
Have you noticed it with the update to WordPress 5.0? The doubt about when to exactly update? With such a radical update you always have to wait. We still have not updated our webshops and websites because we are still waiting for one plug-in that needs updating. Apps, webshops, Content Management Systems, games and websites need love and care. It is important to keep everything up-to-date through proper management and maintenance.
Avoid scary things like hacks, viruses and malware
You hear about these things regularly. Awareness regarding hacks, viruses and malware is important for better management and maintenance. You do not want to be the one who makes large amounts of customer information public. Because many CMSs such as WordPress, Magento and others are popular, they are susceptible to hacks, viruses and malware. The more popular a CMS, the more people want to gain unlawful access to it.
Which makes sense because once they have found a back or open door, they can immediately access many apps, webshops or websites.
“Did you know that 78% of hacked sites on the internet are WordPress sites.”
It’s time for good management and maintenance
It’s actually kind of strange that management and maintenance is under the menu section extra services. It is a big part of our work. After delivery, in addition to content creation, we often do the management and maintenance for our customers. It is important that systems are up-to-date at all times. In addition, managing your environment is also important. Who uses all your app, webshop or website? Do they all have good intentions? What do people abuse?
We use extra data for management and maintenance
We manage a lot of customer data. Think of all data within Analytics, Crazy Egg, Clicky. Services that are used for debugging also provide us with a lot of information. Do not forget the server logs. All things that the customer often does not use for proper management and maintenance. Management and maintenance can be a challenge for you because the work that comes with it is usually not in your own toolbox. The more complicated your online platform, the more complicated it is to manage everything and keep it up-to-date.
In general, the tendency is to have the updates performed automatically. Most apps, webshops and website are so extensive that there is always a plug-in that has not yet been updated for the latest version of WordPress. This can cause serious problems and in some cases take your app, webshop or website offline. So it must always be tested whether everything is ready for the last update.
In addition, a new version of a plug-in may no longer work correctly with another plug-in that you use. All variables to take into account before you just press that update button.
If your online platform uses custom code, as many of our customers do, it’s an even more complicated story.
Always remember the steps below if you do it yourself
- Check that all themes and plugins work with the current version of WordPress
- Create a backup
- Update themes and plug-ins
- Update WordPress
- Test if everything still works (If not, reset the backup you made)
Many people forget to make a backup during the update process. Partly because they often install WordPress through the hosting environment. They also turn on update automatically. We do not choose for this ourselves. Partly due to the arrival of Patchman, software on the server at a hosting provider that automatically closes bugs in CMSs, problems sometimes arise.
Always use UpdraftPlus – Backup/Restore before you perform an update within your WordPress environment. If something goes wrong, you can always restore the last backup so you do not have downtime.
We also always back up the server and the database before we get started. Plus a backup with UpdraftPlus – Backup/Restore. The first is not necessary for yourself. We do this because we are responsible for the data of our customers during our management and maintenance. This ensures our customers do not experience downtime if something goes wrong during an update.
We are happy to help
We notice some customers initially choose to manage and maintain their webshop or website themselves. However, after completion, something always happens during the updating, which means they need our help. We help with love because management and maintenance gives us just as much satisfaction as creating. Well, almost.
We actually manage anything. Whether we have built it or someone else. It doesn’t matter us. We’d love to hear how we can help you with this so that you do not become the victim of the mistakes that may occur during updating.
Jouw online concept begint bij Snoober Media
A series about security
It is important to us to inform about online security. Therefore read the previous article, “Security 3 | What is two-step verification? The next step for better security!“, about security. Soon you will read a new article in this series.