At TREIZE, we don’t mess around when it comes to maintaining websites. We strongly (but kindly) encourage our clients to sign up for a maintenance plan after their site goes live. Why? Because a website without maintenance is like a car without oil changes: it works… until it doesn’t. A WordPress site requires regular maintenance to operate optimally. Without it, your site can quickly become outdated, vulnerable to security risks, or suffer from reduced performance.
The Risks of a WordPress Site Without Maintenance
SEO Degradation
Search engines favor websites that are fast, secure, and up-to-date. A neglected site can suffer from slower loading speeds, broken internal links, and outdated content. These are all things Google frowns upon, which can lead to a drop in your organic rankings.
Security Issues
WordPress’s popularity makes it a prime target for cyberattacks. I often compare hackers to fishermen. Fishermens go where the fish are. Hackers, similarly, target the platform with the most users, and that platform happens to be WordPress.
Without regular updates, your site becomes vulnerable to hacks, jeopardizing your data and your users’ information. While no system is 100% secure (even the FBI’s website has been hacked), implementing extra security measures significantly reduces the risk of trouble.
Key Stats on WordPress Vulnerabilities and Attacks
- In 2020, approximately 4.7 million WordPress sites were hacked—nearly 13,000 per day. (source)
- WordPress faces roughly 90,000 attacks per minute, highlighting its popularity among cybercriminals. (source)
- In 2021, 99.42% of security vulnerabilities in the WordPress ecosystem were traced to outdated themes and plugins, emphasizing the importance of keeping these components updated. (source)
- 61% of WordPress attacks result from outdated installations, underscoring the need for regular updates to prevent security breaches. (source)
Performance Decline
An unoptimized website can suffer from slow speeds, errors, or malfunctions, all of which harm user experience and your brand’s image. Here are a few scenarios where performance can deteriorate due to lack of maintenance:
- Newly added images that haven’t been optimized can significantly slow down page loading times.
- A database that accumulates data over years without cleanup can degrade performance.
- Outdated plugins can create compatibility issues, affecting both functionality and speed.
Data Loss
Without regular backups, a crash or cyberattack can result in the permanent loss of your content, which can seriously impact your online presence. This is especially critical for transactional platforms or sites handling sensitive data.
Thankfully, a maintenance plan typically includes regular backups stored on external servers. In just a few minutes, you can restore a backup, patch the issue, and get everything back to normal.
The Benefits of a WordPress Maintenance Plan
A maintenance plan ensures that your site stays up-to-date, secure, and high-performing. It includes regular updates for WordPress and its plugins, security scans, performance optimizations, weekly backups, and detailed monthly reports. These proactive measures allow potential issues to be identified and resolved before they impact your site, ensuring an optimal user experience and better search engine visibility.
Investing in a maintenance plan for your WordPress site isn’t a frivolous expense—it’s essential for its longevity, security, and performance. At TREIZE, we’re committed to providing a turnkey service that lets you focus on your business while ensuring your website remains a valuable asset. If you’re ready to invest tens of thousands of dollars in redesigning your site, make sure to budget for its annual maintenance—it’s a must-have.
And just so you know, we can maintain websites we didn’t develop, under certain conditions. If that interests you, feel free to email me at jfsauriol@treize.pro to discuss the perfect maintenance plan for your WordPress site.
