New data from GoDaddy draws a clear distinction between "rocketship" and "decliner" sites. Which one's yours?

WordPress is the most powerful website builder available, offering users a seemingly endless number of features and designs that let you make your site as simple or as complex as you'd like.

But with all of these options, how do you know which combination will not only attract more visitors but keep them coming back?

The top-performing websites, it turns out, have something in common—and it's not their use of specific plugins. So what truly sets successful WordPress websites apart from the rest?

To find out, and shine a light on those revelations, we threw a spotlight on almost 350,000 GoDaddy-managed WordPress websites to examine and identify what types of behavior correlated with the strongest results, as measured by traffic. In addition to page or post creation, we tracked sites for a year whenever their owners made an update, including changes to content, themes, plugins, and media.

Then, to hone in on what helped or hindered the success of these websites, we compared the two most distinct personalities we dubbed:

• Rocketships -- meaning brand new websites that saw meteoric traffic growth during the year. These were websites that started out with a unique monthly visitorship of 0 to 999 and rapidly grew traffic to somewhere between 99,000 and 500,000
• Decliners -- meaning websites that saw traffic decrease significantly, by more than 50 percent during the year

The data demonstrated that Rocketship sites were, and are, far and away more actively managed than Decliners -- with 164 percent more activity spanning across page-creation, post creation and content updates, as well as technical plugin and theme activation and updates. Our research indicated that high-traffic WordPress websites are cared for and nurtured by their owners on a regular basis.

So how does your website become a Rocketship? Looking at the specific factors that make for a successful Rocketship website, what should a business prioritize on the "to-do" list of website mechanics? Here are three findings and recommendations that stack the deck in your favor.

Content rules the road.

The saying goes, "Content is king," and it's true. Regularly publishing high-quality, relevant content that your readers will find engaging is a surefire key to success.

So, consider creating an editorial calendar to coordinate your efforts and build strategic monthly themes inspired by popular keywords. Look at what's topical in the news and rising on Google Trends; see what's timely and how you can align your products or offerings with it.

When it comes to frequency, Rocketships create new posts an average of three times a week. Regular, relevant content creation pays dividends, as visitors have a reason to return to your site to learn more. Consider posting blogs as a two- -- or more -- part series to create episodic content. Sites that publish posts on a consistent schedule build a loyal audience and increase their traffic.

A fresh coat of paint makes a difference.

When it comes to adding functionality to your site, plugins can be a tremendous asset, especially because they help you quickly and easily add features like contact forms, SEO, and security.

Interestingly, however, we didn't observe a noticeable difference between Rocketship and Decliner behavior when it came to Plugins.

That said, we did notice that Rocketships activated themes 18 percent more on average than Decliners. This might be because Rocketships experimented with different themes and A/B tested to see what best suited the look and feel of their sites. Themes are easy to implement and can quickly give your website a new look and feel.

For example, a theme such as Divi can give your website an elegant appearance, while one like Storefront offers a variety of layout and color options to personalize your shop, add multiple widget regions, and support a responsive design. As you use your site more often, or as its scope evolves over time, a new theme will let you change the look and feel and add more functionality and widgets.

With this in mind, don't be afraid to experiment with different themes and test-drive the most popular trending themes of the week. And as you become more active with your site, doing things like the Rocketships in our study did, you'll become more in tune with the themes that do or don't work for you.

Remember, there's always a need for speed.

We all know the frustration of waiting for a painfully slow website to load. Often, we'll abandon a site that takes too long, or we'll avoid it in the future for fear of the same irritating experience. A website's loading speed strongly influences whether a user stays on a page or revisits a site, with just a one-second delay leading to a 7 percent reduction in conversions and an 11 percent decrease in page views. So, what is an acceptable loading time? Around two seconds, according to Google.

Avoid alienating visitors and potential customers with sluggish speeds. Simple changes like compressing images, removing inactive plugins, and reducing scripts can reduce load times and boost user satisfaction.

Ongoing growth and maintenance

Adding new pages and making ongoing improvements helps a site succeed. Rocketship sites create new pages regularly and update their sites (including tweaks to page content, media, etc.) at a staggering average of 288 percent more than Decliners. Little and often is a good rule to live by -- incremental updates and adjustments go a long way.

Overall, this research indicates that frequent care and attention to a website and its content lead to better traction with online audiences. On the flip side, site owners with a "set it and forget it" mindset tend to see traffic decline over time.

And so my advice to aspiring "Rocketships" is this: Keep on top of your website and its content. Just as a good mechanic tweaks and tunes a car to improve its performance, WordPress users should regularly maintain and update their websites to optimize for success.