after making a change
Many maintenance jobs do not need to be performed according to a fixed calendar. They make more sense immediately after a related change.
Use one simple technical check
After updating WordPress, changing a plugin, adding CSS or making another technical alteration:
- Open the home page.
- Open a recent post.
- Test the main menu.
- Check the site on a mobile screen.
- Test any feature affected by the change.
- Look for obvious layout or error messages.
If you change additional CSS, save a copy of the existing code first. Make a controlled change, inspect the result and restore the earlier version if necessary.
AI can help write CSS, but you still need to check what the code changes. I learned this when AI-generated CSS made some button text too similar to the button background, making the words difficult to read.
The safe process is straightforward: save, change, inspect and be ready to reverse.
Test contact forms and email delivery
A contact form can display a successful submission message even if the notification email never reaches you.
Submit a test message after changing:
- The administrator email address
- Contact-form settings
- Email or SMTP arrangements
- The form plugin
- Hosting or domain email settings
Check what happens to the information submitted through the form. It might remain inside WordPress, be sent only by email or be stored by another service.
Your privacy information should describe what actually happens to that data, not what you assume happens.
Review privacy tools when the site changes
Adding analytics, advertising, embedded videos, contact forms or other external services may change the cookies and personal information used by your site.
That should prompt you to:
- Run a new cookie scan.
- Check whether optional cookies remain blocked until consent.
- Review the cookie banner.
- Update the privacy or cookie policy if necessary.
- Test the options to accept or reject cookies.
On Action With AI, I originally used CookieYes but later changed to Complianz after testing some alternatives. I found the Complianz wizard and website scan easier to follow.
The lesson is not that every site must use the same plugin. It is that your consent setup should reflect the services your website actually uses.
For UK visitors, the Information Commissioner’s Office says people should be told about the cookies being used, while cookies that are not strictly necessary generally require the visitor’s agreement. Requirements vary according to the website, its users and the applicable jurisdictions, so consult the appropriate guidance for your circumstances. The ICO provides privacy and cookie guidance for small organisations.
Take care when changing an established URL
You can rewrite a post, replace its images and improve its formatting without changing its URL.
In most cases, that is the safest approach.
If an established URL must change:
- Create a permanent redirect from the old address to the new one.
- Test the old URL to confirm that it reaches the correct page.
- Update internal links so they point directly to the new address.
- Check the new page in Google Search Console if appropriate.
A redirect tells visitors and search systems that the page has moved. Google explains the available methods in its guidance on redirects.
Avoid repeatedly renaming categories, reorganising menus or changing large numbers of slugs. Even if you create redirects, frequent structural changes make the site unnecessarily difficult to manage.
Update facts that have genuinely changed
Some pages will date more quickly than others.
A personal account of learning WordPress may remain useful for years. A hosting-price comparison or description of a platform’s current features could become inaccurate much sooner.
Posts likely to need closer attention include:
- Product and service comparisons
- Prices and subscription plans
- Plugin recommendations
- Legal or regulatory guidance
- Platform features and technical instructions
- Statistics and research findings
- Screenshots of interfaces that change frequently
You do not need to recheck every factual statement constantly. Identify which posts contain time-sensitive information and give those pages priority during future reviews.
Do not allow maintenance to replace content creation
There is a danger in reviewing too early and too often.
You write five posts, redesign the home page, rewrite the first two posts, change the menu, replace every image and then reorganise the categories.
A month later, the website may look different, but it still contains only five posts.
For a young hobby website, incomplete coverage is usually a more important problem than imperfect polish.
My intention is to complete one content hub at a time. Each hub represents a stage in the reader’s journey, supported by posts that explore individual questions in more detail.
Once one area has sufficient coverage, I can move on to the next.
Maintenance during this building stage should protect the work and correct genuine problems. It should not become an excuse to avoid creating the remaining content.
Review completed content one hub at a time
Once the main content plan has been completed, the larger review can begin.
Reviewing one hub at a time is more manageable than trying to audit the entire website in one go. It also allows connected articles to be assessed together.
