Day 20 – Website Maintenance and Security
Keep Things Running Smoothly
By now, you should have a website up and going strong but there are some things you should understand about how websites today work.
Your website is software – just like on your computer. Instead of running on your computer, it runs another computer called a server. The server serves things up. It serves up web pages. It’s specifically set up for running websites.
Since your website is software, it needs updates. Some updates are bug fixes, some are feature upgrades, some are security fixes and some are a combination of bugs, features and security updates.
Your website sits on a server that is public accessible. It’s meant to be accessed by anyone but that access also means that hackers are trying to get at it, too. They’re either trying to install their own programs or send out spam or set up a hidden website or just mess up your website for fun. They’re sick people if you ask me. Because it’s public accessible, you need to keep it up to date or else it could be compromised.
If your site is compromised, it’s up to you to clean it up. You may need to get a backup from your host or remove infected files. It can be a mess and a huge waste of time plus your website could be down. Your host might take it down or the hackers might have done that. It stinks.
The way to help make sure this doesn’t happen is to do the WordPress core updates, plugin updates and theme updates. As soon as you see them come out, do a few clicks and get things updated.
How to Do WordPress Updates
Instead of create the video, I found a good one that’s out there, so check this out:
Easy, right?
There’s really no reason to not do them. Do a backup first. Your host can help you with this.
What if You Need Help?
After you do a WordPress upgrade/update, you should test your website. Go and make sure pages work. If a page doesn’t work, then you might have some problems. There could be a plugin that broke or some JavaScript conflicts or any number of things.
You can try disabling plugins. If that doesn’t work, then get a backup from your host or use the backup you took.
If you really have no idea how to do any of this (and don’t really want to learn), then I would suggest using my website company’s Website Maintenance Department. We do this kind of work all the time:
Website Maintenance Services (tonyherman.com)
Conclusion
Keep up with updates to help make sure everything runs smoothly. That’s really important. I do that and not many of my sites get hacked. Sites I forget about or neglect have been hacked.
