Five Things to Do When Managing Your WordPress Site in the Age of AI

In 2026, managing a WordPress website has evolved and become extremely challenging. PHP updates, security patches, and plugin vulnerabilities are to blame, and what often gets missed is that WordPress isn’t alone. Other technologies face similar challenges, and AI-assisted cyberattacks are making it easier to target vulnerabilities at scale. If you’re looking at your server or Cloudflare logs, you’ll notice bot traffic visiting your site, most of it malicious.

That’s why we’ve changed our stance on managing WordPress websites and have five recommendations to share to keep your website secure, functional, and competitive.

1. Don’t Use Outdated Technology

Currently, one of the biggest challenges we see with clients is upgrading PHP to a supported version. What should be a straightforward update can introduce major issues for development teams, especially when older plugins, themes, or custom code are no longer compatible.

The other challenge is actively managing the technology itself. It’s an uphill battle for business owners because your website does not run itself. It requires technical expertise to ensure everything is configured correctly and working as intended.

That’s why we recommend regularly reviewing your PHP version, WordPress core, plugins, themes, and hosting environment. If any component is no longer supported, plan to upgrade or replace it before it becomes a security problem.

2. Enable Auto-Updates for WordPress Themes and Plugins

Before 2026, we updated our websites and services manually. We preferred having greater control over when updates were deployed so we could address functionality issues before they affected the live website.

Because bad actors can exploit vulnerabilities so quickly with AI, website updates must be frequent to keep pace. For WordPress websites, we recommend enabling automatic updates for trusted, actively maintained plugins and themes, especially when security patches are released.

However, that doesn’t mean you should ignore functionality issues. From time to time, updates will break forms, layouts, and other important features. That’s why automatic updates should be paired with backups, monitoring, and regular functionality checks. For larger updates, it’s always best to test them in a staging environment.

3. Back Up Often as a Countermeasure to AI-Assisted Cyberattacks

As you get deeper into website management, you’ll realize how often malicious bots, plugin conflicts, and functionality issues affect websites. Unfortunately, most business owners don’t think about backups until something goes wrong.

Many hosting providers offer short rolling backup windows, sometimes as little as seven days. That becomes a major problem when malware or a broken feature goes unnoticed for weeks, which is why we recommend daily backups as a starting point, plus quarterly backups so you can restore an older version when needed.

And don’t assume a backup works just because your hosting provider says it exists; test the restoration process occasionally, and if you’re maintaining the website yourself, do these daily website checks.

4. Use Cloudflare or an Equivalent as a Security Layer

We can’t stress this enough. If you’re managing a website in 2026, you should seriously consider using Cloudflare or an equivalent service with a web application firewall (WAF). Here’s why:

In October 2026, one major WordPress related vulnerabilities, CVE-2026-109618, was disclosed. Cloudflare deployed WAF rules to help block attempts to exploit them while security updates were being rolled out. That additional protection can buy website owners valuable time when a vulnerability is discovered.

However, there’s a catch. Your DNS, proxy settings, and security rules must be configured correctly for the WAF to work. Simply having a Cloudflare account doesn’t mean your website is protected, which doesn’t mean you can skip a mandatory PHP or WordPress security update.

If you haven’t experienced malware injections, we’ve seen firsthand how damaging a security issue can be when a client’s website gets flagged by Google Chrome as a dangerous site. Prevention is far better than explaining to customers why they shouldn’t be afraid to visit your website.

5. Skip Cookie-Cutter AI Website Design

You’ve seen it. We’ve seen it. AI-generated website designs are everywhere. So if you’re trying to build a business, your ultimate goal is to stand out from competitors. We can’t stress this enough because, at its core, marketing must help differentiate your business!

AI design certainly has its place, especially when you’re building proofs of concept, experimenting with layouts, or testing ideas. The issue with AI design is that it often produces similar layouts, messaging, and visual patterns. When everyone uses the same tools to build their websites, businesses start looking alike.

Your website should reflect what makes your business different, why customers should trust you, and why they should choose you over your competitors. If you’re experiementing with designing your own website, a good place to start is using Figma for web design!

The Bottom Line

Website management in 2026 requires staying on top of security vulnerabilities, managing technology updates, maintaining reliable backups, and protecting your business from threats.

At the same time, don’t lose sight of why you have a website in the first place. It’s there to support your marketing, differentiate your business, and help you attract customers.

From our perspective, the best approach is still grounded in common sense. Keep your technology up to date, address security issues quickly, and make sure your website keeps working for your business. For help with keeping your website up to date with the pace of technology, contact us for your free consultation!