Staying Sane While Maintaining Hundreds of WordPress Sites

Created by Austin Ginder / @austinginder

Lesson 1

Focus on your strengths, find people to fill in your weaknesses

Shared Dedicated Managed

Lesson 2

Solve problems before they become problems

Run WordPress updates (Core, Theme and Plugins)
Keep Daily Backups
Don’t modify other people’s plugin or theme code directly

Lesson 3

Commit to regular updates

Create a schedule to run your updates and stick to it
Use tools like ManageWP

Lesson 4

Make sure your web server is managed

Separate linux user accounts rather than common or root account per WordPress installation
Keep server up to date and patched or have someone handle for you, Like a managed WordPress hosting provider

Lesson 5

Separate WordPress installations for separate customers

Are all of the websites for the same client?
Are all of the websites using the same theme or set of themes?

Lesson 6

Save time by building tools

"Don’t wait until you get overwhelmed to start looking into automation."

- Sean McCabe

Batch SSL Checker

Link: https://anchor.host/2017/02/14/batch-ssl-checker/

Injecting a custom mu-plugin for FTP deployments

Link: https://anchor.host/2016/09/27/injecting-a-custom-mu-plugin-for-ftp-deployments-on-wp-engine/

Lesson 7

Sometimes things break

Use a Staging site to Solve Problems

Link: https://anchor.host/2017/02/21/use-a-staging-site-to-solve-problems/

Summary

Be Proactive

https://anchor.host/blog/ - Weekly Posts

Austin Ginder / @austinginder

Staying Sane While Maintaining Hundreds of WordPress Sites Created by Austin Ginder / @austinginder