Website Security Best Practices

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There are a few nasty things that can happen to your WordPress site. That depends on the length of time since you’ve last taken actions to maintain your site. One disastrous thing is all you need, i.e. getting hacked!
Short-Term Lack of Maintenance Issues
If you don’t maintain your website for short durations, say a month or two, it’s possible that updates to the core have been made that include security patches that are important. This often means that if your site isn’t updated ( Note: most sites are auto updated for security patches ) then your website is susceptible to getting hacked.
As for the overall experience, you might not notice any major issues since dramatic changes don’t typically happen from one version to the next, especially with minor version updates.
As for your themes and plugins, they should still work as before but the issue of security patches also applies in the case of themes and plugins.
Your database also needs maintenance every so often. If you don’t optimize your database, over time you will have reduced performance on your website. Consider database optimization like defragmenting your computers hard drive.
Long-Term Lack of Maintenance Issues
If it’s been serious time since you’ve updated your WordPress installation, themes, plugins and optimized your database, then you will likely start to notice issues including the visual appearance of your site. This is caused by deprecated code or code no longer supported by both WordPress and or PHP or the Front-end framework used.
Functionality can also change if the plugin is abandoned or is so out of date that the code used is no longer supported by WordPress.
The security of your website might also be compromised since most security issues for previous versions of WordPress are easily found on websites using the older versions of the WordPress Core, themes and plugins. Your database is likely seriously cluttered and in desperate need of maintenance.
Automation – How to make maintenance easy?
The 3 tips below will make it extremely easy to self-manage your WordPress website. Note: I still recommend logging into your website at least once a week just to make sure everything is functioning properly.
:: Automate the process of backing up your website database and files by using this plugin.
UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin
:: Automate the process of updating the WordPress core, themes and plugins by using this plugin.

Easy Updates Manager

:: Automate the process of optimizing your database by using this plugin.

Optimize Database after Deleting Revisions

Read our new e-book ==> What If Your Entire Website Was Deleted Right Now?
If you want some help and don’t want to take any chances, consider our most affordable WordPress Maintenance Service packages. Then give Marcia a call at 561-906-3436.

Getting your WordPress site hacked is definitely one of the worst things that can happen to a website owner. Not only is a hack super stressful, but it also impacts your business, reputation, search rankings, traffic and much more.
Preventative measures are a must. But, what if it’s already too late? How do you recover a WordPress website that has already been hacked?
In this white paper, discover how to spot whether your WordPress website has been compromised and if the worst has happened, here’s what to do to take back control of your site.
So Your WordPress Site Just Got Hacked – White Paper
Download Here
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“We’re at a turning point,” declared Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress, and founder/CEO of Automattic just three months ago.
“2017 will be the year we will see features in WordPress requiring hosts to have HTTPS available.”
Google now considers SSL as a ranking factor. But recently has gone even further.  As of January 2017,  Google is marking “HTTP pages that collect passwords or credit cards as non-secure.” [Read more…] about 4 Reasons Your Small Business Website Needs An SSL Certificate