Building and launching a WooCommerce website is just the beginning of your online business journey. As important as developing a WooCommerce store is, its maintenance plays a crucial role. Numerous tasks must be completed to maintain a WooCommerce website. This is why most e-commerce entrepreneurs hire WooCommerce developers or agencies to manage their stores.
If you’re also looking to create and maintain your WooCommerce website, this blog post will help you. Here, I have outlined a few key items that your developer or agency should provide as part of their WooCommerce maintenance services.
Let’s begin!
#1 WordPress & WooCommerce Core Updates
First things first. It’s crucial to regularly update the WordPress & WooCommerce core to their latest versions. Failing to update them may result in several consequences, such as slowing down the website, unexpected behavior of one or more site features, and a compromise in the website’s security.
It is therefore crucial that your WooCommerce developer updates the core versions of your website’s WordPress and WooCommerce to their latest versions.
#2 Plugins & Theme Update
Upgrading the WooCommerce plugin alone is not sufficient. An average WooCommerce site typically utilizes a dozen or more additional supporting plugins to deliver a seamless user experience. Upgrading those plugins regularly is yet another essential activity that your web developer should provide as part of their maintenance services.
#3 Website Security Monitoring
For an e-commerce website, security is of utmost importance. It’s because you expect your users to pay online for their orders and share their confidential information, such as personal details, billing details, and shipping details.
Website security adherence may include, but not be limited to:
- Real-time malware scanning
- Firewall setup
- User access control
Some professional WooCommerce builders in Singapore may also use plugins like Wordfence and All in One WP Security to enhance the security level of your online shop.
#4 Regular Backups
A WooCommerce maintenance package is incomplete without the “Regular backups” clause. No matter how prompt the support of your developer is or how experienced they are, backing up the latest functional version of the website is crucial. Having the latest version of website backup allows your web developer to restore the website in case of an unforeseen emergency.
#5 Performance Optimization
If your website loads slowly, it will kill your conversions and revenue. For an e-commerce store, its loading speed is as crucial as its existence. There are many things that a WordPress developer can do to optimize the performance of your online store. Below are some of those activities:
- Image compression
- Cache optimization (using plugins like WP Rocket)
- Code minification (CSS, JS)
- Database cleanup
An excellent website is not the one that only looks beautiful, but it must also perform well and deliver the best possible user experience. Optimization of website performance should be a mandatory item in your WooCommerce maintenance plan.
#5 Uptime Monitoring
Can you expect your users to buy from your website the next time they see it’s down? Of course, not. It’s not that difficult to build a website these days, but it’s very challenging to build its reputation. Once an online reputation is damaged, it is challenging to recover.
Therefore, your web developer must ensure that your website is always up and running. Below are some of the activities that your developer must provide you with:
- Installation of 24/7 monitoring tools
- Immediate alerts for downtime
- Fast issue resolution
#6 Fixing Broken Links
Broken links are the links that lead users to nowhere when clicked. Broken links can affect your website and online business in 2 ways:
- Broken links affect the user experience badly because when users see a ‘404 not found’ error, they are less confident to buy from you.
- Non-working links can also affect the organic rankings (search engine optimization) of your website.
Therefore, broken links shouldn’t be taken lightly and must be addressed as soon as they are noticed. Here comes a WooCommerce maintenance package to your rescue.
#7 Checkout/Payment Gateway Testing
The checkout section and the payment gateway are the backbone of any WooCommerce store. If these sections don’t work well, you may miss out on your sales.
Unfortunately, your WooCommerce store can experience issues with the checkout and payment gateway process for various reasons, such as plugin conflicts or outdated plugins.
Your WooCommerce maintenance provider should include the following essential activities in their package:
- Regular checkout testing
- Payment gateway (Stripe, Razorpay, PayPal) monitoring
- Coupon and discount code checks
- Testing out the shipping and billing forms.
- Updating and deleting functionality for cart items.
#8 Excellent Support
Last but not least, a professional WooCommerce builder or agency must provide their clients with prompt support. While hiring a WooCommerce developer for your WooCommerce site’s maintenance, make sure that they provide:
- Dedicated support hours per month
- Priority support for emergencies
- Resolving your queries as and when you have them.