We’re always hearing horror stories of businesses websites going down in crucial times, functionality breaking and worst of all…hackers breaking in. There are some really simple precautions we can do to prevent this from happening. Simple updates of your website could be all it needs to keep ticking over, happy & healthy.
You should think of your website like a car. Your car needs servicing and MOT’s once a year to keep them working as they should, looking and running perfectly.
Your website is no different.
Sometimes things go wrong and technology moves on leaving your website behind and unable to function correctly.
There are simple ways to give your website the MOT it needs, for example updating plugins and moving to a faster server.
We’re looking closer at how these things can affect your website performance and functionality.
- Updating your website plugins
- Moving to a faster server
Updating your website plugins
Updating plugins is often something that can be overlooked, but failing to do so can lead to a lot of trouble for you in the future. Neglecting to update plugins can cause the following problems:
- Breach of security & fixing bugs
Hackers are always looking for security mishaps to take advantage of. It’s just what they do. Hacker’s see big security breaches on plugins and quickly learn how to exploit that vulnerability to attack websites.
A good chunk of plugin updates are there to fix security issues. When security issues are fixed but you don’t update them, hackers know exactly where to attack your website from.
Besides poor password choices, compromised plugins are one of the quickest and easiest ways for hackers to get into your site.
Yell Business estimates that over 30,000 websites are hacked daily..
- Speed
Website speed plays a huge factor in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), improvements in page loading times can play a big role in reducing bounce rates and keeping your visitors engaged.
The longer your site visitors stay on your website, the higher Google will rank your site when crawling for search solutions.
Updating your plugins will ensure you’re receiving maximum performance benefits. New releases can often come with the ability to improve the speed of your website.
- Updates & Functionality
New plugin updates don’t always just mean bug fixes, they can be for adding extra functionality and adding new features.
Your website functionality will rely heavily on the plugins it’s built with, ignoring these updates will sprouts issues quickly. This is just the beginning of what could be quite a complex problem.
There are a wide variety of issues that could be generated from not paying attention to your plugin updates.If updated correctly and timely, these updates can give your website additional functionality to improve your general website usability and design!
Moving to a faster server
By now everyone knows the value of speed on the internet, it leads to higher conversions, less frustration, more loyalty, and higher rankings on Google.
What’s not to like?!
A hosting server is a place where your website and all its files are stored, depending on the server you chose to host your website, there will be varying degrees of speed.
Bigger hosting servers like the typical ‘GoDaddy’ will vary in their speed because of the sheer mass of their hosting scale. Most of the time your hosting server isn’t concrete and you have the ability to change as and when you like.
Something else to think about is whether or not you’d like to be on a shared hosting server or a dedicated server.
Dedicated web hosting is the fastest option, but can be costly, it’s down to your personal preference and what kind of speed your site demands.
At Solution17 we offer both shared and dedicated servers to accommodate businesses of all sizes.
When your site has more speed it allows you to upload more content, video, and images without it slowing your site down. The first thing your website visitors will see when they land on your website plays a big part on whether they stay on your site or bounce off.
40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load says Neil Patel.
There can be security issues from your hosting as well as from your plugins.
Using a hosting provider that gives your website more security as well as faster speed is recommended.
Your server should have security policies in place for example frequently backing up your website, so should it be compromised you’ll have a recent back-up.
Solution17 uses best practices when designing and developing your website to keep it happy and healthy. To get the most out of your website we recommend opting in to a maintenance package that supports the on-going well-being and functionality of your website.
