Invest in Keeping your Website Secure

So you’ve recently had your website developed; it looks great, the launch went smoothly and you’ve had great feedback from all of your clients and customers. You won’t need to look at it again for another few years now…right?

…Wrong. Your website is now an extension of your business and much like your staff, your services or any other element of your practice, it is an ongoing investment. You could think of your website like a garden; if left unattended, weeds will grow and your plants, which were once thriving, will wither and die. To get the most out of your garden you must maintain it regularly to keep it fresh and functional and more importantly, to prevent any pests from growing.

But where do the ‘weeds’ and ‘pests’ come from? WordPress currently powers 23% of all websites in the world and as a result of its popularity, it is a popular target for hackers and data thieves worldwide. You may not think your personal or business website has anything worth being hacked for but websites are compromised all the time, with the majority of breaches coming from out-of-date themes, plugins and WordPress core, so it’s important to keep on top of your updates.

So how do you keep your website secure?

Ensuring your plugins and themes are running on the latest versions not only fixes any bugs or security features, which developers constantly search for and fix, but it also protects your website from being exploited. As it is common practice for hackers to search for websites using out-dated plugins with known security holes, it’s vital not to underestimate the importance of updating your website to prevent anyone other than yourself gaining access to your website.

Finally, are there any other steps you can take to protect your website? Absolutely!

Another great way to protect yourself, should you be on the unfortunate end of a cyber attack is to have a recent backup of your website. Taking regular backups of your website will allow you turn back the clock and revert to an older version of your site, to get back online after any mishap and to keep your business running smoothly. Timescales on how far back you can revert however will vary depending on how regularly you or your hosting company takes backups of your website.

So to summarise, the easiest and most efficient ways of protecting your website:

• Ensure all of your plugins are regularly updated (it’s good to check at least once a week).
• Ensure your WordPress core is running on the latest version (updates generally happen once every few weeks)
• Take regular backups of your website so that you can quickly get your business back online

If you need any help with updating and maintaining your website, just contact me and I’ll let you know how I can help.

Thanks for reading!

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