Did you know that the number of cyberattacks is increasing every year. Hackers are attempting to break into a computer “every 39 seconds on average” and this is regardless of industry. Shocking we know!

So let me start with a quick quiz for you to work out how secure your website is.  Pen’s at the ready?

I just need you to answer Yes or No to the following:

1. Do you regularly back up your website?
2. Do you update your website software on a regular basis?
3. Do you have a plugin that mentions the word ‘security’?
4. Do you have a plugins that mention ‘spam’, ‘bots’, or ‘exploits’?
5. Is your login username something other than ‘admin’?

If you said No to 2 or more of these questions then we’d consider your website as ‘not very secure’.  We see this a lot with new clients who ask us to support them with their website updates – 9 times out of 10, the site has not been secured and this is because their website developer is more of a designer who doesn’t really understand the implications of website security. These days, it is important to secure your website, however don’t despair as you are certainly not alone.

Benefits of a Secure Website

• Hackers – Keep Malware and Hackers away! If Hackers come your website and it is not secure they can easily inject all sorts of Malware.
• Visitors Experience – Have you ever been on a site and the URL says that it’s ‘Not Secure’? or you the browser gives you a warning about proceeding to the website. You will especially notice this if you use Chrome as your browser.  If a website isn’t secure people don’t tend to trust it, it’s that simple.  Ensuring you have an SSL Certificate is an important part of securing your site. You want your visitors to have a great experience when they visit your site and feeling safe is part of that experience.
• Data Loss – Have you ever experienced losing data on your computer or saved a file from a previous date and lost all of the information? This works in the same for a website.  By regularly backing up your website and ensuring you backup your site before you make any big changes is vital.  You don’t want, and nor do you have the time to be in a position where you lose all your hard work.

Keeping your Website Secure

• Security Plugins – Using the correct security plugins will prevent hackers from logging into your account. Having a variety of plugins that add extra layers to your security is also important.
• Regular Software Updates – Updating all your plugins, website theme and WordPress core files can prevent your website from falling victim to a hacker.  Regular software updates also can affect the speed of your site.
• Regular ongoing backups – A backup is a saved copy of your website. If anything were to happen or go wrong with your site e.g. you are hacked, the site crashes, user error etc you have a recent backup of your site so you can restore this and no real harm is done.

We hope some of these ideas will help you to keep your website secure and happy.

There are many ways we can assist you with your business administration or marketing needs. Feel free to schedule a call with Nicole and explore how we can support you.