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How to Contact WordPress Support (Complete Beginner’s Guide)

Have you ever run into a problem on your WordPress website and are unsure where to turn for help? Don’t worry, you’re not alone!

WordPress is a powerful platform, but even for beginners, things can sometimes go wrong. This is where you need someone to guide you or help you troubleshoot issues on your website.

WordPress doesn’t offer direct support to its users. But across our 16+ years of using the platform, we have discovered the best ways to get help for WordPress problems. These include support forums, online communities, hosting providers, and more.

In this guide, we will show you how to contact WordPress support.

Contact WordPress support

When Might You Need to Contact WordPress Support?

While WordPress is incredibly user-friendly and powers more than 43% of the websites on the internet, there can be times when you hit a roadblock and don’t know what to do next.

For example, you might need support when plugins clash with each other or with your theme, causing unexpected behavior on your website. This could lead to anything from broken layouts to malfunctioning forms.

If you are making changes to your theme’s code to personalize your website’s design, then you might run into WordPress errors or unintended visual effects. To fix this issue, you might need to contact a support team for help.

Alternatively, making updates to the core WordPress software can cause compatibility problems with your plugins or theme. This can lead to features malfunctioning or your website displaying incorrectly.

Similarly, if you suspect your website has been hacked or is vulnerable to security threats, then seeking help from a WordPress expert is super important.

Why Doesn’t WordPress Offer Support Services?

When you think of support, the first thing that comes to mind is probably talking to a customer support agent via live chat or email.

However, with WordPress, you don’t get a direct support option. There is no WordPress.org email support or an official WordPress phone number.

That’s because WordPress is 100% free and open-source software. This means that it’s free software developed by people all over the world. In short, they don’t have the resources needed to staff a dedicated support team.

Instead, WordPress.org relies on its community for assistance. They have a forum system where users can ask questions and get help from other users and experienced volunteers.

Note that there is a difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com. You will get customer support via live chat and email in the paid plans on WordPress.com. But when we speak about WordPress, we mean WordPress.org.

That said, there are different ways to contact WordPress support. You can click the links below to jump ahead to any section:

1. Get Free Support From WordPress Forums and Communities

The best part about using WordPress is that there are tons of free resources available to help you troubleshoot your issues or answer any queries.

To start, you can visit the WordPress.org forum, where you’ll find forums dedicated to specific WordPress features, plugins, and themes.

For example, you can view post questions about installing WordPress or fixing WordPress.

WordPress forum

Besides the official forum, there are other platforms as well where you can reach out for help and support.

For instance, you can join WPBeginner’s Facebook group, which has over 98,000 members. Simply post your questions in the group, and other WordPress enthusiasts and experts will respond to your query. Or you can search for existing conversations around the same topic to find solutions.

WPBeginner Facebook group

2. WordPress Documentation, Blogs, and Other Resources

Another way you can get WordPress support is through different WordPress documentation, tutorials, and guides on blogs or other free resources.

To start, you can view the documentation section on the WordPress.org website. There, you can find tutorials on how to get started and use WordPress.

You’ll also find technical guides and documentation on maintaining your website. These are good starting points for getting basic support and troubleshooting WordPress on your own without needing technical expertise.

WordPress documentation

Other than that, there are many WordPress blogs you can follow to get support. For instance, you can follow WPBeginner, as we are the largest free WordPress resource site for beginners.

Founded in 2009 by Syed Balkhi, our goal is to provide helpful tutorials on WordPress for small business owners, bloggers, and non-techy WordPress users.

You can follow our tutorials and guides to learn about WordPress and get support.

WPBeginner home page

Aside from written text, you can also watch videos on our YouTube channel to fix issues on your site or add a new feature. There are thousands of videos you can easily learn from.

Finally, we have a bunch of free video tutorials on our own website. Here, we cover everything from installing WordPress to troubleshooting issues and making money from your website.

3. Reach Out to WordPress Hosting and Plugin Support

While there are fantastic free resources available, sometimes you might need a more personalized approach. Luckily, there are plenty of free and paid support options offered by your web hosting service and theme and plugin developers.

