Not all websites are built equal there are many factors you need to consider when building a new website or redesigning a new one and websites that are built on WordPress are no different.
Backup Your WordPress Website
The most important thing that you need to action when building a website is making sure you have a complete backup for your files, databases and scripts needed to run your website. Complete backups are extremely important especially if have paid a lot of money to have your website designed, developed and built. You wouldn’t want to have to pay to have it rebuilt because you forgot to ask if the website had been backed up properly.
Word of warning – DON’T rely on your website hosting service to back up your website.
1. Hosting backups are often for them in case something goes wrong with the servers at their end.
2. They will charge you to reinstate your website whether it is your fault that the site has gone down or not.
3. Often hosting backups are only kept for a month so if your issue is not discovered soon enough or the automatic backup has gone through after the issue you may not have a backup at all.
How Often Should You Backup Your Website?
How often you back up your website will depend on how frequently you add information or change to your site; at the very least you should back it up once a month. For high traffic eCommerce websites, you should back up your site at least daily. There are lots of cost effective backup services so if you are unsure what backup arrangements you have speak to your developer or the person who is looking after your website. If you have gone the DIY option, then you need to install a backup plugin or engage a monitoring service, such as the below:
- Sucuri – they offer it free if you use their security software (see below)
- Code Guard
- Drop My Site
And many more check the features and what you get for the price before choosing the cheapest.
WordPress Security
Like all website, WordPress websites can be vulnerable to being hacked. Breaches of security on your website can come in many forms some that will lay dormant until a specific action occurs or are triggered by a specific date.
If your website host detects a security breach in your website that is caused by a malware attack, they will often shut your website down and quarantine it. Your website will not be reinstated until the malware has been removed and your website cleaned which can take hours or days depending on how big the problem is and this could result in a loss of income and exposure for your business.
Steps to Protect Your Website From Being Hacked
The first step you should take when protecting your website is to have a strong password. When considering options for your passwords please don’t make these common mistakes:
- The same password for everything. If your security is comprised and you use the same password for your website, bank accounts and more the hackers could potentially hack into many areas of your life.
- Think it won’t happen to me? Complacency won’t protect you and there are many easy ways to protect yourself so keep on reading.
- Using a very weak password such as “MyPassword” and “1,2,3,4,5,6,7”.
Passwords should be a combination of Uppercase and Lowercase letters, at least one number and a special character, auto-generated passwords are complicated but they are less likely to be guessed.
WordPress Usernames
Another common security mistake is using “Admin” as your username. Your username should be more unique than that. If you are writing blog post with and author tag make sure your username makes sense and is suitable for public display.
Prevention is always cheaper than a cure, so install a security plugin onto your website to detect and prevent attacks occurring before they can cause damage to your website or business reputation.
Sucuri or Wordfence are popular security plugins for WordPress and come with both free and paid versions.
Consider Your Customer
When thinking about your website design on WordPress or any other platform for that matter you much consider your customers needs. Minimalistic websites are very popular however if they don’t give your customer, the information they are looking for easily; then they will click the back button before you can snap your fingers. The other issue with minimalistic designs is that Google can’t work out what the page or website is about and therefore SEO and getting listed in search can be a nightmare.
Remember why your customers are coming to your website in the first place, what are they looking to do:
- Buy something.
- Get information.
- Do some research.
- Or for another purpose.
When designing your WordPress website keep your customers needs in mind and make your website user friendly.
Page Hierarchy
Page hierarchy is the way that your web pages and posts are ordered. Remember that we are aiming to give the best customer experience available so pages that have huge long names that are embedded under many pages will not give a good experience. If you change a page that is a parent page and has many pages until it, you will have a big job sorting that out too.
The other thing about the page hierarchy is to be mindful of what they are called, you can use pretty links to make the page names relevant to your audience and the page content; added bonus is it also helps tell Google what the page is about.
Dated page names can be another turn off to your customers, the information may still be relevant however if the page is dated several months or years old your readers may keep going and looking for something that is more recent because they will see it as being more relevant.
WordPress websites are very robust and dynamic way to showcase your business and what you have to offer; by following these 4 must dos when building a WordPress website you will have peace of mind that you are providing a good customer experience while protecting your asset (your website).
Author Bio
Cathy Smith is The Attraction Maven, who has been helping businesses attract the right customers for over 18 years. She offers a digital marketing service at CATCO Enterprise which does more than just build pretty brochure websites that end up in the Google graveyard.
CATCO Enterprises builds WordPress websites that are good looking, functional and achieves your business goal of increasing your digital presence while serving your customers in the best way possible.
Cathy is business owner, blogger and a podcaster who is committed to helping business people, like yourself thrive and build a business that you love.
Hero Image Source: Pixabay
