Your website is one of the most important investments you will make into your business. It represents your company online, serves as a point of contact for current and potential clientele, and helps you market your services to your target demographic. It would be a shame to lose your digital material, or suffer embarrassing technical malfunctions… But that exact situation happens to many business owners all the time.
Hackers frequently target business websites, and repairing the damage can cost time and money. Their bots scan websites constantly, looking for vulnerabilities to exploit as soon as they are available, You want to identify those vulnerabilities and fix them before a hacker finds them and uses them.
This is definitely one of those areas of life in which a little bit of prevention can save you many hours (and possibly, dollars) spent on a remedy. So, how do you prevent your website from being hacked?
With a WordPress site, there is one simple step you can take to help ward off the majority of such problems:
Install all WordPress updates as soon as they are available.
Software designers continually test and improve their products. When they find a vulnerability, they release an update or patch to a program. But if you don’t update your website, you won’t install the patches… and your site will remain vulnerable.
Log in to the back end of your WordPress site. You will see a notification any time plugins need to be updated, or when a new CMS version is available. Themes and extensions will need periodic updates, too. Updates might contain security enhancements to keep your information safer, or patches to existing vulnerabilities.
There is one more important reason to update your WordPress regularly: Some plugins, themes, and extensions won’t work when your WordPress is out of date. Aside from causing potential security issues, this can cause problems with the functionality of your website and frustrate your visitors.
Need help updating and securing your website? Give us a call. We can explain the process, and answer any other questions you might have about using WordPress to your best advantage.
