Maintaining a website used to be easy. In the good ol’ days, if you built your website correctly, you could pretty much leave it alone and you would be ok.
But as Google continues to tweak their algorithm, hackers continue to create mayhem and technologies get smarter, you need to make sure your website stays up to speed.
3 Things Every Website Owner Should Go Check Right Now:
1) Your Website Forms
When was the last time you checked to make sure your Contact Us form works? Do not take this for granted! Just because it worked at one point doesn’t mean that it still works right now. You should be testing your contact forms every few months to ensure they are working correctly. You could be losing business, so go check now!
2) Make sure your domain and hosting are on auto-renew
I see it about once a week. A client calls in because their website or email is down and most of the time, it is because their credit card expired and they ignored warnings from their registrar or hosting company, or they didn’t have their domain and hosting set to auto-renew. For most businesses owners, their website is their lifeline, so they should buy their domain and hosting several years out. At bare minimum, make sure that both your domain and hosting are on auto-renew so they don’t go down.
3) Security – Keep your software up to date and have a backup
Ninety-five percent of small businesses have a WordPress website. It is the most popular content management system in the world thanks to its robust functionality and flexible features. But because it is so popular, this also means it is the most targeted by hackers/spammers.
To keep your site safe, follow these rules:
1) Never use “admin” as your WordPress username.
2) Use a strong password with a symbol (! # $ % &) and a number.
3) Keep all of your plugins updated.
4) Keep your WordPress software updated.
5) Use a plugin called “Login Lockdown”. This limits the number of login attempts which prevents most hacking attempts.
Lastly, make sure you have a backup of your site. There are several plugins that will create backups for you. Our favorite is a plugin called Backup Buddy.
If you follow the advice above, you won’t experience the headaches that occasionally come with your website.