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Update your site or R.I.P (Rest in Pixels)

Author: Carl Heaton
He is our senior instructor and originally from Manchester UK. Carl teaches our Web Design and Online Marketing Courses.
update your site or watch it die
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If you don’t update your site frequently you open your site up to the real problem of  your site becoming less secure and also when users are greeted with the same content for weeks on end. Pretty quickly they will stop visiting your site and go elsewhere. It’d be like still having the article on latest IOS 6 update in your recent news when IOS 7 came out today. People like to be given the latest info.

Keep your site updated

If you don’t update your site frequently you open your site up to the real problem of  your site becoming less secure and also when users are greeted with the same content for weeks on end. Pretty quickly they will stop visiting your site and go elsewhere. It’d be like still having the article on  latest IOS 6 update in your recent news when IOS 7 came out today. People like to be given the latest info.

If you have a website and especially if you run a business you should update your website on a regular basis.  The importance of this cannot be stressed enough.  Do you know how many websites get hacked just because the security used to protect them is not up to date? Statistics show that one in four websites are prone to hacking in the form of viruses which can wreak havoc on a website.  So, with this said it’s easy to assume twenty five percent of all websites are attacked at one time or another. This means that at least a quarter of all websites are not consistently backed up and updated. Here are some tips to update your website! Update your website with new products and content to  ensure you keep your site full of new ideas and information. This also tells your customers you are still active in business and are providing recent updates.

banksy art on brick wall

Take down outdated or out of stock products. This is a way of keeping your site consistently appealing to customers and also allowing them to focus on what is available and not what is not.

dated looking website for educational lessons

Consider updating your website look.  If you have a new website, visual appeal is one the major things that keep your customers coming back.  If your site looks bland and boring chances are your users are going to run away fast.

blog on error on united airlines site leading to free flights

Know what you are doing before you update!  This is critical due to the fact that minor changes can prove to be disastrous if you are unaware of what you are doing and why you are performing certain tasks. Also do small changes then check your site frequently. This will avoid the headache of trying to work which out of your 100 changes messed up your site.

hacking hacking your site

Websites get hacked constantly!

Don’t be a statistic!  By updating your site you may be protecting yourself from cyber attacks you may not be aware of.  Unfortunately the end result can be a nightmare for your website, business and your computer system.  Watch for some common signs like your computer running slow, receiving an excessive amount of spam emails and be aware when your computer informs you your computer has exceeded memory capacities.  Microsoft Essentials can help your computer stay healthy against attacks from malicious viruses.  It’s better to be in the know than not!  A final reason to get your website updated is it is beneficial to your customer growth and base.  Statistics also show that websites that fail to be updated are also vastly ignored by potential customers.  While updating a website can be costly, consider updating slowly and one step at a time. Your computer, your business and customers will thanks you in more ways than one!

Recommended plugins

LockDown

lockdown wp download graphic Essentially this plugin hides the admin login for wordpress when a user is not logged in. Using HTTP authentication you can also modify the access for .php files. The CSS and image files are still accessible in admin. WordPress core files won’t be affected.

Better Wp Security

better wp security features This plugin detects any potential vulnerabilities in site then hides these areas to avoid giving out too much information for anyone looking to penetrate your site security. If for any reason you know your not going to be accessing your site say your on holiday. One feature you can use is away mode. Which disables the ability of anyone to login for a set length of time. It can also detect and block attacks made on your your filesystem and database. Another great feature is being able to detect hidden 404 errors on your site as these could damage your sites SEO.

***** I DIDN”T BACK UP MY WEBSITE!!!!!!!!!

man away to throw to laptop Power surges, viruses & the ever common spilling coffee on your laptop can all leave you in a fit of rage as you loose your data forever. Saving your work is good but what if you save it on your laptop and then its stollen? The key is doing frequent backups in various locations including hard drive backups and using cloud backup services. With websites it remains a very important to be aware of unless you really like collecting data and rebuilding from scratch. Also during this time your site users will probably find an alternative option to your site.

Backing up your site.

WD-DB-Backup

wp dp installation instructions WP-DB-Backup allows you backup pretty much everything including your themes,plugins etc. One thing that may become an issue in the future the lack of frequent updates with this plugin. Being able to backup to Dropbox amongst other options is also a nice feature.

Protect yourself & your data or why not let us take care of it for you?

bangkok-design-agency

Scared by the responsibility for backing up and securing your companies website? Here at Web Courses Agency we have a team of experts that can organise a maintenance plan to look after all of these aspects and advise you on any other concerns you may have. Contact our agency at www.webcoursesagency.com now. Trust me technology has a funny habit of failing the day after you thought about doing a back up.

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