Upgrading WordPress is easy – just check some boxes and click a button. But it’s actually more complicated than that. Upgrades don’t always go smoothly, and they could potentially break part, or all, of your site.
The “80/20” Approach to WordPress Security
Securing your WordPress site is essential, especially when your business depends on your website. Hiring someone to fix your site can get expensive. And if your website is unreachable for days, or even weeks, how much will that cost you in lost revenue?
The best approach to security is to start with prevention. It’s much faster and cheaper than having to deal with a hacked website. Although you can never secure your site completely, you can prevent the majority of attacks with a relatively small amount of effort.
The True Cost of WordPress Maintenance
The WordPress software is free, and you can get basic web hosting and a domain name for $5-10/month. So your total cost of ownership should be less than $100 per year, right?
Only if you’re willing to endure slow load times, intermittent downtime, and are willing to devote hundreds, maybe thousands, of hours into learning the ins and outs of WordPress so you can maintain and fix your site. You might think that once you install WordPress, choose a theme and plugins, and add in your content, you’re done. But that’s only the beginning.
Proper Website Maintenance
Regardless of what kind of website you have, you need to make sure you have proper backup and security procedures in place. And if you are using any kind of software, such as a content management system like WordPress, you also need to be attentive to upgrades. If you have ever managed a website or had the unfortunate experience of being hacked, you know how important these three aspects are, and how disastrous the consequences can be.
Password Security
If you’re like most people, you probably use the same password for most of your accounts. That password is easy to remember, and probably includes a person’s name or a word in the English language. If any of this sounds familiar, then you have a serious security problem. If one of your accounts hasn’t already been hacked, you should consider yourself extremely lucky. We recommend that you change all of your important accounts to use secure passwords before it is too late.
