Spring Clean Your WordPress Website

by Vipe Team in WordPress Development; Published on 11.05.2021 Last updated on 11.06.2021

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Your WordPress website is your online house. And as your real-life house, it needs one big clean-up and maintenance from time to time in order to get rid of the clutter that accumulates due to everyday use. But, like housework, if you let the mess build-up for a while, those everyday chores can quickly become a difficult task.

If you have noticed a decline in site performance and speed over time, this may be a sign that it is time to make your WordPress Spring Cleaning. And the best part is – this time, you are not doing it alone. Vipe Studio will help you tighten your WordPress website and get it in that summer shape you have always wished for. Let’s see how can we achieve that:

Audit Your Plugins

Plugins are known to be one of the most popular security bridges due to a Wordfence survey in 2016. That is the reason why updating your plugins can be crucial for the security of your WordPress website.

However, maintaining updated plugins will not be enough to eliminate the risk of getting hacked, especially if they are no longer updated by their developer. Therefore, it is important to check your plugins regularly and delete any that are not used or are abandoned by the developers. Thе lеss plugins yоu hаve, thе lеss vulnerаbilities thеy cаn crеate.

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Plugins that are not active can make access to your WordPress platform easier and inject malware. Actually, the inactive plugins are not updated anymore, and that is what makes them the weak link in your well-oiled WordPress machine.

Remove Unused Tags

Many WordPress websites use tags to organize their newest posts in different categories. However, you may find out that many of your tags are not being used anymore. Deleting the ones you do not require can be a quick way to sort your things out and eliminate unwanted clutter.

The good news is that this functionality is already built into WordPress. That means you do not need to install additional plugins to perform this action. All you need to do is log in to the account of your WordPress website, go to Posts > Tags and sort thеm by thе numbеr of pоsts thеy’re аttached tо.

If over time you have removed many of your posts, and now some of your tags are useless, select all the tags that are nоt attachеd to аny pоsts and deletе thеm.

Remove Spam Comments

Spam is one of the worst enemies of your WordPress website. Spam comments grow fast, which can overwhelm your database. However, you can always add a spam filter to your platform to avoid all the spam comments you are getting. You can use WP Cerber to do so and move all the spam comments in a particular folder that will make them invisible for your users.

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But do not forget one important thing over here. You have to regularly check your spam folder in case some legitimate comments got there by mistake. When you check your spam folder and everything looks fine, you can delete those comments once and for all by emptying this folder.

Clean Up Old Content

Unfortunately, despite all the plugins that make working with WordPress easy and pleasant, some tasks still have to be done manually. Cleaning up your old content is one of them. And while this can be time-consuming and a little bit tedious, we can assure you it will have a large impact on your website.

You should check for outdated posts, or no longer accurate, and remove any low-quality or SEO-incompetent content. Over time, it happens to build content that repeats itself. That is especially true for WordPress websites that are focused on a specific topic. You can remove the duplicate posts by saving only the best examples.

It is also crucial to check and update the main WordPress website information regularly, like the About Us, Staff, or Contact pages.

Clean Up Your Database

Like every element of the WordPress website, your database also collects redundant information from time to time. A lot of it may be even not mandatory for your platform to run. There is one way of cleaning up your database, and this is manual. It does not require a lot of special knowledge or great skills to do so, but there is a risk of removing some important information, along with the unnecessary one.

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If you do not feel sure about cleaning your database alone, you can always turn to our professionals at our WordPress agency for development. We will be glad to help you with this or any other question that arises during your WordPress journey.

Conclusion

Like most things in life, if you do not check your WordPress website regularly, it can become cluttered and confusing. Over time, this can have a detrimental effect on both the productivity and the user experience of your WordPress. There may be consequences on the database, which in turn can slow down the overall performance of the website.

However, by sticking to a regular cleaning schedule, your website will remain fast and prevents many of the above-mentioned unpleasant situations. Make sure your content is both relevant and reliable. That will allow you to maximize conversions and build a reliable image of your brand.

In other words: Get ready for a relaxing hot summer by taking care of your WordPress website in the spring.