We’re big fans of WordPress, and we’re not alone. Even as new platforms emerge, WordPress remains the most popular website content management system (CMS).
We build most of our clients’ websites in WordPress because it offers an easy-to-learn, easy-to-use interface, giving clients control over their own websites and allowing them to make basic changes with ease. From a design standpoint, WordPress is also extremely flexible and customizable. According to Hosting Tribunal:
- More than a third of all active websites in 2019 are powered by WordPress.
- More than 400 million visitors a month visit WordPress sites.
- More than a quarter of all eCommerce sites are on WordPress.
- There are more than 50,000 WordPress plugins available for customization.
But the popularity and flexibility have their drawbacks. Just like developers and end-users love WordPress, hackers do, too.
Leading tech journal ZDNet reports that roughly 90 percent of all CMS hacks in 2018 were WordPress sites. Experts blamed most of the hacks on vulnerabilities found in plugins and themes, misconfiguration issues, and a lack of maintenance. Only 56 percent of all hacked sites were running an up-to-date CMS at the time of hacking.
Because WordPress plugins are open-sourced, hackers often use them as inroads to your website. It’s quite common for a poorly maintained WordPress website to become a house of spam mail. Breaches in e-commerce websites can be even more disruptive, potentially giving a hacker access to customer info, such as credit card numbers. WordPress has addressed the security issues, but much like the lock on your front door, the onus falls to the website owner.
Sometimes the Hacker is You
It’s not always a hacker who wreaks havoc. Many times, users themselves unknowingly make changes that have repercussions on related pages. What’s worse, many of the errors may go undetected for days or weeks at a time. A seemingly menial update can throw the entire website into dysfunction.
The best ways to protect a WordPress website are to:
- Keep it from breaking in the first place.
- Keep security and maintenance up to date.
Since most of us don’t check our own websites frequently, an ongoing maintenance plan of just a few hours per month can provide peace of mind and confidence in WordPress as your CMS. Each month, our developers can review your site, provide any maintenance and security upgrades, test performance, and check linkages and databases. If we see any potential issues, we’ll nip them in the bud.
Considering the investment you’ve made in your website and the value it provides to your business, ongoing maintenance is a must. Contact us for more details and a no-obligation estimate.