Once your site is live you want to make sure that it remains healthy and productive.

Security

• Be sure to read the notices from WordFence or other security plugins and follow their security tips when needed.
• Update WordPress when updates are released. (Your site may be set to update automatically.)
• Update your theme and plugins when new updates are available. You will see notifications for this in your theme and plugins panels.
• Check to make sure that your backups are running on schedule.

Performance

Is your site performing to expectations? Is it doing its job to help you reach your goals? Goals vary from one organization to the next. Some of you may be trying to recruit volunteers. Others want to increase donations or simply raise visibility.

Some goals are easier to measure than others, but if you have set measurable goals you can evaluate how you are doing on a regular basis. Here are some examples.

Lead Generation

You may be generating leads to obtain volunteers, event attendees, clients or others. Form plugins allow you to keep track of this data so you can see how many leads you generate each month.

Donations

You can also track the number of donations you receive as well as calculating average amounts.

Visibility

Visibility is harder to measure, but you can get a sense of it. Increases in traffic to the site and mentions in mass and social media can be good indicators.

When evaluating your site’s performance you should do so in the context of your overall marketing strategies. Consider your goals in relation to any social media or marketing campaigns you’ve implemented. Compare your leads and donations to your site traffic. Google Analytics can tell you:

• How much traffic you are getting including the number of visitors per month, the percentage of visitors who are returning visitors
• Where your traffic comes from including referral sources and search traffic
• How much time visitors spend on site, the numbers of pages they view, the number of views per page, and much more.