If you have just inherited an existing WordPress site, what should you do first?
Whether youโre a business owner who recently acquired a new website or an office assistant whoโs inheriting your companyโs existing website from another team member, you might be wondering what the most important next steps are.
In this article, we will show you the top things you need to do when inheriting a WordPress site.
What Challenges Could You Face When Inheriting a Site?
Inheriting a newย WordPress websiteย brings a lot of challenges.
Whether youโve acquired it from another business or assigned a company website, getting up to speed with the workflow and familiarizing yourself with WordPress can take time.
Similarly, running a website requires other tools likeย email marketing softwareย or third-party plugins. When inheriting a website, you should have login credentials to all the software.
Other than that, your newly inherited website might not be secure. One of the best practices is to create a backup andย scan your site for threats. This will help highlight areas that could lead to a potential attack and allow you to fix them quickly.
That said, letโs look at the things you should do when inheriting a new WordPress site. You can click the links below to jump ahead to your preferred section:
1. Get All The Passwords
When inheriting a WordPress site, the first thing you must do is gather all the username and password information.
This includes yourย web hostingย password, FTP password,ย CDNย password, domain management password, email marketing service password, and password to all third-party premium plugins or services that the website is using.
We suggest scheduling a video call with the old developer or site owners because they can explain everything in detail.
The best way to manage all your website passwords is by using aย password manager. We recommend usingย LastPassย because it works with all your devices and allows storing passwords in a group, sharing them securely, and using stronger passwords.
2. Change All Admin Password and Emails
Once you have received all the passwords, you need to change them.
This ensures that the previous developer or site owner cannot modify anything. Another thing you want to do is update all admin contact emails so only you can reset passwords in the future.
You can do this by going to theย Users ยป All Usersย page in the WordPress admin area and editing all user passwords along with contact details.
Next, you need to change the WordPress site admin email address. WordPress uses it to send important website notifications.
Simply go to theย Settings ยป Generalย page and enter a new email address.
Note:ย We recommend installingย WP Mail SMTP before changing emails to make sure all emails all notification emails reach their recipient.
3. Take Notes and Familiarize Yourself
Before making any other site changes, taking notes and familiarizing yourself with the website is vital. If youโre unfamiliar with WordPress, see our beginner guide onย what is WordPress.
It is very important that you understand the importance and functionality of eachย WordPress pluginย used on the website.
You would also want to review theme settings andย the widgetsย you use.
You can take notes of different functionalities, features you would like to change, and more.
Note:ย Please write all these notes down in Google Docs, Dropbox Paper, or somewhere else so you wonโt lose them.
This information will help you understand everything. If you need help understanding something, then you can try contacting the previous owner or developer.
4. Setup an Automated Backup Solution

Backups are your first layer of defense against any online mishap. The previous site owner may have their own backup plugins set up, which may be storing backup files in one of their remote storage accounts.
You would want to set up your own backups. There are plenty of excellentย WordPress backup pluginsย that you can choose from.
You need to make sure that you set up your backups on a remote location like Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.
You also need toย create a complete WordPress backupย before making further changes to your website. This would help you revert your website in case anything goes wrong.
5. Update User Roles and Permissions
If you are a developer working on a website, then youโll need to work with your client to assignย user roles and permissionsย to their team.
Your goal should be to limit theย administratorย user role to people who actually need to perform admin tasks. These tasks include things like changing the theme, installing new plugins, or adding new users to the website.
To change a user role, simply go toย Users ยป All Usersย from your WordPress dashboard and edit a user profile. Next, scroll down to the โRoleโ section and select the user role you wish to assign.

If you are working on your own site, then you will need to review user access. Create a new user account for your authors if required.
If there are older author and editor accounts that you will not be working with, then you need to edit those user accounts and change their email address and password. See our guide onย how to disable user accountsย without deleting them.
6. Run Security and Performance Scans
Next, you need to make sure that your new WordPress website is secure and performing well.
For security scans, we recommend usingย Sucuri. It is theย best WordPress security pluginย on the market and allows you to easily scan your website for malicious code, security threats, and vulnerabilities.
You can see ourย ultimate WordPress security guideย for more details.
For performance, you can use any of the onlineย website speed test tools. We recommend using theย IsItWP website speed test tool, which is easy to use and gives you a detailed overview of your website speed.
It is also important that you check to see that caching is configured properly.
Many WordPress hosting companies like Bluehost and DreamHostย offer built-in caching solutions that you can turn on from your hosting account. You can also use aย WordPress caching pluginย likeย WP Rocketย to instantly improve your website speed.
If the site is not running a CDN, then you should consider using aย CDN service. Although this is not required, we always recommend users to use a CDN. For more details, see our guide onย why you should use CDN.
For more tips and tricks, you may want to see ourย ultimate guide to boosting WordPress speed & performance.
7. Check for Proper Tracking and SEO Integration
If you have inherited the ownership of a new website, then the old website owner may have transferred the Google Analytics property to you.
A lot of website owners simply add the Google Analytics code to their WordPress theme. This code disappears as soon as you update the theme or install a new one.
Make sure thatย Google Analytics is properly installedย on the website by either usingย MonsterInsightsย or by adding the tracking code outside the WordPress theme.
Similarly, they may have also transferredย Google Search Consoleย property to you as well.
Make sure that your site hasย XML Sitemaps in place for the search console. You may also want to look at Google Search Console reports making sure there are no crawling issues or errors on the site.
We recommend usingย All in One SEO (AIOSEO)ย because it is theย best SEO plugin for WordPress. You can easily optimize your site for search engines without hiring an expert.
8. Implement Version Control and/or a Staging Site
If youโre a developer, then it is highly recommended that you implement version control for the site. It is fairly easy to useย GitHubย or BitBucket.
If youโre not a developer, then at the very least we recommend setting upย a WordPress staging siteย that ensures that you have a stable testing environment before pushing things live. We recommend this step for all users.
For those whoโre scared to set this up, then Hostgator, aย managed WordPress hostingย provider, offers a robust staging environment and git version control integration.
Other small business hosting providers like DreamHost andย Bluehostย also offers to stage features at affordable prices.
9. Run a Website Clean up
Now that you have familiarized yourself with the project, it is best to clean out all the unnecessary things. Delete all inactive themes and plugins. Delete all user accounts that are not needed.
Log in to your WordPress database and optimize it. Some bad plugins leave their database tables even after theyโre deleted. If you notice any of those, then it is best to delete them.
See ourย beginnerโs guide to WordPress database managementย to safely optimize the WordPress database.
10. Review Plugin Settings
A typical WordPress website uses several plugins that may still be referring to old owners. If you have taken ownership of a website, then you would want to change that.
For example, theย contact form pluginย on the website may still be sending notifications to old email addresses. WordPress SEO plugin may still be pointing to previous ownersโ social media profiles.
You can discover some of these things by looking at the website and testing all its features. You can also review plugin settings and update them if needed.
11. Upgrade Your Hosting Service
After running the website speed test, if your website is still slow despite using caching, then it is time to upgrade your hosting.
If it is a client website, then your performance tests should help you convince the client to move. If you own the website yourself, then you just need to choose the right web host.
We recommend using Dreamhosย or Bluehostย as they are one of the biggest hosting companies and officially recommended WordPress hosting providers.
If your website has outgrown shared hosting, then you may want to consider using aย managed WordPress hosting service like hostgater.
See our guide on how toย move WordPress to a new hostย for step-by-step instructions to move your website.
We hope that this article offered some insights on what you should do when inheriting a WordPress site. You may also want to see our guide on theย best WooCommerce pluginsย and theย ultimate WordPress SEO guide for beginners.