Let’s start with what website hosting actually is. Just like you pay rent on your office space, you also need to pay for your online space. It’s this that allows your website to be live and functioning. Having a trustworthy website host is the difference between any small issues being sorted quickly and efficiently before they cost you in sales and revenue, and losing access to your entire website.
A Cautionary Tale
We recently got a call from a local business who said their website had been hacked. Their Developer was unavailable which left them in a really tricky situation. We did what we do best and we managed to help them get their site back up and running.
However, it got us thinking about how we could help our fellow businesses to avoid this situation in the future. We came up with a list of questions that you should ask your Developer right now to ensure your website is safe and secure.
What To Ask Your Developer
Do we actually have access to our website?
You would be amazed at how many clients don’t have the login details they need to get into their site. If you wanted to make a change to your site, however small, would you actually have the access to do so?
What happens in a crisis, for example, if your website goes down?
If you don’t have a website care plan in place before a big event or sale, then you could miss out on valuable business, especially if security is compromised. If something happens to your website out of office hours, you need to have a plan in place for who will be there to resolve the issue and fix any bugs. If you don’t, your website could be down for hours or even the weekend losing your revenue and customer loyalty.
Is the website being continually updated?
Updates, especially on WordPress, need to be carried out regularly. Someone needs to be updating your website as well as checking for malware. It’s also recommended to have a record of these updates that you can refer back to.
Is the SSL certificate for my website up to date?
An SSL certificate is a type of digital security that provides authentication for a website and enables an encrypted connection. This is essential from a security standpoint so you want to make sure that your website has one and that it’s in date. If you don’t have an SSL certificate, visitors may not be able to access your website and it may be penalised by Google.
Do you have backups of previous versions of your website?
A good website hosting package will have a timeline back up where you can go back to any point in the website edit history. This is essential when you make a change to your website, decide that you preferred the way it previously was or if you run into issues and want to revert back to a previous working version.
Do you have access to your domain name?
When it’s time for renewal, you’ll need the details to log in and renew your domain name so you don’t lose everything from your website name to emails.
Don’t worry though, we think about all of this as part of our website care package.
The Next Steps…
If you choose us to host your website, you can relax knowing that your website is being looked after by a top team of multi-skilled experts whilst you get on with running your business.
Our website care package includes regular updates of your website and any third-party plug-ins. These are necessary for security and functionality – just as you would update your mobile phone. We will also back-up your website every month and keep the data safe for three months, as well as a seven-day time capsule.
You also get email hosting and half an hour of maintenance work included, such as adding new functionality, editing content, or design changes, and you can tag on additional hours of maintenance on a retainer basis. You can learn more about the features of our website hosting package here.
If you want to receive a free website security audit, follow the link to fill out your details.
Posted on: 15th Jan 2021
