The Importance of Website Security, Support, Performance and Maintenance

Nearly every organization and brand needs its own website. It’s crucial in today’s business world for companies to interact with their customers and keep them updated on news and special events. But not everyone understands the work that goes into website security, maintaining a website and keeping it secure.

Whether you maintain a website for your business or organization, here are some things you should be doing to maintain its performance and security.

Use a Secure Web Host

There are many web hosting companies to choose from, so it’s important to find a secure web host. Not only will a secure web host improve your overall security, but they will also provide priority technical support, compatibility with all kinds of different software, and various enhanced hosting features. In other words, they give you everything you need to create the best and most secure site possible.

If you’re looking for a good secure web host, we would like to recommend SiteGround. SiteGround provides secure web hosting services specifically designed for WordPress. This is the service we use, and we have secured special pricing and a free SSL certificate for our referrals and clients.

WordPress-Core--Updates

WordPress Core Updates

WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS), powering over 25% of the websites on the internet and it is constantly being updated. If you make use of this CMS, you should install updates as they come out to keep it secure. Failure to do so could make your site unstable and less secure over time.

Theme Updates

Theme Updates

Just as you should keep your WordPress installation updated, you should also periodically check with the author of your theme for updates. Your website’s theme is the framework and underlying code that powers your website. In the same way an app on your phone releases minor enhancements a theme author publishes updates. Updating it doesn’t mean changing the look, but it ensures you have the most recent version. This will allow you to utilize the latest enhancements made to your theme, increase forward compatibility and improve your site’s stability.

Plugin Updates

Plugin Updates

Plugins are tools that you can add to your website to improve its functionality. They are created by different authors and updated regularly. This will involve periodically checking to see if the authors of your plugins have made any recent updates and changes. Of course, you will also need to make sure that your plugins and updates are all coming from reliable sources.

Make Regular Off-Site Backups

Make Regular Off-Site Backups

If your site should ever go down, you could miss a lot of revenue and traffic. This can happen even to the most secure sites on the Web, so it pays to have regular off-site backups stored in a safe place. As long as you regularly perform backups, you will be able to restore your website quickly and avoid loosing a revenue.

Website Security Monitoring and Protection

Security Monitoring and Protection

Website security monitoring is perhaps the most overlooked aspect of running a website. Hackers and writers of malware are always looking for exploits and holes in website security. For your protection, you will need to constantly monitor your site for potential vulnerabilities. Since WordPress is so popular it is often targeted by hackers even if they are not specifically interested in hacking your website. If your website gets infected with malware, Google will blacklist all sites that are infected, so be extra diligent in keeping your site free from potential threats.

Checking and Improving Website Performance

Checking and Improving Website Performance

You should be running regular performance tests to see how your site is performing. If this is all new to you and you don’t know where to begin, take a look at how quickly your site loads. You can use a tool like Pingdom’s Website Speed Test to check the speed of your website and get recommendations for improving it.

Broken Link Inspection and Repair

Broken Link Inspection and Repair

Broken links on your site send the wrong messages to clients. It could lead them to think that your business or your affiliates are not legitimate, or that your site is no longer relevant. Both ideas will hurt your business, so regularly check all of your links and make sure they’re still working. If they don’t work, either fix them or remove them from your site.

Constantly Improve Your Website

Constantly Improve Your Website

Great websites are constantly evolving and utilizing the latest technology to optimize their user experience and increase sales. With that being said, you should always be on the lookout for things that will make for a better experience for your visitors.

Keeping a website running while constantly improving it takes a lot of time and attention. It is difficult to do this well by yourself, but that’s where we can help you. Our expertise in web design, development and SEO services enable us to provide the right digital strategy. We are a trusted and reliable creative agency that partners with our clients to help them grow their online audience and get amazing results. Learn more about our website care plans.

We focus on beautiful web design that delivers results for your organization. Our specialty is creating customized WordPress websites.

Effective websites require security, backups, updates and maintenance.

About Us

Johnny Flash Productions

Johnny Flash Productions is a creative agency based outside of Washington D.C. that focuses on digital strategy, web design and development, graphic design and event production that helps businesses get better results from their marketing.