For instance, many WordPress hosting companies offer basic support as part of their hosting plans. It’s best to check with your provider to see what kind of support they offer.

If we look at Bluehost, which is an official WordPress hosting partner, then they offer 24/7 live chat support and phone support, along with a detailed knowledge base for written documentation.

Bluehost support options

Similarly, some theme and plugin developers offer premium support for their products. These typically involve direct email access, ticket systems, or live chat with their support team.

Depending on your pricing plan, you will get standard support or priority support.

Here’s how All in One SEO (AIOSEO) offers support to their customers. You can open a support ticket to resolve technical issues or ask basic questions through a form.

AIOSEO support options

4. Hire a WordPress Maintenance & Support Agency

All of the options we have discussed so far can be super helpful if you run into the occasional problem. But if you are looking for around-the-clock technical support for WordPress, then it might be time to hire a maintenance and support agency.

Website maintenance services manage your WordPress site for you. This includes taking care of backups, updates, security, and website edits. If you’re just starting out, then they can install WordPress and design the website for you as well.

One of the best support agencies you can hire today is WPBeginner Pro Maintenance Services. We have over 16+ years of experience and have helped over 100,000 users, so your website is in safe hands.

WPBeginner Pro Maintenance Services

Our team of experts will handle everything needed to maintain your WordPress site or eCommerce store. This includes everything from making cloud backups to keeping core files, plugins, and themes updated and scanning your site for security threats.

Besides that, you get 24/7 support, so if you run into any trouble or encounter an issue, our team is always available to help.

Other than basic maintenance, there are other WPBeginner Pro Services you can also use. For instance, we can repair hacked sites, optimize your site for speed, design a fully custom website, and help out with search engine optimization (SEO) to boost organic traffic.

You can go through our complete list of the best WordPress support agencies for more options.

FAQs About WordPress Support

What is the WordPress phone number?

WordPress.org does not offer phone support to its users. Instead, you can use the free WordPress.org forums, ask for help from your hosting provider, or hire a WordPress support agency.

Does WordPress.org have email support?

WordPress.org doesn’t have email support, but you can often get email or ticketing support from plugin developers. There are also support options from hosting providers and WordPress maintenance agencies.

We hope this article helped you learn how to contact WordPress support. You may also want to see our guide on crucial WordPress maintenance tasks to perform regularly and the best live chat software for small businesses.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Contact WordPress Support (Complete Beginner’s Guide) first appeared on WPBeginner.

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GBase 8a Implementation Guide: Resource Assessment

1. Disk Storage Space Evaluation

The storage space requirements for a GBase cluster are calculated based on the data volume of the business system, the choice of compression algorithm, and the number of cluster replicas. The data volume of a business system usually includes the following aspects:

  • Historical data volume
  • Incremental data volume and the size of each increment
  • Data storage period and total data volume for the entire period
  • Data growth rate and reserved storage space

Example

Considering the above aspects, assume that the total data volume for the entire period of a certain business system is 30TB. The calculation method for the physical disk capacity of the GBase cluster is as follows:

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A Look Into Netflix System Architecture

Ever wondered how Netflix keeps you glued to your screen with uninterrupted streaming bliss? Netflix Architecture is responsible for the smooth streaming experience that attracts viewers worldwide behind the scenes. Netflix's system architecture emphasizes how important it is to determine how content is shaped in the future. Join us on a journey behind the scenes of Netflix’s streaming universe!

Netflix is a term that means entertainment, binge-watching, and cutting-edge streaming services. Netflix’s rapid ascent to popularity may be attributed to its vast content collection, worldwide presence, and resilient and inventive architecture.

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High Availability and Disaster Recovery (HADR) in SQL Server on AWS

High Availability and Disaster Recovery (HADR) play a vital role in maintaining the integrity of data, reducing downtime, and safeguarding against data loss in enterprise database systems. AWS offers a range of HADR options for SQL Server, which leverage the powerful capabilities of SQL Server along with the scalability and flexibility of AWS. In this article, we will guide you through the process of configuring HADR for SQL Server on AWS, providing practical code examples for setting up and recovering a SQL Server database.

