Have you ever opened your email and saw a message like this?

If you haven’t seen this email, then most likely you have something like define( 'WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE', false ); in your wp-config.php file which will disable WordPress’s automatic updates.   If you have seen this email then at least you can be confident that your WordPress Core is up to date but can you be confident that your website is still working properly?

Time To Check On My Website

Once you see that email message the first thing you do (or should do) is open up your website to check on it to make sure everything is working and looking normal.  After clicking through a bunch of pages in detail you find everything seems good.  Great news, you dodged another bullet!  What if everything isn’t working and looking normal?  Error messages at the top of the page, broken layouts, plugins stop functioning correctly and the white screen of death can happen if your theme, plugins and core are not all up to date.  Even if they are you can still have issues depending on your theme and your plugins and how quickly the developers have updated them to be compatible with the new WordPress core.

My WordPress Website Is Broken.  What Should I do?

If you website is broken the first thing you should do is see if your host, developer or YOU have properly setup automatic backup’s of your website’s files and database. What’s that you say?  You do not have any backup’s configured?  That’s a major NO NO.  Now your site could be broken for few days before you figure out what is wrong or find someone else fix the problems.

How Could I Have Avoided This?

The best way to avoid downtime, and issues like these is to have a WordPress Maintenance Plan in place.  These plans will keep your WordPress core, plugin’s and themes up to date.  Automated daily backup’s, security monitoring, security scans and database optimization also come with any of these plans which will keep your website healthy and running smoothly.

 

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Wordpress Maintenance Consultation

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Wordpress Maintenance is a Must Have

You just paid thousands of dollars for a beautiful new WordPress website.  How do you keep it up and running at peak performance? Changing your oil every 3,ooo miles isn’t just a suggestion from your car company, it’s a requirement if you want your car to work. Website maintenance is no different. For your website and your business, it is necessary to make sure your site stays functional and performing well.  Here are 3 reasons not having your WordPress site up to date is costing you and your business money.

Reason #1 – Getting Hacked

Security is arguably the most important reason why you should keep your WordPress website up to date. WordPress is a popular target for hackers (and wanna be hackers), malicious code distributors, and data thieves.

Getting hacked can result in the following:

  • Your host can turn off your website – Now that your site is turned off none of your customers can access it.  This ultimately will lose your company money and perspective clients.
  • Stolen Data –  Data thieves can steal your clients/customers private and confidential data.
  • Google flags your site as insecure – Google can put the big red screen of death up if they scan your site and find any malicious code.  This can result in customers and future customers not trusting your company and loss of revenue.

Reason #2 – Slower Runtime

If your site takes too long to load, then people leave. No one wants to stick around and wait for your content to show up. WordPress maintenance is often seen as a chore, but it’s extremely important. Most web platforms, without a little extra care, can become slow, error prone and unreliable. Unnecessary files and data can slow your site down. Unwanted content such as comment spam can cause you a world of hurt, consuming valuable resources and impact on your search engine rankings. Security flaws can enable attackers to use your site to commit fraud, spread malware and launch further attacks.

Reason #3 – The Cost of Fixing a Broken Site

By not maintaining your site regularly, you run the risk of having to deal with a bigger issue in the long run.  Again,  think of your website as a car…when you get regular oil changes, your car runs at it’s peak performance. Cars that are taken care of regularly are less likely to breakdown and break the bank. The same goes for your website.   Fixing a broken site is costly.  Once your site has been hacked, or if a Plugin or the WordPress Core breaks your theme (or vice versa) it can take hundreds if not thousands of dollars to get it back to where it was before the issues.

Leave it to the experts

You may or may not feel comfortable updating plugins, themes and core, but it’s not what you do best.  Leave your website care to Graphic Lux.   We will make sure your site is always up-to-date, has daily backup’s and is secure!

Sign Up For Any Of
Our WordPress Care Plans &
Get Your First Month 50% OFF

Limited to the Month of April Only

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