It’s never advisable to get complacent in any situation – including when running a website. This is because the most catastrophic mistakes and technological disasters tend to happen when we least expect them.

To avoid getting too comfortable, it’s important to conduct regular audits even when all is running smoothly for your WordPress website; this will flag any areas for concern before they become a problem, and will also give you peace of mind.

We recommend auditing your WordPress site at least every six months to ensure that everything is in optimum working order. There are four essential elements to address in a website audit: security, back-ups, content and speed. If just one of these elements is not up to par, this could prove detrimental to your website, and could subsequently have severe repercussions on your number of visitors and sales.

Here’s what you need to consider when auditing each of these critical aspects of your WordPress site:

1. Security
The Internet is literally riddled with hackers; no website is 100 per cent protected from their reach and it is therefore imperative that your website is fully secure. When carrying out your audit, check whether there are any new security risks, such as the addition of new or upgraded plugins, for example. The Security Audit Log WordPress plugin is a brilliant tool for monitoring the security of your website.

2. Back-ups
Although WordPress allows you to back up all your data, technology can be temperamental at the best of times, so it’s never a good idea to rely fully on automatic back-ups. When conducting your site audit, try restoring your backed-up files to see whether you are missing any data. If all your files aren’t there, we suggest storing your data on another server just to be safe.

3. Content
Auditing content is particularly important in terms of checking your site’s quality and searchability. Not only should you check content for any glaring errors in copy or possible duplication, but you should also meticulously go through the tags and keywords used for your content. This way, you can verify whether your website is sufficiently optimised for search engines. The Content Audit WordPress plugin is also extremely useful for helping with content auditing, and will save you loads of time in this aspect of your audit.

4. Speed
The only way to build your online audience and keep your site visitors coming back is to ensure that your website is loading quickly – no page should take longer than 10 seconds to load. In fact, if your website loads too slowly, this could even affect your ranking on Google. If your site’s performance is poor, then it’s time to find the root of the problem – whether it’s a need to optimise your images or remove unnecessary plugins – and get it sorted as soon as possible.

If you’re feeling a little paranoid that your WordPress website will soon crash if you don’t audit it right away, don’t worry – at Point and Stare, we know exactly what it takes to optimise your WordPress site in terms of security, back-ups, content and speed. So contact us today to see how we can take the stress out of auditing your website.

 
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