Managing your WordPress site¶
Once your site is live, the WordPress tab on your order page is your control panel for day-to-day maintenance: checking for updates, applying them, putting the site in maintenance mode, and jumping into wp-admin, all without needing SSH or file manager access.
Overview¶
At the top of the tab you'll see a status pill next to the heading:
- Up to date (green) — core, plugins, and themes are all current.
- Updates available (amber) — something has an update pending.
- Not ready yet (grey) — the first bootstrap is still running or failed partway; give it a few minutes after initial setup.
- Needs attention (red) — the last WordPress action returned an error.
Right below that is your site's URL with a copy button, an Open site button, and an Open wp-admin button that takes you straight to https://<your-domain>/wp-admin in a new tab. You still log in with the admin account you created during setup.
Checking versions and pending updates¶
Three stat tiles show:
- Core version — the installed WordPress version, with a badge showing the available update version if one exists.
- Plugins — how many plugin updates are pending.
- Themes — how many theme updates are pending.
Below that, the Maintenance & Updates section lists the actual plugins/themes with pending updates by name, each with the version they'd update to.
Applying updates¶
If you have management permission on the order, you'll see action buttons:
- Update WordPress — updates WordPress core to the latest version.
- Update plugins — updates every plugin with a pending update.
- Update themes — updates every theme with a pending update.
- Enable maintenance / Disable maintenance — toggles WordPress's built-in maintenance mode, which shows visitors a "briefly unavailable" page instead of your site.
Take a backup first
These actions run directly against your live site. As with any WordPress update, a plugin or theme update can occasionally break something (a compatibility issue, a changed hook, a broken shortcode). Take a backup before applying updates you haven't tested, especially on a production site with real traffic.
After you run an action, a result panel shows whether it succeeded and any output from the update command, useful if something fails and you need to see exactly what went wrong.
Maintenance mode¶
Enable maintenance puts WordPress into its native maintenance mode: visitors see a temporary "under maintenance" page while you work, instead of a half-updated or broken site. Remember to click Disable maintenance once you're done, the site stays in maintenance mode until you turn it off (or WordPress's own timeout clears it, if applicable to your setup).
Frequently asked questions¶
Why don't I see the update buttons?
You need order management permission for WordPress actions. If you're a member of someone else's order, ask the owner to grant you the right permission, or have them run the update.
The action result shows an error, what do I do?
Read the error output in the result panel first, it's the raw output from the underlying WordPress command and usually names the specific plugin or theme that failed. Common causes are a plugin requiring a newer PHP version than your plan provides, or a plugin licence check failing. If it's not obvious, send us the error text along with your order ID.
Can I install new plugins from this tab?
Not from this tab, it only manages updates and maintenance mode for what's already installed. Install new plugins and themes the normal way, from wp-admin, or by uploading files through the file manager / SFTP.
How often should I check for updates?
WordPress core, plugin, and theme updates often include security fixes, so it's worth checking in periodically rather than leaving updates pending indefinitely. The status pill on this tab makes it obvious at a glance whether anything is pending.