In Brief
Slow loading times (over 3 seconds) indicate your site needs attention
Outdated plugins, themes, and WordPress core create security vulnerabilities and can cause your site to break
Error messages, broken links, and features that stop working are clear signs something needs fixing
Unexpected drops in search rankings often point to technical issues affecting user experience
Unusual activity like unknown admin accounts or Google security warnings suggest your site may have been compromised
Most days, your WordPress site ticks along nicely. You log in, add some content, and get on with running your business.
But while you’re focused elsewhere, small problems can quietly build up.
A plugin that hasn’t been updated in months. A database filling with unnecessary data. A security hole waiting to be discovered.
These issues rarely announce themselves with flashing warnings. Instead, your site gradually slows down while visitors slip away.
Search rankings drop. By the time you notice something is wrong, what could have been a quick fix has become an expensive repair job.
This article covers five warning signs that tell you your WordPress site needs maintenance. You’ll learn what to look for, why each sign matters, and what you can do about it.
Table of Contents
Your Site Has Become Noticeably Slower
If your website takes more than three seconds to load, you have a problem.
Studies show that 40% of visitors abandon sites that take longer than three seconds, and for a small business, every second of delay costs you potential customers.
Slow loading often creeps up on you. Your site was quick when you launched it, but over time things have changed.
You’ve added more images, installed extra plugins, and your database has grown with spam comments, post revisions, and old data. Before you know it, what was once a snappy site now feels sluggish.
How to Check Your Site Speed
You don’t need technical skills to test your site speed. Google PageSpeed Insights is free and gives you a score out of 100 plus specific recommendations for improvement.
Simply enter your website address and wait for the results.
Pay attention to your mobile score in particular. Most people now browse on their phones, and mobile performance often lags behind desktop.
If your score is below 50, your site needs work.
Common causes of slow WordPress sites include:
- Large images that haven’t been compressed
- Too many plugins running at once
- A bloated database full of old data
- Budget shared hosting struggling under the load
- An outdated PHP version on your server
Speed problems won’t fix themselves. If your site feels slower than it used to, that’s your cue to investigate.
You Have Outdated Plugins, Themes, or WordPress Core
Log into your WordPress dashboard and look for that red notification bubble. If you see numbers next to Plugins or Updates, your site is running outdated software.
This might seem like a minor issue since your site still works.
But outdated software is one of the biggest security risks for WordPress sites. When developers release updates, they often patch security holes. If you don’t apply those updates, you’re leaving your front door unlocked.
The Risks of Running Outdated Software
Security vulnerabilities in outdated plugins are how most WordPress sites get hacked.
Attackers actively scan for sites running old software because they know these sites are easy targets. Once they find a vulnerability, they can inject malware, steal customer data, or redirect your visitors to dodgy websites.
Beyond security, outdated plugins cause compatibility problems.
WordPress releases major updates regularly, and when plugins aren’t updated to match, features break. Contact forms stop sending emails. Page layouts shift unexpectedly. Functions you rely on suddenly disappear.
To check your update status, go to Dashboard > Updates in your WordPress admin.
You’ll see everything that needs attention. Before updating, always take a backup of your site first. This gives you a safety net if something goes wrong.
If you haven’t updated anything in over a month, make this your priority. Regular updates are the foundation of WordPress maintenance.
How to Update WordPress Plugins Safely (Without Breaking Your Website)
You’re Seeing Error Messages or Broken Features
WordPress normally works quietly in the background. When you start seeing error messages, white screens, or features that don’t work, something has gone wrong.
These problems often appear suddenly.
One day everything is fine. The next, your contact form submissions disappear without trace, or visitors report seeing a blank white page instead of your content.
Common WordPress Error Signs
Several warning signs suggest your site needs immediate attention:
404 errors on pages that exist – If visitors see “Page Not Found” on URLs that should work, your permalinks may need refreshing or you have broken internal links.
White screen of death – A completely blank page usually means a PHP error or plugin conflict has crashed your site. This needs urgent investigation.
Contact form failures – When enquiry forms stop sending emails, you’re losing business. This often happens after plugin updates or when your hosting configuration changes.
PHP warnings in your content – Text like “Warning: Undefined variable” appearing on your pages indicates code problems, often from outdated themes or plugins.
Slow or failing checkout – For online shops, any friction in the buying process costs sales. Slow payment pages or error messages at checkout are serious problems that need fixing straight away.
Don’t ignore these signs hoping they’ll sort themselves out. Each error message is your site telling you something needs attention.
Your Search Rankings Have Dropped Unexpectedly
If your website used to appear on page one of Google but has slipped down the results, technical problems may be to blame. Search engines pay close attention to how well your site loads and performs.
Google’s Core Web Vitals measure real user experience on your site. They assess how quickly your content loads, how soon visitors can interact with the page, and whether elements jump around as the page renders.
Sites that score poorly on these metrics often see their rankings suffer.
Why Search Performance Matters
Search engines want to send people to sites that provide a good experience. If your WordPress site is slow, displays errors, or frustrates users, Google responds by showing other sites above yours.
A sudden ranking drop can have several technical causes:
- Your site speed has decreased significantly
- Google has detected security issues
- Mobile experience has degraded
- Broken pages are causing crawl errors
- Your SSL certificate has expired
Check Google Search Console if you have it set up.
This free tool from Google shows you any issues it has found with your site. Look for crawl errors, security warnings, and Core Web Vitals problems.
If your rankings have dropped and you haven’t changed your content strategy, the answer usually lies in technical issues that need addressing.
You Notice Unexpected Activity or Security Warnings
This is the most serious warning sign. If you spot unusual activity on your site or receive security warnings, take action immediately.
