I think my first brush with a WordPress-based website was probably in 2010, when I was in St Luke’s? I think back then, we got a new website thanks to some grants… And I still recall somewhat clearly, during the training, that we were warned not to update the website, lest it crashes etc.
I never really understood why till recent times.
Ok, here’s why:
– It’s probably a customized website, built from the ground up, and not based off a premium theme that you could buy off the shelf.
Here are the pros and cons of a customized theme:
Pros:
You get a very nice and customized look that only you will have.
Cons:
Not updating the website’s WordPress version and plugin versions can also mean that you’ll be more susceptible to hacks and people trying to compromise your site.
And here are the pros and cons of using a premium theme:
Pros:
You can still get a very nice look, with the level of customization depending on the skill (or determination) of the web designer.
The theme developers will roll out updates maybe once or twice a month, to keep up with developments or security.
Could be faster to set up.
Cons:
You might have a website that looks similar to someone else’s, if it wasn’t changed that much off the theme demo template.
WordPress (and plugin) updates are rolled out regularly to not only add better features, but more importantly, to fix security loopholes.
The beauty of WordPress is that it can give you a very professional-looking website which you could maintain yourself, if you spent time to learn how. The trade-off (or ugly side of it) is the people trying to hack their way in.
Though, I must say that no website is unhackable. If you’ve a WordPress-based website, the best way is to go in once a week, or once a fortnight, to check for and run updates.
When running updates, do them in this order, to reduce the chance of something screwing up (based on my experience, heh):
– WordPress version first
– Theme
– Plugin
Personally, I prefer to use a premium theme that receives regular updates, which I can run, to try and prevent hacking.
Anyway, if you’ve a website that uses a customized WordPress theme, ask your developer if it’s safe to install and use a Wordfence security plugin.
That’s one of the best plugins I’ve researched and used so far.
Some stats I’ve seen from the Wordfence plugin I run is… a few thousand attacks blocked within the span of a week on one of the websites I take care of. This happened on other websites I run as well, but thankfully I’ve Wordfence installed on them too.
The origin of the attacks range from countries like America, Russian, Taiwan etc.. So, yeah, it’s probably one of the best things you can install on your own website.
Found this info helpful? Have anything you’d like to know about building or running a WordPress-based website? Comment below or send me a PM!
Cheers,
Theo
