WordPress is a very popular website platform and for the most part, it’s problem free. However, things can go wrong, particularly if you’re not doing your part. Here are 3 WordPress tips to make sure everything runs smoothly.
BackUp Regularly
Make sure you run a regular backup on your WordPress installation. How often you do it should depend on how often you make changes; however, I’d suggest a monthly backup as a minimum. If you make changes daily or weekly, such as adding and removing products, posting blogs or articles, or changing text then you should be backing up more often. If you rarely make changes, then monthly would be enough.
It’s not just enough to run a regular backup. It’s a good idea to store a copy in a couple of places, for example Dropbox and a Hard Drive. That way, if one backup gets corrupted, lost or hacked, you’ll have another copy.
Regularly check that your backups are working, and you can restore your website from them. It’s worthless running a regular backup if it doesn’t work when you need to restore it.
Uninstall Unused Themes & Plugins
Make a point of uninstalling any plugins or themes that you no longer use. Don’t just deactivate them. There have been occurrences in the past where themes that are no longer being updated have been taken over by hackers and used to spread malware.
So, if you’ve deactivated a plugin and not used it for a while, or you have themes you’d installed and not used – delete them from your WordPress installation altogether.
It’s also worth noting that you should be careful which themes and plugins you install in the first place. Look for plugins that have been recently updated, that have a lot of active installations, and that have good ratings. If you’re still not sure, see if they respond to people with help requests and how they responded to negative reviews.
For themes, the WordPress theme directory is a good place to start, as are the more well-known theme repositories. But as with plugins, look at the reviews, active installations and how often it’s updated. You can also check your theme at ThemeCheck.org
Monitor Your Site
There are a plethora of products to monitor security on your website. Some of the most popular are:
Just choose the ones that offer the protection you need and you can rest a bit easier knowing that your site is less vulnerable.