1. Setting up SQL Server on AWS

Launch an EC2 Instance With SQL Server

  1. Initiate the deployment of an EC2 instance: Utilize the AWS Management Console to commence the deployment of an EC2 instance by selecting the suitable SQL Server AMI (Amazon Machine Image). Opt for the instance type that aligns with your specific performance criteria.
  2. Set up security groups: Guarantee that the security groups permit the essential inbound and outbound traffic to facilitate seamless SQL Server communication.
Shell
  
aws ec2 run-instances \

    --image-id ami-0abcdef1234567890 \

    --instance-type t3.large \

    --key-name MyKeyPair \

    --security-group-ids sg-0123456789abcdef0 \

    --subnet-id subnet-6e7f829e


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Integration Testing With Keycloak, Spring Security, Spring Boot, and Spock Framework

In today's security landscape, OAuth2 has become a standard for securing APIs, providing a more robust and flexible approach than basic authentication. My journey into this domain began with a critical solution architecture decision: migrating from basic authentication to OAuth2 client credentials for obtaining access tokens. While Spring Security offers strong support for both authentication methods, I encountered a significant challenge. I could not find a declarative approach that seamlessly integrated basic authentication and JWT authentication within the same application.

This gap in functionality motivated me to explore and develop a solution that not only meets the authentication requirements but also supports comprehensive integration testing. This article shares my findings and provides a detailed guide on setting up Keycloak, integrating it with Spring Security and Spring Boot, and utilizing the Spock Framework for repeatable integration tests. By the end of this article, you will clearly understand how to configure and test your authentication mechanisms effectively with Keycloak as an identity provider, ensuring a smooth transition to OAuth2 while maintaining the flexibility to support basic authentication where necessary.

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Handling “Element Is Not Clickable at Point” Exception in Selenium

In Selenium automation testing, locators help identify and interact with any element on the web page. For example, ID, Name, ClassName, XPath, CSS Selector, TagName, LinkText, and Partial LinkText are widely used to help you interact with the elements on the web page.

Identifying the elements may be an easy task, but your tests might fail due to the state of the WebElement (e.g., the element is not visible or the element is not clickable at point, etc.). In such cases, the tests might throw different Selenium exceptions such as NoSuchElementException, ElementNotVisibleException, etc. 

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Use AWS Generative AI CDK Constructs To Speed up App Development

In this blog, we will use the AWS Generative AI Constructs Library to deploy a complete RAG application composed of the following components:

  • Knowledge Bases for Amazon Bedrock: This is the foundation for the RAG solution.
  • OpenSearch Serverless collection: It supports the vector search collection type that provides similarity search capability.
  • An S3 bucket: This will act as the data source for the Knowledge Base.
  • AWS Lambda function (written in Python) along with an API Gateway that uses the RetrieveAndGenerate API to query the knowledge base and generate responses from the information it retrieves.

AWS Cloud

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Explainable AI: Seven Tools and Techniques for Model Interpretability

As AI models become increasingly complex, understanding how they make decisions is crucial. This is especially true in fields like healthcare, finance, and law, where transparency and accountability are paramount. Explainable AI (XAI) helps by making AI models more interpretable. This blog will introduce seven tools and techniques for model interpretability, providing software developers with practical ways to demystify AI.

1. LIME (Local Interpretable Model-Agnostic Explanations)

What Is LIME?

LIME is a popular tool for interpreting complex models. It works by approximating the model locally with an interpretable model, such as a linear regression or decision tree.

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Front-End Application Performance Monitoring (APM)

Introduction to Front-End APM Tools: Dynatrace vs. AppDynamics

Today enterprise web applications are easy to build using technologies like React, and Angular but performance management is crucial and is often ignored. There are various Application Performance Management (APM) tools at your disposal, but two tools that surpass the others in terms of flexibility of implementation, monitoring capability, dynamic error resolution, and ease of use are Dynatrace and AppDynamics.

In this post, we will delve deeper into front-end monitoring with two leading tools: Dynatrace and AppDynamics. Moreover, we will compare the pros and cons of each tool and highlight the implementation details in the front-end source code.