Check the hub page
The hub should provide the broad picture and guide readers towards the supporting posts.
Ask:
- Does it still describe the subject accurately?
- Does it link to all the important supporting posts?
- Does the suggested reading order still make sense?
- Does it mention articles that were planned but never written?
- Has the subject developed in a way that requires a new supporting post?
Review connections between posts
A reader may arrive directly on a supporting post through search without seeing the wider site structure.
Check whether:
- Supporting posts link back to the hub.
- Sequential posts link to the logical next step.
- Closely connected articles link to one another.
- Internal links still lead to the intended destination.
- Anchor text clearly explains what the linked page covers.
Internal links should guide people through connected ideas. They should not be added just to increase the number of links on a page.
Look for duplication and missing information
Some repetition is necessary because every post needs enough context to make sense independently.
However, if several posts contain the same lengthy explanation, one page should usually provide the detail while the others summarise the point and link to it.
At the same time, look for gaps. You may find that:
- Several posts raise the same unanswered question.
- One article assumes knowledge a beginner may not have.
- Search Console shows relevant queries that are not properly answered.
- A supporting process needs a guide of its own.
- A post is trying to cover two distinct subjects.
Create or divide content when it makes the reader’s journey clearer, not simply to increase the post count.
Check the page as a reader would
Open each important page and examine:
- Headings and paragraph spacing
- Images, captions and alternative text
- Internal and important external links
- Tables on a mobile screen
- Buttons and calls to action
- Embedded videos or interactive tools
- Contact and signup forms
- Obvious outdated references
Mobile checks are particularly important. Google uses the mobile version of a site for indexing and recommends maintaining equivalent content and meaningful page elements across desktop and mobile versions. Its mobile-first indexing guidance explains this in more detail.
Make changes in response to evidence
Maintenance should not be driven only by the feeling that you ought to change something.
Useful evidence might include:
- A broken link or failed contact form
- A WordPress Site Health warning
- An outdated price or feature
- Reader feedback
- An unexpected Search Console query
- A mismatch between the page’s purpose and how a search or AI system describes it
- Poor mobile presentation
- A noticeable performance problem after installing a plugin
I encountered a real example with the category originally called Google AI Mode Analysis.
Search impressions suggested that people may have been looking for an AI Mode analysis tool rather than articles documenting my experiments with Google AI Mode.
I renamed the category Google AI Mode Experiments, changed its URL, added a clearer category description and redirected the old address.
That was not change for its own sake. There was evidence that the original wording could be misunderstood.
A sensible maintenance process is:
- Identify a specific problem.
- Check the available evidence.
- Make the smallest change likely to solve it.
- Test the result.
- Allow time to see whether the change helped.
A practical website maintenance checklist
While building the site:
- Install important WordPress, theme and plugin updates.
- Confirm that complete backups are still being created.
- Remove plugins you no longer use.
- Respond to security warnings and obvious faults.
- Moderate genuine comments and delete spam.
After making a technical change:
- Test the feature you changed.
- Open the home page and a recent post.
- Check the menu and important forms.
- View the result on mobile.
- Reverse the change if it causes a problem.
After completing a content hub:
- Update the hub page.
- Link supporting posts back to it.
- Connect articles where the relationship helps the reader.
- Record gaps or duplication for the later review.
Periodically:
- Test the contact form.
- Review administrator accounts.
- Check the backup and restoration arrangements.
- Review privacy and cookie settings.
- Recheck posts containing prices, platform features or other time-sensitive facts.
After completing the main content plan:
- Review one hub at a time.
- Check accuracy, coverage and reading order.
- Repair broken or outdated links.
- Improve images and mobile presentation where necessary.
- Make structural changes only when there is a clear reason.
Maintenance should support creation
A hobby website is never completely finished.
There will always be another sentence you could improve, another image you could replace or another design adjustment you could test. If you wait for every page to become perfect, you may never complete the wider site.
Protect your work. Correct clear errors. Check the site after making changes. Keep important information accurate and return to completed content in a structured way.
Finish building each room before repeatedly redecorating the house.