With all the tasks involved in running a business, time flies and before you know it you haven't been as diligent as you need to be. You only have so much time in the day and have to set priorities.
Many times causing website testing and tuning to fall by the wayside.
Testing and Tuning?
I'm not just talking about updates. You know you need to update when WordPress and plugins update. That's a given and a part of having a website that uses WordPress. Updates are always a performance and security issue that can't be ignored.
What I'm referring to today is testing and tuning your performance and functionality. In a perfect world everything would always “just work”. But that would require that everything remain static and not change. If you have a WordPress site you know the only thing that is consistent is change!
Just Two Steps
Mark you calendar to run through these two tasks at least every quarter. Once a month is even better to be sure that you don't miss something being inactive or buggy for months at a time.
- Review each plugin functionality and make sure it is operating properly. Fill out your forms, place test orders, check any plugin specific widgets and third party connections or embeds. Test the functionality of every plugin to make sure all is working as you require. Review all plugins to make sure they have been tested with the latest version of WordPress. Even though plugins can still operate properly without being tested to the latest and greatest those that don't could eventually cause a conflict. Make note of those plugins falling behind and if they don't keep up — find a new plugins to use!
- Run a performance test to determine if any recent changes or additions to your site have slowed things down. Speed is now a ranking factor with studies reflecting user expectations of a site load time to be under 2 seconds. Run some tests and then address the issues noted as being of concern. Here are several sites you can use to test your site's performance:
Mark Your Calendar!
The last thing you want to discover is that something isn't, or worse, hasn't been operating on your site for some time due to an upgrade created conflict or bug. By making time on your calendar to walk through the above and address any issues is part and parcel of keeping your website humming along!
At your service,