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Implementing Real-Time Credit Card Fraud Detection With Apache Flink on AWS

Credit card fraud is a significant concern for financial institutions, as it can lead to considerable monetary losses and damage customer trust. Real-time fraud detection systems are essential for identifying and preventing fraudulent transactions as they occur. Apache Flink is an open-source stream processing framework that excels at handling real-time data analytics. In this deep dive, we'll explore how to implement a real-time credit card fraud detection system using Apache Flink on AWS.

Apache Flink Overview

Apache Flink is a distributed stream processing engine designed for high-throughput, low-latency processing of real-time data streams. It provides robust stateful computations, exactly-once semantics, and a flexible windowing mechanism, making it an excellent choice for real-time analytics applications such as fraud detection.

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11 eCommerce Website Maintenance Tips – How to Maintain Your Store

Just like a well-maintained car runs smoother and lasts longer, a well-maintained eCommerce website delivers a better customer experience and helps your business thrive.

Let’s face it: keeping your online store running smoothly can sometimes feel difficult. But neglecting maintenance can lead to security vulnerabilities, frustrated customers, and ultimately lost sales.

At WPBeginner, we have over 16 years of experience helping users set up and run their online stores. We know what it takes to maintain your eCommerce site easily.

In this article, we will share our top eCommerce website maintenance tips to keep your customers happy and grow your business.

Maintain an eCommerce site

Why Should You Maintain an eCommerce Store?

Running an eCommerce store can be challenging. However, it’s worth investing time and effort in maintaining your website because it helps build trust with your customers, improves search engine visibility, and ultimately leads to more sales.

Here’s how prioritizing WordPress eCommerce maintenance benefits your online store:

  • Enhanced Security: Outdated software and plugins are prime targets for hackers. Regular updates and security audits can patch vulnerabilities and protect customer data.
  • Improved User Experience: A smooth-running website with accurate information, fast loading times, and a clear checkout process keeps visitors happy and coming back for more.
  • Better Search Engine Rankings: Search engines favor websites that are up-to-date and optimized for mobile devices. Consistent maintenance ensures your store ranks higher in search results, leading to increased organic traffic and potential sales.
  • Reduced Downtime and Costs: Regular backups and proactive maintenance lower the risk of website crashes and downtime. In turn, this saves you from lost sales and the hassle of troubleshooting unexpected issues.
  • Better Conversion Rates: A well-maintained website is a persuasive salesperson. By offering a secure, user-friendly experience, you’ll be able to convert more visitors into paying customers.

That said, let’s look at some eCommerce website maintenance tips. You can use the quick links below to jump between the different tips:

1. Keep WordPress, Themes, and Plugins Up to Date

When it comes to maintaining an eCommerce store, you should first regularly check for updates for WordPress, your theme, and any plugins you use.

These updates often include security patches, bug fixes, and performance improvements. If you have outdated WordPress core or plugins, then they are a prime target for hackers.

In WordPress, you can check for updates from the dashboard and update WordPress with a single click. Simply head to the Dashboard » Updates page and see if a new version is available for download.

WordPress updates

Similarly, you can also check for updates for your WordPress theme and plugins from this page.

Plus, WordPress offers an option to enable auto-updates for your plugins. This way, your important plugins are always updated as soon as a new version is released.

Enable automatic updates for WordPress plugins

For more details, please see our guide on how to update WordPress plugins.

2. Update Content in Your Online Store

Fresh, informative content is very important for attracting and engaging customers. Outdated product descriptions, inaccurate stock levels, and old blog posts create a negative impression and lead to a poor user experience.

Here’s how to keep your content game strong:

  • Regular Product Updates: Regularly review product descriptions, pricing, and stock availability. Update information as needed to ensure accuracy and avoid customer frustration.
  • Content Calendar: Create a content calendar to plan and schedule blog posts, product reviews, and other informative content. This helps you maintain a consistent flow of fresh content that keeps your audience engaged.
  • Seasonal Promotions: Update your website with seasonal promotions, new product launches, and upcoming sales events. This will keep your customers informed and encourage them to visit your store again.

For more ideas, you can see our guide on how to create an effective content plan in WordPress.

