How do I give my WordPress site an ‘MOT’? – 10 ways

WordPress is the most popular web platform globally and is generally a solid secure platform but as an open source application it is potentially vulnerable to attack. As we wrote recently in this blog the recent botnek attack was one such instance and the corrective action was easy to implement – change your username from admin and create a more secure password. Should you be worried by these attacks on WordPress? No – by regularly checking and maintaining your WordPress site, as you should do with a car – for example,  you will protect yourself from cyber attacks and be able to implement best practice maintenance for your WordPress site.  Below is a list of 10 ways in which you can give your site an ‘MOT’:

1. WordPress Updates -  When WordPress updates are released update your site promptly. You will receive a notification when you log into the back end of your site.
2. Plugin updates – When all plugins, themes and scripts are updated – update these quickly.  You will receive a notification when you log into the back end of your site. 
3. Backup your site every night.
4. Conduct regular automatic scans to detect vulnerabilities and infections.
5. Create a clear defined recovery process and be ready to execute it.
6. Use an automated tool to let you know the site is down, before your customers do – e.g. Pingdom
7. Use Cloud Servers to host your site and to control the performance of your site. Note – Use Pingdom to test your sites performance against similar sites on the web. Most WordPress sites in typical hosting sites are significantly below average.
8. Distribute your access globally
9. Use Amazon S3 to store images – this is optimised for large image distribution
10. Install a cache plugin to deliver significant speed increases.