6: Website security 

With the likes of the NHS, Sony, Equifax, TalkTalk all getting in the news for being hacked in recent times, sadly, gone are the days when organisations could safely put up a web site and reasonably and responsibly assume it would be ‘safe’.  Even small websites have potential uses to malicious hackers and no website owner can afford take their site’s security for granted.

WORDPRESS SECURITY

You will no doubt be familiar with your computer, tablet or phone operating system updating regularly. This is done partly to add functionality, but largely to improve security in order to keep one step ahead of computer hackers.

A web site’s Content Management System (CMS) can be seen as its ‘operating system’, which, like Windows, Mac OSX, iOS and Android are updated regularly to provide continually improving functionality, usability and security. As such, it is prudent to monitor and update the website CMS regularly.

All WordPress sites I produce are protected against hacking, phishing, ‘brute force’ attacks and so on by two security plugins –  iThemes Security Pro and WordFence. By default I use a combination of iThemes Security and WordFence. These are free systems, though both offer more functionality and faster responses in their paid-for ‘pro’ versions.

HOSTING

Having had a quick server check, I see the current TWPF site is hosted by GoDaddy – they’re a decent hosting company. They will offer several levels of hosting and I can’t tell which plan TWPF is on. However, I would recommend that you opt for GoDaddy’s specialised WordPress hosting, which will offer useful performance and security benefits compared to their conventional hosting packages. You can see the options here – https://uk.godaddy.com/hosting/wordpress-hosting

The cheapest option would be fine for a site of this size and the changeover to the new site would be an ideal time to make the upgrade.

Design Example 6:
Bramley & Teal

The company specialise in country and coastal holiday lets. They felt their old image didn’t truly reflect their target audience and requested a complete rebrand, with a younger, fresher look targeting well off, middle class families, the so-called ‘Country Living’ market.

The client was delighted with the result and reported, through their main agency, that:

  • the new design has a built-in expectation of quality
  • they now get fewer time-wasting queries from the bottom end of the market
  • and report a higher conversion rate from enquiries

Click on the image on the right for a larger version.