Welcome to our latest blog section on website management. Today, we will be discussing three critical aspects of managing your Joomla! or WordPress website: security, updates, and monitoring. Every website requires regular attention, and neglecting them can lead to serious consequences. In this section, we will explore how these three elements can help you manage and safeguard your website effectively.

1. Security
Security is crucial when it comes to website management. Regardless of the type of site you run, you need to ensure that it is secure from hackers, malware, and other digital threats. There are numerous ways to improve your website security, such as using strong passwords, using secure hosting, installing an SSL certificate, and setting up a web application firewall. Wintercorn recommend Cloudflarefor both the speed and security improvements it adds - even with the free plan. We have used Cloudflare as a default option on all new builds and hosting as of 2020.

2. Updates
Regular updates are vital for website management. The web is always evolving, and your website must keep up with the changes. Outdated themes, plugins, and other software can pose security risks that could compromise your website's integrity. Regular updates will help ensure that your website's functionality and security remain intact. We update your site core files and extensions/plugins as required. There are many plugins we trust to update automatically but most are tested on our dev site and then those updates rolled out to client sites.

3. Monitoring
Monitoring your website traffic is crucial for website management. Regular monitoring can help you identify performance issues, detect security breaches, and optimize your website's functionality. There are various website monitoring tools available to help you track your website's traffic, such as Google Analytics, Pingdom, and Uptime Robot. We use Watchful which allows us real-time alerts for downtime, file changes and many other important issues.

In conclusion, effective website management requires the implementation of regular security checks, updates, and monitoring to safeguard your site's integrity, functionality, and performance. Neglecting any of these elements can leave you vulnerable to digital threats and undermine your online presence. Stay on top of your website management to ensure that your site remains secure, up-to-date, and optimized for better performance.

To effectively manage your Joomla! or WordPress website you need experts with the experience, knowledge and tools. You need Wintercorn.

Contact us today to discuss how we can help.

Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are increasingly a fact of life for any business with a web presence. For any company, large or small, it’s no longer a matter of “if” you will get hit with a DDoS attack, but “when.” And without a third party provider who site between your site and the internet, WordPress and Joomla! sites are increasingly vulnerable to bots delivering DDoS attacks.

Why only WordPress and Joomla! sites you may ask - it's not just them but these platforms make up most of the CMS based sites on the internet and are often owned by people with limited technical knowledge on $1 per month hosting plans. Add to this the fact they haven't been updated in ages and it makes easy pickings for hackers and other malicious actors.

We were asked by a client recently what sort of projects we have on the go at any one time and the answer was - "it varies".

This is what we have on for Summer 2018 though.

If you run a WordPress site you may have noticed a new notice appearing when you login to the admin dashboard. This announces the release of Gutenberg, a new type of editor which works a little like those large, clunky page builders we've been using for years.

It replaces many, if not all, shortcode plugins with its own blocks and actually works quite well. Because it's integrated in to WordPress it's likely to be quicker for pages to load and easier for even basic users to create complex pages with CSS style functionality.

It is being offered to a subset of WordPress users right now but will become standard in WordPress 5 - expected maybe Q1 2019.

It's not going to change the world for many people, but it might make adding and editing posts easier and quicker for less capable users. We have clients with several WordPress sites and staff training is always ongoing so Gutenberg might reduce that requirement and let them get on with their business.  Our own tests on our own sites suggests that we can do away with widgets, plugins and shortcodes and start with a blank page laid out how we want and simply have to add the textual and media content.

If you want to try Gutenberg, just ask your account managerand we'll create a clone of your site that you can test it on without affecting your live site.