3. Back Up Your eCommerce Store Regularly

The next WordPress eCommerce maintenance tip is to create regular backups of your online store.

A backup is a copy of your site’s important files, folders, and databases. It includes plugins, products, themes, settings, core files, videos, and more.

Imagine a power outage or cyberattack erasing all your hard work on your online store. Nightmares aside, website backups are also super important for disaster recovery. You can easily restore your eCommerce store to its previous state if something goes wrong.

The easiest way of creating a backup is by using Duplicator. It is the best WordPress backup plugin that is easy and beginner-friendly to use. Plus, it allows you to schedule automatic backups and save your packages on cloud storage services.

How to create a backup package using Duplicator

Besides that, there are other manual methods for creating backups of your eCommerce site. For more details, please see our guide on how to back up your WordPress site.

4. Monitor Website Server Uptime

Imagine a potential customer arriving at your WooCommerce store only for it to be down and inaccessible. Servers used by poor-quality hosting services can go down frequently and may stay down for several minutes or hours.

Downtime due to server issues can cost you sales and damage your reputation. It can also have a negative impact on your search engine rankings.

There are different ways to monitor server uptime in WordPress. For instance, you can hire support agencies like WPBeginner Pro Maintenance Services to monitor uptime around the clock.

Alternatively, you can also use tools like UptimeRobot. It will check your online store every 5 minutes and notify you if it’s down via email, SMS, voice calls, and other alerts.

Uptime Robot Dashboard Stats

You can learn more in our guide on how to monitor your WordPress website server uptime.

5. Choose the Fastest Hosting Solution With No Downtime

Many hosting services promise 99.9% uptime, but that’s often not true.

Your hosting provider is the foundation of your eCommerce website. They are responsible for storing your website’s data and making it accessible to visitors.

That’s why picking a reliable hosting provider is so important. They will ensure your website loads quickly and remains accessible during peak traffic times. Slow loading times can significantly hurt your conversion rates, so you will want to pick a provider with a strong uptime record and fast server speeds.

To find the fastest WordPress hosting providers, we actually signed up with each provider and thoroughly tested different hosting services. From our tests, we found that Hostinger was the quickest.

Here are the results from the Pingdom speed test for Hostinger:

Pingdom speed test result for Hostinger

You can go through our complete list of the fastest WordPress hosting services for more information.

6. Optimize Your Online Store Speed

Did you know that a 1-second delay in page load time can lead to a 7% loss in conversions and a 16% decrease in customer satisfaction?

Website speed is highly important for user experience. Slow loading times can frustrate potential customers and lead to abandoned carts. Plus, they will also hurt your search engine rankings as Google considers page load speed as a ranking factor.

To check your store’s performance, you can perform a speed test using tools like the IsItWP free website speed test tool, Pingdom, or GTmetrix.

There are several ways you can ensure your eCommerce store is loading quickly. Here are some ways to keep your store running smoothly:

  • Image Optimization: Optimize product images and other media to reduce file sizes without sacrificing quality. This significantly improves loading times.
  • Caching: Use a caching plugin to store frequently accessed data and reduce the load on your server. This speeds up page load times for returning visitors.
  • Content Delivery Network (CDNs): Consider using a CDN to deliver static content, like images and JavaScript files, from servers all over the world. This reduces load times for visitors in different locations.

To learn more tips, please see our guide on how to speed up WooCommerce performance.

Pro Tip: Need professional help optimizing your eCommerce store for speed and performance? With our WPBeginner Site Speed Optimization Service, our team of experts can overhaul your website for speed and boost organic traffic.

Next, you should check for broken links on your eCommerce store. A broken link is one that’s no longer working, and it happens because the web page is deleted or moved to another location.

As a result, you’ll see a 404 page not found error when trying to access the broken link.

An example of a 404 page

Broken links frustrate customers and harm your SEO. Regularly checking and fixing broken links is vital for a positive user experience.

There are several ways to find and fix broken links on your online store. The easiest and quickest way is by using the Broken Link Checker plugin by AIOSEO.

It is a free plugin that scans up to 200 internal links and helps you redirect them to the right destination. You can view all the 404 error links from your WordPress dashboard and fix them by entering the correct URL or simply unlink them from your website.

