Essential Care
The basics every WordPress site needs, handled every month.
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- Monthly core, theme and plugin updates with a backup first
- Weekly offsite backups
- Uptime monitoring
- Monthly malware scan
WordPress maintenance and security is the routine work that keeps your website running: updating software, keeping backups, watching for downtime, and responding quickly when something goes wrong. It is not glamorous, but a site that is maintained is far easier and cheaper to keep healthy than one that is fixed only after it breaks.
Infinite Marketing provides website maintenance for WordPress sites across the Atlanta metro, including sites we built and sites built by others. We also help businesses whose sites have already been hacked, filled with spam, or taken offline.
Why WordPress sites need ongoing care
WordPress itself, your theme, and each plugin receive regular updates. Many fix bugs; some close security holes that attackers actively look for. When updates are skipped for months, a site becomes harder to update safely and more exposed to automated attacks that scan the web for known weaknesses.
Most problems we see are preventable:
- Plugins that have not been updated in a long time, or that are no longer maintained by their developers.
- No recent backup, or a backup stored only on the same server as the site.
- Old administrator accounts with weak passwords belonging to people who left years ago.
- Nobody notices the site is down until a customer mentions it.
- Updates applied directly to the live site, which then breaks the layout or a contact form.
Regular website maintenance keeps each round of updates small, so when something does go wrong it is easier to trace back to the change that caused it.
What’s included in WordPress maintenance and security
Tested updates
Core, theme, and plugin updates applied on a regular schedule, with a backup taken first and key pages and forms checked afterward. Larger updates can be tested on a staging copy before reaching the live site.
Offsite backups
Automatic backups of files and the database, stored separately from your hosting, with restores tested so we know they work when needed.
Uptime monitoring
Your site is checked around the clock, and we are alerted when it goes down so we can investigate with your host instead of waiting for a customer to notice.
Security hardening
Strong authentication, removal of unused accounts and plugins, limited login attempts, correct file permissions, and a firewall or security plugin where appropriate.
Malware scanning
Regular scans for malicious code, unexpected file changes, and injected spam, with alerts when something suspicious appears.
Monthly summary
A short report of updates applied, backups completed, uptime, and anything we found or fixed, in plain language.
If your site has been hacked
Signs of a compromised site include unexpected redirects to other websites, strange pages appearing in Google search results, warnings from your browser or Google Search Console, emails from your host about suspicious activity, or new administrator accounts you did not create. One common pattern is spam pages in another language, or pages for products you do not sell, showing up when people search for your business name.
When this happens, we follow a calm, step-by-step process:
- Contain. Change passwords, remove unknown accounts, and limit further damage, coordinating with your host if needed.
- Clean. Remove malicious code, injected content, and backdoors, or restore a known clean backup when one exists.
- Close the entry point. Identify and fix how attackers got in, such as an outdated plugin or a weak password, so it does not happen again.
- Clean up search results. Use Google Search Console to request review of security warnings and to address spam URLs that were indexed, returning the right status codes so they drop out over time.
- Harden and monitor. Put maintenance and monitoring in place so you are not caught off guard again.
Google decides when warnings are lifted and how quickly spam URLs leave its index. We handle the cleanup and the requests, but we cannot control Google’s timeline.
How website maintenance works
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Site review
We review your WordPress version, theme, plugins, hosting, user accounts, and current backups, and identify immediate risks.
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Stabilize
We take a full backup, apply overdue updates carefully, remove what is unused, and set up monitoring.
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Routine maintenance
We handle updates, backups, scans, and uptime checks on an agreed schedule.
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Respond and report
When something breaks or looks suspicious, we investigate and fix it, then summarize what happened in your monthly report.
What we need to get started
The site review goes faster, and nothing is missed, when you can share a few details up front. If some of these are lost, we can usually help you recover them with your host.
- An administrator login for WordPress, or permission to create one
- Access to your hosting account and domain registrar
- A list of any premium themes or plugins you pay for, with their license details
- Who should be contacted when something breaks, and how
- Any problems you have noticed recently, such as slow pages, odd emails or forms that stopped sending
Why work with Infinite Marketing
We build WordPress, Elementor, and WooCommerce sites, so we understand how updates affect themes, page builders, and checkouts. That helps us spot a risky update before it takes down a contact form or a store. We keep our advice practical and avoid scare tactics: most sites need consistent care, not expensive emergency work.
Because we also handle SEO, we pay attention to the search side of problems, such as spam pages in Google results, broken redirects, and slow pages, which pure hosting support often overlooks.
Frequently asked questions
Does my hosting company already handle this?
Some hosts provide server-level backups and security, and some apply WordPress core updates. Most do not test theme and plugin updates or check that your site works afterward. We review what your host covers and fill the gaps.
Can’t I just turn on automatic updates?
Automatic updates help, especially for minor security releases. The risk is that an update breaks part of the site without anyone noticing. We combine updates with backups and post-update checks.
Can you maintain a site you did not build?
Yes. We start with a review so we understand how it was built and whether anything needs attention before routine maintenance begins. The review also shows whether website maintenance alone is enough or whether a few fixes are needed first.
My site was hacked. Do I need a new website?
Usually not. Most hacked WordPress sites can be cleaned and secured. A rebuild makes sense only when a site is badly outdated or the damage is extensive, and we will explain the tradeoffs.
How often are backups taken?
It depends on how often your site changes. A brochure site may need less frequent backups than a store taking orders every day. We set a schedule that matches your site.