A lot of people think that once a website is built that’s it. They never have to touch it or worry about it ever again. It will just keep working forever, but unfortunately that’s not the case.
A website is much like a car. When you buy a new car you don’t just drive it. You put fuel in it, you service it and you insure it.
Websites need the same love. They need to be updated regularly to the latest technology, they need to be safe guarded against hackers and you need to make sure you have a backup system in place.
I’ve put together my must have premium plugins that will give you peace of mind.
Spam Protection
When you first install your WordPress website, you’ll probably see this annoying little plugin called Akismet. Once your website has been live for a while, you will have wished you had of installed it when you first set up the site as you’re now dealing with 1000s of spam comments on a daily basis. Akismet is free if your website is a personal blog, but for commercial sites it starts from as little as $7 a month. Worth it for not having to deal with all those spam comments.
Hacking Protection & Security Monitoring
If you’re looking for a freebie malware scanner the free Sucuri plugin will do the trick. Whilst it wont be a catch all, it can help you make your website a little bit harder to get into. The free plugin won’t fix your hacked site, it will only tell you it has been compromised, but you can pay for a premium service to get back up and running.
https://en-au.wordpress.org/plugins/sucuri-scanner/
https://sucuri.net/wordpress-security/wordpress-security-monitoring
Backup System
I’ve used a few backup systems in the past for WordPress but hands down my favourite is Vaultpress. Unlike some other third party backup systems it just works and you don’t have to worry about offsite storage at all.
They’ve recently changed the plugin to Jetpack Premium, so not only does it create backups, it also is a great security scanner for your site, protection of your site froom brute force AND it also brings in the anti spam. Best of all worlds.
It starts from just $9 a Month.
A note on custom themes
If you had a website built by someone and haven’t engaged them for regular support and maintenance, a good chance your code could eventually become out of date. It is super important to ensure your site is up to date with the latest versions, but getting trigger happy on something you don’t under stand could potentially break your site. It’s best to check in with whoever developed your site to make sure it’s OK to hit the update button.
Yes some of these options aren’t free, but it’s insurance for your website which could save you loads in the long run if you have your site hacked.