The Importance of Updating your Website
In 2019, as a society we’re more connected than ever. And the internet has played a large part in this and affects all walks of life.
As a business owner nowadays, it is inconceivable to imagine running a company without any form of online presence.
Whether it be a simple, one-page website or active social media accounts, there needs to be at least something. You risk missing out on a large amount of business if you dismiss the importance of digital marketing.
This is why many business owners have begun making their online presence a priority.
There’s a great deal of work that goes into creating a website and making it look and function how you want it to.
However, maintaining it is also vital and there are measures to take to ensure your site’s safety and security.
Hackers are always on the lookout for holes and ways in which they can infiltrate through to different websites, even if the information on the pages is of no use to them.
Why might hackers choose your site?
Hackers might choose to penetrate your site for a whole host of reasons.
You might think you’re exempt from any danger and have nothing to worry about. Especially if your site doesn’t hold any information such as bank details, personal information etc.
This isn’t the case though.
Here are four of the most common reasons that someone might hack your website for reasons other than monetary gain/to gather personal information:
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Practice
Some hackers might just be practicing. It might not be your thing, but some people do take pleasure from the activity and hack for fun.
Check out these guys who got legitimate jobs by hacking websites.
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Send out spam
If hackers gain full access to your site, they can send out spam without hacking into your emails. Your IP address could be blacklisted, and it can have dramatic effects on your site’s SEO ranking.
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Add invisible links to your site
If hackers have been on your site but nothing appears to have changed then they may have added invisible links to their site as your business links might improve their SERP ranking. It will only boost their site for a short time and will hinder yours.
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Use your sites to infect other computers
Access to your site could provide hackers with the opportunity to add code or Trojans to it that download dangerous content to other user’s computers.
Take care of your plugins to combat hackers
Looking after your plugins with careful maintenance is an essential means of protecting your site.
Here’s a little bit about what you need to do and why:
Update your plugins often
Plugins can be extremely useful to your website and they can assist with the build, the maintenance and various other aspects of it.
If they’re not updated to the latest version though, they can develop holes that leave your website wide open to being hacked.
The best way to ensure that this doesn’t happen is to audit your site every week and check for new updates.
If new updates exist, install them. It shouldn’t take a massive amount of time and can be very beneficial to the maintenance of your site for security reasons and more.
A lot of the time, updates to plugins aren’t going to add in new mind-blowing features.
They will be bug fixes that deal with a security vulnerability that has come to light.
Why should I update them?
Other than weak or leaked passwords, plugin vulnerabilities are one of the easiest ways for hackers to weave their way into your website and cause disarray.
The latest updates mend the issue in question and make it harder for the hackers to gain access.
The older versions of the plugin will remain susceptible to the problem, so it’s in your best interest to stay on the right side of the newest version.
Choose your plugins wisely
The quality of the plugins you choose to use may make a significant difference to the safety of your site too.
As a rule, you should only install plugins that are rated 4-5 stars and have been installed by thousands of people already.
You can be pretty sure that these plugins have a low level of risk associated with them.
It’s highly unlikely that thousands of people would install a plugin and choose to rate it 5 stars if they’d encountered serious issues.
It’s worth noting that paid plugins don’t necessarily guarantee you safety either. Issues come with all plugins and so updating both paid-for and free plugins should be completed regularly.
Guarantee Safety from the Start
The platform you choose to run your website through needs to be a secure one.
The likes of WordPress, Joomla and Magento are among the most popular and they’re popular for a reason.
They allow you to take control and manipulate the design of your website easily and the CMS is simple to navigate through.
They are also the safest bet when considering the security threats you might face once your site goes live.
If you’re just starting out and are looking to create a website for your business or any other endeavours, then it’s best to begin on the right foot.
It’ll save you time and effort in the future and by choosing a well-known platform you reduce the risk massively.
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