WordPress for business owners

A practical guide for business owners and marketers who run their own WordPress site, and need to know what not to touch.

What you should be able to do yourself

Safe for an editor to own

• Publish and structure content, including headings and internal links
• Manage menus, categories and tags within the agreed model
• Update plugins and themes on a tested schedule
• Read basic analytics and form submissions
• Take and verify a backup

What to leave alone

Anything that changes URL structure, the plugin set beyond updates, user roles, or the theme's template files. Each of those has consequences reaching further than they appear to, and each is cheap to do correctly by someone who knows why it matters.

The three things that break business sites

Changing URLs

Renaming a page or a category silently breaks every link to it, including links from other sites that took years to earn. Redirect first, always.

Unmanaged plugin changes

Adding a plugin to solve one problem and leaving it enabled after the problem is solved. Every active plugin is a maintenance obligation and an attack surface.

No tested backup

A backup that has never been restored is an assumption. Restore to a staging copy once a quarter, and you will find out whether it works on a day of your choosing rather than a day of the host's.

Where to go next

See securing WordPress for the maintenance routine, and WordPress data for what your site is already telling you.