By Cristian Daron
A WordPress site takes weeks to build and years to look after. I have handled and maintained more than 50 of them, from charities and churches to WooCommerce stores, manufacturers and professional firms. The work after launch is less visible than the build, so here is what it is made of.
Updates, on a cadence that fits the site
Core, theme and plugin updates are the centre of it. The cadence depends on the site: some are updated every two weeks, some monthly, and some only when the owner asks. A busy WooCommerce store and a quiet brochure site do not need the same rhythm, and treating them the same either wastes the client's money or leaves gaps.
Backups you can restore from
A backup only counts if it can be restored. Backups are what make an update safe to run: if something goes wrong, the site can be rolled back rather than rebuilt.
Hardening and a firewall
Some protection is set once and left in place: hardening the WordPress editor so files cannot be changed from the admin, and putting a firewall in front of the site. Some sites only need the firewall; others get the full plan. When a site is compromised, the job is to clean it, close the hole, and harden it so it does not happen again.
Speed
Performance is part of maintenance rather than a one-off project: caching, image optimisation, and watching page speed as content and plugins change over the years.
Who needs one
If your site is how people find you, whether you are a charity, a care home group or a stockist, someone has to own the unglamorous parts. That is what a care plan is: the updates, backups and security that keep a site running long after anyone remembers launching it.