Find broken links and edit URLs with Broken Link Checker by AIOSEO

Other than that, you can also use SEO tools and perform a complete SEO audit of your site to view the link profile. Or use Google Search Console to find broken links on your site.

For more details, please follow our guide on how to find and fix broken links in WordPress.

8. Optimize Your eCommerce Site’s Database

Your eCommerce website’s database stores critical information like product details, customer data, and order history. A database organizes all the data and fetches information that users request on your site.

As your online store grows, you will want to do regular database management for optimal performance and security. You can start by removing unnecessary data and improving query speeds, keeping your database running efficiently.

In addition to regular website backups, consider backing up your database separately. This provides an extra layer of protection in case of data corruption or security breaches.

Lastly, ensure your database software is up-to-date with the latest security patches to minimize vulnerabilities.

You may want to see our beginner’s guide to WordPress database management with phpMyAdmin for more details.

9. Ensure You Have Strong Website Security

Your eCommerce website handles sensitive customer data, making it a prime target for cyberattacks. That’s why strong website security is essential to protecting your customers’ information and maintaining their trust.

To start, the first thing you can do is use strong passwords and enable 2-factor authentication. Passwords are your first line of defense against hackers trying to access your site and steal valuable information.

Change all your passwords regularly

You can also enforce strong password policies for both customer accounts and your own administrative access. This helps prevent unauthorized access to your store.

We also recommend installing a valid SSL certificate to encrypt communication between your website and users’ browsers. This ensures secure data transmission and protects customer information.

You should also invest in a WordPress security plugin and web application firewall (WAF). The security plugin will monitor your site for malware, failed login attempts, and other threats. On the other hand, a WAF will block malicious traffic from reaching your site.

For more tips, you can see our ultimate WordPress security guide.

10. Troubleshoot eCommerce Store Maintenance Tasks

Even with the best maintenance practices, errors can happen. Having a troubleshooting plan in place helps you identify and resolve issues quickly.

For example, checking for broken links or optimizing images on a live site could slow down the speed. One way to deal with this is to perform the maintenance tasks on a staging site and push the changes live when ready.

Alternatively, you could put your online store in maintenance mode for a temporary period while you perform all the troubleshooting tasks. Once they’re done, simply disable the maintenance mode.

An example maintenance mode, created using SeedProd

Besides that, you can also follow these tips to troubleshoot maintenance tasks on your online store:

  • Error Logs: Monitor your website’s error logs to identify any recurring errors or issues. This helps pinpoint the source of the problem and find solutions.
  • Testing: Regularly test functionalities like checkout processes, user account features, and payment gateways to ensure they work seamlessly. This proactive approach can prevent customer frustration caused by unexpected errors.
  • Support Resources: Familiarize yourself with your eCommerce platform’s support resources or have a reliable WordPress developer on hand for assistance with complex troubleshooting.

11. Hire a WordPress Support Agency

As your eCommerce store grows, it can be challenging to keep up with all its maintenance tasks. This is where a WordPress support agency can help.

These are experts who can update WordPress, plugins, and themes, fix bugs and issues, and optimize your online store for performance.

Besides that, some agencies also offer core maintenance tasks like backups, security updates, plugin troubleshooting, theme customization, and on-demand support. 

For instance, WPBeginner Pro Maintenance Services is the best WordPress maintenance agency for WordPress businesses. We have 16+ years of experience and have helped over 100,000 users improve their online stores and WordPress websites.

WPBeginner Pro Maintenance Services

Our professional team can keep your site updated, scan for security threats, run cloud backups, and provide 24/7 support for your peace of mind.

You can also choose from other Pro services. These include repairing hacked websites, SEO optimization to boost search traffic, speed optimization to improve page load time, and custom website design.

For more details, you can see our complete list of WPBeginner Pro Services.

We hope this article helped you learn some eCommerce website maintenance tips to maintain your online store. You may also want to see the crucial WordPress maintenance tasks to perform regularly and our expert pick of the best website maintenance services for WordPress.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 11 eCommerce Website Maintenance Tips – How to Maintain Your Store first appeared on WPBeginner.