What New Babies Can Teach You About WordPress Security & Maintenance!

 
I’ve got my nephew Neil, his wife Jo and their adorable newborn baby daughter Naomi (just 4 months old) visiting us from the UK this week, and it really got me thinking about WordPress Security & Maintenance…

You see, it’s been quite a while since I’ve been around a tiny baby and it’s amazing how much things have changed. I’m most impressed at how technology has impacted parenting and the processes of care, feeding and safety monitoring for babies.

Baby Maintenance

Sure we had a baby monitor for my daughter, but not a video monitor, where you can keep an eye on her every move without fear of disturbing her. We also had a bottle sterilization unit, which was much easier than what my Mum had to work with way back when, but Neil and Jo have this nifty thing that pops in the microwave for 90 seconds and poof sterilized bottles!

Baby Monitoring

The coolest thing ever though, is this thing that clips onto her diaper when she’s sleeping to monitor her breathing. There’s a tiny green light that flashes to show baby Naomi is breathing normally. If she stops breathing (which babies quite often do while sleeping) this little gizmo vibrates ever so gently to “nudge” her awake again. If the unit senses she still hasn’t resumed normal breathing, an alarm alerts the parents there’s an issue so they can quickly take care of it.

WordPress Security & Maintenance

So what does this have to do with WordPress websites and their security? Well just like with a newborn baby, when we first launch our websites and businesses we’re so excited about the “new life” and opportunities they represent, we tend to fuss over them and take all kinds of precautions to be sure they’re safe, secure and functioning at the peak of health.

Ask any middle child and they’ll be quick to tell you stories of how their parents made much less of a fuss over them than their elder siblings and the baby of the house too. Many a comedian has made us laugh recounting their middle child syndrome woes.

It’s much like that with websites, we start out all gung-ho, quick to tend to every need, but when the chaos of everyday life and business takes over, we sometimes become so focused on adding content, we forget we need to nurture and care for our sites to ensure they continue to run at peak performance.

WordPress Maintenance Releases

WordPress typically has several Security and Maintenance releases each year. They’re always anticipated or followed by a slew of plugin updates to address and ensure compatibility with changes to the WordPress core files. This has a huge impact when you realize the average site will run anywhere from 15 to 30 plugins to add the bells and whistles we rely on for automation, functions and fun.

How do you handle WordPress and plugin updates?

Are you an OCD-updater – dropping everything to update immediately you’re alerted of a new version, or are you more of a laissez-faire – I’ll get to it later kind of updater?

There’s no wrong answer here, both styles have their pro’s and cons. Update too soon and you could be the victim of plugin conflicts, finding yourself in the depths of diagnostic hell trying to figure out which of your plugins is not playing nice with the other kids in the WordPress toybox.

Wait too long to update, and you could be the victim of hackers and ne’er do wells with malicious intent, who found your site with its plugins out of date and vulnerabilities unattended, to be just the kind of irresistibly vulnerable low hanging fruit hackers love to feed on.

Either way, not only are you left with having to diagnose the problem, seek out the source and finally the fix, you’re also losing business. If you’re not losing business by the way, then you have a different problem but let’s focus on the importance of not only nurturing your business but also using the very best tools and technology to keep it safe, secure and running at peak performance.

Sure you can run updates yourself if you remember by the time your regular ToDo list is done, and as long as nothing goes wrong, you’ll be done in a few minutes and right back to work. Those are the “good” days when your “baby” eats, naps, plays and sleeps through the night like… well, like the proverbial baby.

The problem for most of us comes in when the “baby” gets a little congested or one of those updates causes a “conflict-fever” and you’re stuck playing doctor and nurse trying to diagnose the cause, prescribe and then administer the remedy to nurse it back to health.

What’s the WordPress Maintenance Rx?

Imagine how it would feel if had your own WordPress nanny like Mrs. Doubtfire (the one at the end of the movie who had it all under control), someone with gobs of knowledge and the calm, steady hand of experience to watch over, nurture and take care of WordPress and your plugins. Keeping your site safe, secure and up-to-date, stepping in to save the day with the tech equivalent of the Heimlich Maneuver if something does go wrong.

Don’t roll the dice on WordPress Security & Maintenance Updates when you could have the perfect “net-nanny” for your website, it’s our Managed Maintenance & Updates service and it’s an absolute latte-factor decision at just $3.17 per day!

Check out our WordPress Security & Maintenance Updates service and rest assured knowing your “baby” is in good hands…