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Year-End WordPress Automation Audit: 12-Point Checklist for 2026 Readiness

Audit your WordPress automation with this 12-point checklist. Covers WP-Cron, Action Scheduler, backups, security, and PHP 8.4 compatibility for 2026 readiness.

SE
Summix Editorial Team
ยท 6 min read

December 2025 has been a wake-up call for WordPress site owners. With over 170 vulnerabilities disclosed in a single week (SolidWP, December 10, 2025), PHP 8.1 reaching end-of-life on December 31, and WordPress 6.9 introducing changes to WP-Cron behavior, your automation infrastructure deserves dedicated attention before the new year.

Most site audits focus on security, SEO, or performance. But the systems that keep your site running in the background---WP-Cron jobs, scheduled actions, backup automation, and email delivery---often go unchecked until something breaks. A dedicated WordPress automation audit checklist addresses this gap.

This 12-point checklist covers three critical areas: reliability and performance, security and compliance, and future-readiness for 2026.

Always backup your site before making major changes.

Reliability and Performance

The first category focuses on ensuring your scheduled tasks run when expected and do not degrade site performance.

1. WP-Cron Health Check

  • Verify cron events are firing reliably by checking last run times
  • For production sites, consider switching to server-side cron instead of traffic-dependent WP-Cron
  • Identify and remove orphaned cron jobs left behind by deleted plugins
  • Test that scheduled posts publish on time

WP-Cron depends on site traffic to trigger scheduled events, which makes it unreliable on low-traffic sites (SpinupWP, 2025). Use WP Crontrol---active on over 300,000 sites---to view and manage all scheduled events in one place.

2. Scheduled Action Monitoring

  • Review pending and failed actions in your action queue
  • Clear stuck or repeatedly failing actions
  • Check for action queue backlogs indicating processing bottlenecks
  • Verify Action Scheduler is updated for PHP 8.4 compatibility

If you run WooCommerce, navigate to WooCommerce > Status > Scheduled Actions to review your action queue. Action Scheduler handles high-volume task processing for background operations, so any failures here can affect order processing and notifications.

3. Database Optimization

  • Check autoloaded data size (target: under 1MB per Pantheon documentation)
  • Clean expired transients that accumulate over time
  • Review Action Scheduler table sizes and purge old completed actions
  • Consider database optimization plugins if autoload size exceeds targets

Bloated databases slow down every page load because WordPress loads autoloaded options on every request. Query Monitor helps identify problematic queries and large data sets.

4. Performance Impact Assessment

  • Test site speed with automation plugins active versus disabled
  • Check whether automation plugins load assets on front-end pages unnecessarily
  • Verify PHP memory limit is adequate (256MB or higher recommended)
  • Monitor server resource usage during scheduled task execution

Some automation plugins load JavaScript and CSS site-wide even when their functionality is admin-only.

Security and Compliance

With 92% of WordPress breaches in 2025 originating from plugins (Developress.io, December 2025), your automation infrastructure represents both a potential vulnerability and an essential defense layer.

5. Plugin Security Review

  • Update all plugins to their latest versions
  • Remove unused or deactivated plugins entirely---not just deactivated
  • Check for abandoned plugins that have been removed from the WordPress.org repository
  • Verify premium plugin licenses are current and receiving updates

Deactivated plugins still contain code that attackers can exploit. Delete what you do not use. Check update logs regularly for plugin security best practices.

6. API Connection Audit

  • Test all external API connections for functionality
  • Verify API endpoints require proper authentication
  • Check that rate limiting is configured on incoming webhook endpoints
  • Test webhook delivery to external services and confirm responses

API vulnerabilities often stem from improper authentication---68% of API security issues trace back to this single cause (OddJar, 2025). Document all API integrations and test them regularly.

7. Credential Rotation

  • Inventory all API keys, tokens, and webhook secrets
  • Rotate any credentials older than 90 days
  • Verify secrets are stored securely and not hardcoded in theme or plugin files
  • Audit team member access to automation credentials

Industry security standards recommend rotating API keys every 90 days (OddJar, 2025). Store credentials securely---not hardcoded in files.

8. Backup Verification

  • Confirm automated backups are completing successfully
  • Test restore on a staging environment---do not just verify backup creation
  • Verify offsite or cloud storage is receiving backups correctly
  • Document your Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO)

A backup you have not tested is not a backup. Schedule quarterly restore tests to ensure your backup strategy actually works when needed.

Future-Readiness

Prepare your automation infrastructure for changes coming in 2026, starting with PHP compatibility and documentation.

9. PHP 8.4 Compatibility Testing

  • Check your current PHP version in your hosting dashboard
  • Test your site on PHP 8.4 in a staging environment before your host force-upgrades
  • Verify all active plugins are compatible with PHP 8.4
  • Update to WordPress 6.9 for the best PHP 8.4 support

PHP 8.1 reaches end-of-life on December 31, 2025. Many hosts will automatically upgrade to PHP 8.4 in early 2026. Test now to avoid surprises.

10. Error Logging Configuration

  • Verify debug logging is disabled on production (WP_DEBUG should be false)
  • Review recent error logs for automation-related failures
  • Set up external monitoring for critical scheduled tasks
  • Configure failure notifications via email or team messaging

Production sites should not expose debug information, but you still need visibility into failures. Use WP Mail SMTP to verify email notifications are delivering.

11. Custom Code Review

  • Audit custom scheduled tasks registered via wp_schedule_event()
  • Verify hook callbacks exist and are callable
  • Check for orphaned scheduled events where the hook no longer exists
  • Ensure scheduled task callbacks include proper error handling

Custom code often creates scheduled events that persist after the code is modified or removed. Use WP Crontrol to identify any events pointing to non-existent callbacks.

12. Documentation Update

  • Document all active automation workflows (trigger, action, outcome)
  • Map dependencies between workflows
  • Record API credential storage locations
  • Create a runbook for common automation failures and their resolutions

Documentation prevents knowledge loss and speeds up troubleshooting when issues arise.

Moving Forward

Your WordPress automation infrastructure supports scheduled publishing, payment processing, and backup routines. Auditing these systems annually---or quarterly for high-traffic sites---prevents small issues from becoming major outages.

Recommended tools for ongoing maintenance:

  • WP Crontrol - Manage and debug WP-Cron events
  • Query Monitor - Analyze database queries and performance
  • WP Mail SMTP - Verify email delivery from automated notifications

With WordPress 6.9 now stable and PHP 8.4 becoming the new baseline, your 2026 automation stack starts with the audit work you complete today.