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Website maintenance is one of the most important regular tasks if you have your own website.
Unfortunately, however, owners tend to neglect this, and anyone who has a web hosting service where at least the basic maintenance tasks are automated is lucky.
Regular checks and maintenance are essential not only for preventing faults, but also to ensure that the website meets requirements in terms of security and user experience.
Website maintenance is a complex equation involving many factors, and below we not only share the most important information with our readers, but also highlight just how much the right web hosting can help with this.
Would you like a website that’s easy to maintain? The key to this is the right hosting: buying web hosting.
How can you check a website’s security whilst it is undergoing maintenance?
As we have already mentioned above, the security of a website is always made up of a great many factors, so it is difficult to highlight every single one, but the most important ones are as follows.
Protection against security threats
Malicious threats are very common amongst websites. Such software is usually installed externally on the web hosting server, so it is worth choosing a hosting provider that offers adequate protection against such attacks.
A better web hosting service already offers active protection against threats such as malware, SQL injection and brute-force attacks.
Continuous renewal of SSL certificates
SSL certificates are particularly important for website security, as they ensure that data transmitted between websites and users is encrypted. Regular renewal of SSL certificates is vital for user security and can even be considered beneficial from an SEO perspective.
A good web hosting provider automatically updates these SSL certificates, so if you choose the right one, you won’t have to worry about this either.
User access
User access rights are also a key part of basic website security. Good web hosting and proper website programming ensure that users are granted only the necessary permissions.
However, it is worth checking regularly to ensure that people do not have unnecessary access, and it is also advisable to check the strength of passwords and ensure they are changed from time to time.
You also need to keep an eye on software updates
When it comes to website maintenance, it is essential that the software is always sufficiently up to date. Some of this depends on having the right web hosting, but for the most part it depends on the system administrator and the website owner.
Which software needs to be kept up to date?
Content management system
Every website has some sort of content management system, or CMS for short. WordPress is one example of this. Installing it on a good web hosting service is easy to do via cPanel, but users need to keep an eye on subsequent updates themselves.
This is very important because support is provided on a regular basis, and an outdated CMS can easily pose a security risk.
Plugins
There are a great many plugins that can be installed for content management systems. It is the user’s responsibility to keep these up to date, as, like the CMS itself, they pose a security risk. It is also important to remove any plugins that are no longer needed.
Backups
It is rarely mentioned in the context of website maintenance, yet backups are essential for ensuring that a website remains in perfect condition from this perspective.
The backup is when a copy is made of a website’s entire content and database, thereby preventing data loss in the event of a hacker attack or server failure.
A good web hosting provider automatically creates backups, so it’s worth choosing one where this feature is included as part of the basic service.
Why are backups so important?
As we have just explained, the importance of backups cannot be overstated. This is because a website is exposed to a great many risks, and this includes not only external attacks but also, for example, server failures and accidental deletions.
If we do not have a backup, in the event of such a problem our entire website could be lost, which could cause enormous damage – financially, of course. If a backup is in place, we can arrange for recovery very quickly in such cases.
How often should you make backups?
The frequency of backups is generally determined by how often a particular website is updated. If new content is uploaded to it on a daily basis, it is essential that this function is activated on a daily basis.
If you have a website that is updated less frequently, weekly or monthly backups will suffice. Ideally, you should have a web hosting service where this can be automated, as this means that, depending on your settings, you won’t have to worry about it at all – thereby eliminating the possibility of human error, amongst other things.
How can we store our backups?
It is also very important to pay close attention to the methodology for storing backups, as it is essential to eliminate any possibility of data loss caused by a server failure. It is therefore advisable to choose a web hosting provider that stores your data and backups on, for example, two servers.
In addition, it is important to consider the option of local backups, as this usually offers the quickest and most effective means of recovery. We can store the backup on our own hard drive, or even in the cloud, whichever is simpler for us.
More importantly, we must ensure that encryption is in place, as this is the only way to guarantee that sensitive data is always secure and cannot fall into the wrong hands; and if it does, that the unauthorised parties cannot make any use of it.