WordPress security breaches rarely announce themselves obviously. Hackers prefer to work quietly, using your site for their own purposes without alerting you.
But there are telltale signs that something is wrong.
Signs of Potential Security Problems
Watch for these red flags:
Unknown admin accounts – Check your Users section regularly. If you see administrator accounts you didn’t create, your site has been compromised.
Strange files in your uploads folder – Your media library should contain images and documents. PHP files or unusual scripts in this folder suggest malware.
Google Safe Browsing warnings – If Google displays a “This site may be hacked” warning to visitors, you have a confirmed security problem that needs immediate action.
Unusual traffic spikes – Check your analytics for sudden traffic increases from strange locations, especially to pages you didn’t create. This often indicates a hack.
Your site redirects somewhere else – If visitors end up on a different website when they click your links, malware has likely infected your site.
Your hosting provider contacts you – UK web hosts monitor for malware and suspicious activity. If they reach out about security concerns, take it seriously.
Security problems don’t go away on their own. If you notice any of these signs, investigate immediately. Change all passwords, scan for malware, and consider getting professional help to clean up your site.
What to Do If You Spot These Warning Signs
If you’ve recognised any of these warning signs on your own site, don’t panic.
Most WordPress problems can be fixed, and the key is taking action before small issues become major headaches.
Start with a backup. Before making any changes to your site, ensure you have a recent backup stored somewhere safe, ideally off your server. This protects you if anything goes wrong during repairs.
For speed and update issues, you can often handle these yourself. Install a caching plugin like WP Super Cache or LiteSpeed Cache to improve speed.
Apply pending updates one at a time, checking your site works after each one. Clean out unused plugins and themes while you’re at it.
For error messages and broken features, the solution depends on the cause. Deactivating plugins one by one helps identify conflicts. Switching to a default theme like Twenty Twenty-Four temporarily shows whether your theme is the problem.
For security concerns, consider getting professional help. Cleaning a hacked WordPress site properly requires expertise, and missing hidden malware means the problem will return.
Whatever issues you find, the best approach is to set up regular maintenance going forward.
Weekly checks of your site catch problems early. Monthly backups, update reviews, and security scans should become routine. Even 30 minutes each week keeps your site healthy.
Final Thoughts
Your WordPress site is a business asset. Like any asset, it needs regular care to stay in good working order.
The five warning signs covered here all tell you the same thing: maintenance is overdue.
Slow loading times, outdated software, error messages, ranking drops, and suspicious activity are your site asking for attention.
Catching these problems early saves you time, money, and stress. A site that loads quickly, runs updated software, and stays secure serves your business and your customers well.
If you’re not confident handling maintenance yourself, professional WordPress support services can take care of it for you. The monthly cost is typically far less than fixing a major problem after it happens.
Don’t wait for your site to break. Regular maintenance keeps it running smoothly and protects everything you’ve built online.
Frequently Asked Questions
Check your WordPress site weekly for updates and monthly for deeper maintenance like database cleaning and security scans. Small business sites benefit from applying plugin and theme updates every one to two weeks. If you run an online shop or receive high traffic, daily backups and more frequent checks make sense. Setting a recurring calendar reminder helps you stay consistent.
Many routine maintenance tasks are manageable yourself. Applying updates, clearing spam comments, and running backups are straightforward once you know how. However, if you spot security warnings, experience repeated errors, or feel uncomfortable making changes, professional help is worthwhile.
Large, uncompressed images cause more speed problems than anything else. When you upload photos straight from your camera or phone without optimising them, each page can take several megabytes to load. Other common causes include too many active plugins, a bloated database, and budget shared hosting. Often it’s a combination of factors building up over time.
Look for warning signs like unknown admin user accounts, strange redirects to other websites, Google Safe Browsing warnings, unusual files in your uploads folder, or your hosting provider contacting you about security issues. Sometimes hacks are subtle, showing different content to search engines than to visitors. Regular security scans with plugins like Wordfence can catch problems you might miss manually.
Outdated plugins create security vulnerabilities that hackers actively exploit. Beyond security risks, old plugins can cause compatibility conflicts when WordPress core updates, leading to broken features or site crashes. Some plugins stop receiving support entirely, leaving you with software that may never be fixed. Keeping plugins updated is one of the most important maintenance tasks you can do.
The white screen of death usually indicates a PHP error or memory issue that crashes your site. Common causes include plugin conflicts after updates, theme problems, or running out of server memory. To diagnose it, access your site via FTP and rename the plugins folder to disable all plugins at once. If the site loads, re-enable plugins one by one to find the culprit.
Use free tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, or Pingdom to test your site speed. Enter your homepage URL and wait for the results. Aim for a load time under three seconds and a PageSpeed score above 50. Test on mobile as well as desktop since mobile performance often differs significantly. These tools also provide specific recommendations for improvement.
Yes, absolutely. Unused plugins and themes still pose security risks even when deactivated because their code remains on your server. They also clutter your admin area and can slow down your database. Keep only what you actively use. Before deleting, ensure you have a backup in case you need to reinstall something later.
Install a broken link checker plugin like Broken Link Checker to scan your site and identify problem URLs. Once found, either update links to point to correct pages, remove them entirely, or set up 301 redirects if pages have moved. For external links pointing to sites that have disappeared, find alternative resources or remove the link. Fixing broken links improves user experience and helps your SEO.
Consider professional help if you see security warnings, experience repeated errors you can’t diagnose, have a hacked site, or simply lack time for regular maintenance. Also seek help before making major changes like switching themes, migrating hosting, or updating PHP versions. Professional WordPress support typically costs between £50 and £150 per month for ongoing maintenance, which is far cheaper than emergency fixes.