Website Maintenance & Plugin Management

Overview

This article documents the WordPress site maintenance work performed on the BlueSky website, including HubSpot plugin deactivation, cache management, plugin updates, and standing concerns about ongoing site maintenance ownership. These issues surfaced during a routine client ops review and reflect patterns common across client WordPress sites.

HubSpot Plugin Deactivation

When a client stops using HubSpot, the WordPress HubSpot plugin must be explicitly deactivated — it does not self-disable when the associated account lapses or is abandoned.

Symptoms of a lingering HubSpot plugin:
- A HubSpot chatbot widget continues to appear on the site frontend
- Form submissions may still attempt to route to the old HubSpot account
- The plugin consumes resources and may generate errors silently

Resolution steps:
1. Log into WordPress admin → Plugins
2. Locate the HubSpot plugin and click Deactivate (or Delete if the integration is permanently discontinued)
3. Flush the site cache immediately after deactivation — the chatbot widget may persist in cached pages until the cache is cleared
4. Verify removal by loading the site in an incognito/private browser window to bypass local browser cache

In the BlueSky case, the chatbot disappeared immediately after cache flush, confirmed via incognito window. See ^[1].

Cache Flushing After Plugin Changes

Any plugin deactivation or significant configuration change should be followed by a full cache flush. Cached pages will continue to serve old assets (including injected scripts from deactivated plugins) until the cache is cleared.

Use the site's caching plugin (e.g., WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, LiteSpeed Cache) to flush all cached pages
After flushing, always verify the change in an incognito window — the local browser cache can mask the issue

Gravity Forms: Verifying Submission Routing

When a site transitions away from HubSpot, confirm that Gravity Forms submissions are no longer routing to the old HubSpot account and are instead going to the correct email recipients.

Verification checklist:
- Open each active form in Gravity Forms → Settings → Notifications
- Confirm the "To" address matches the current, intended recipient
- Confirm any BCC addresses are correct (useful for account managers to monitor submissions)
- Send a test submission and verify receipt

On BlueSky, the "SPEND data" form was confirmed routing to the correct address (DC at...). Melissa was receiving BCCs of submissions, confirming the fix was in place. The homepage general form routes to Jim.Cross. Some buttons on the site were found to link to nowhere or to deprecated form anchors — these require a full site review.

Plugin & Core Updates

WordPress sites that are not actively maintained accumulate outdated plugins, themes, and core versions. This creates security risk and can cause compatibility issues.

Best practice:
- Run all available plugin, theme, and core updates during any maintenance visit
- Note which updates were applied and flag any that require manual review (e.g., major version jumps)
- Assign a specific person or role responsible for routine update cycles

During the BlueSky maintenance session, Mark ran all available updates. The site had been unmaintained for an extended period. Lead Forensics integration status was also flagged as unknown and should be confirmed with the client.

Ongoing Maintenance Ownership

A recurring issue across client sites is the absence of a designated owner for routine WordPress maintenance. Without clear ownership:

Plugin and core updates go unrun for months
Broken links, dead CTAs, and misconfigured forms go unnoticed
Security vulnerabilities accumulate

Recommendation: Assign one person (internal or client-side) as the responsible party for each WordPress site. Their responsibilities should include:
- Monthly plugin/core updates
- Quarterly form routing verification
- Periodic link and CTA audits
- Backup verification

Mark noted during the BlueSky session: "It's almost like it should be one person's job to take care of the sites we've got — to go in and make sure that everything's configured and working properly and that there's no errors and no problems and everything's backed up and everything's updated."

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