Why every website needs a 50,000 mile checkup

Oil Change by Flickr User Tobin

Hey, if WordPress is so great why do so many web developers offer maintenance plans? Is WordPress really that insecure? Fragile? Hackable? No! A well-built WordPress site on a good hosting plan is surprisingly secure. So… why should you still get a good WordPress maintenance plan? Here’s how I explain things to my clients: WordPress…

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Good reasons not to rely (completely) on backup from (even really great) hosting plans

So another participant in a private Facebook group for WordPress users echoed something I’d said about the importance of making your own backups. Similar to David Innes I use [a commercial backup plugin] for Scheduled backups ([cloud-based storage firm] is my choice, but there are many others)…And a lot of people when backups have been discussed…

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Don’t tell anyone but we’re beta testing daily backups and WordPress software updates for all maintenance clients…

We’ve been making weekly backups and software updates for our maintenance clients for a very long time.  Since sometime back in 2012.  We started officially in late 2013 or early 2014.  We always watch for malware and software vulnerabilities and run updates as soon as developers release fixes. When we upgrading our hardware and software earlier…

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Noooo! A blogger went 14 years without backing up… and now it’s gone

One of the first pillars of website security… no the first pillar of website security: make frequent backups.  Make backups early and often.  Make backups because annoying things can happen to your server.  Make backups because bad things can happen to your accounts.  Make backups because catastrophic things can happen to your entire 14 years of literary and…

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Why we keep your backups on another server…

Image of smoking network cable

The phone call from a former client that made us take long-term maintenance seriously: “Do you have a backup of my website?  I accidentally deleted my site from my server!”  It’s not that easy to delete your whole site, but from time to time people do.  Not as catastrophically as the owner of a web…

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What Would You Do If Your Site Completely Disappeared?

Recent database server-failure messages.

Nobody wants to see messages like these when they visit their website.  Or their hosting company.  Or their website control panel. And the good news?  Usually you don’t! It’s even better news if you have regular, recent backups stored somewhere besides your hosting company’s servers. That way, if bad comes to worse and your hosting company has…

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