What is WordPress hosting and maintenance?

WordPress is a powerful content management system used to build and manage websites. Here at Studio Kick, it’s our platform of choice for creating top-notch sites. You can find out more about how WordPress works and why it’s effective here: ‘What’s so wonderful about WordPress, anyway?’.

WordPress allows us to create sites that offer the very best user experience, but they do require regular upkeep to make sure they work as they should – and, crucially, to keep them safe from vulnerabilities and bugs.

Website hosting involves providing a secure online storage location for a website – somewhere for the files, images, code and content to ‘live’, where it can be viewed and interacted with by visitors.

For example, at Studio Kick we host all of our clients’ website files on a server close to the location(s) where they will be accessed by potential customers (we use servers in the United Kingdom, USA, Singapore and Australia). This means the sites we host are accessible across the web at blazing speeds and with top-class reliability. 

A WordPress website also needs a domain name to be discoverable by visitors. A domain name is the address (www.yoursite.com) that someone types into a web browser (Chrome/Safari etc) to access a website. We often help clients to register a new domain name if they need one, or link their existing domain to a site we’ve built for them.

Our clients keep control over their domain name, and we explain how to point that domain name to our servers to make their site publicly available. This probably sounds confusing, but it’s actually quite a quick and easy process. We’re always happy to jump on a call and guide our new hosting clients through it. Get in touch with us here.

Maintaining a WordPress website involves keeping it up-to-date, secure and running smoothly. 

The table below shows some of the key tasks that we perform on a regular basis for our hosting clients, along with a brief explanation of their purpose:

• Updating plugins: Plugins add functionality to WordPress sites, but need to be kept up-to-date to minimise the risk of security vulnerabilities. Once plugins are updated, the site must be tested to ensure it’s functioning as it should be.
• Theme updates: A theme forms the skeleton of a website’s look and feel and underpins the base functionality. It needs to be kept up-to-date to minimise the risk of security vulnerabilities. Once plugins are updated, the site must be tested to check that it’s working correctly.
• WordPress version updates: WordPress releases new versions constantly to keep on top of security patches, add functionality and remove bugs. All WordPress sites should be updated when new versions are released. They should then be tested to check performance and to resolve any conflicts with themes and plugins.
• Security scan & tweaks: WordPress websites should undergo a daily security scan to ensure that everything is safe and free of vulnerabilities.
• Performance scans & tweaks: To keep them running as quickly and reliably as possible, WordPress sites should also be proactively scanned for performance optimization opportunities daily. This includes the serving of images and content, the loading of files, caching and more.
• Full site backups: Daily backups of a WordPress website should be stored so that there are recent versions to revert back to if required.
• Content updates: To ensure a WordPress website stays on-brand and adapts to accurately reflect an evolving business, minor content tweaks/updates are required on an ongoing basis to content, headings, images etc.
• Website optimisation: At Studio Kick, we offer a range of services to boost website traffic and increase sales/leads. These include digital ad campaigns, search engine marketing (SEM), content marketing, AI integration, heatmapping, user experience (UX) analysis and more.

Undertaking all of this digital housekeeping outlined above can be something of a headache for companies without an in-house IT function, because elements of effective WordPress site management require a certain level of technical knowledge and expertise. 

It doesn’t usually make sense for small/medium business owners or their employees to invest valuable time and energy into developing these skills when they could be focusing on core priorities instead (like hitting targets and scaling up, for instance – after all, your empire isn’t going to build itself!)

That’s why we’ve developed a range of hosting and maintenance packages tailor-made for organisations with sites built on WordPress. If you’re looking for someone to take the hassle out of WordPress website hosting and maintenance, we can help. We have 10+ years experience with WordPress hosting, and we’ve helped companies across a wide range of sectors and sizes to flourish. 

Head over to our WordPress managed hosting packages page to get a better idea of which option might suit your needs. Or if you’d like a bit of advice and help deciding, get in touch with us now.