Pop Quiz: Someone just hacked into your WordPress website and your site that you paid thousands of dollars for is now gone. Or, your last update to your website caused it glitch and it’s now broken beyond repair…
If your answer was anything other than D it’s time you had a serious talk with someone who can make sure that your work is backed up, and who can help you put everything back together in case things break down – no matter what the reason is.
The fact is WordPress websites are not foolproof. Sure, they’re fantastic because they’re user-friendly and Google-friendly, and in most cases they’re perfect for a D-I-Y site, that is until something goes wrong. And something WILL eventually go wrong.
Did you know that there are TONS of reasons your website could crash?
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Maybe the kid from down the street who said he was great with computers wasn’t as good a deal as you thought |
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Perhaps you decided to try out a new theme and when you hit “activate” something in the inner workings deleted all of your pages |
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Maybe you opened an email attachment from your dear Aunt Sally and all of a sudden your entire WordPress site was infected with malware |
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Could be that you simply hit update on your plugins and, for seemingly no reason at all, your website is gone |
What would it take for you to recreate your website?
Do you have copies of all your text and images in one place? (You know, other than on your WordPress site?) Even if you do have all of your materials, and the capability and know how to rebuild, would you really be able to reproduce your site?
Even if you COULD put your website back together from scratch – think about how long it would take, how much time and money you would lose in the process, not to mention the potential clients who visit your URL only to find an error message while you’re frantically trying to repopulate your pages from memory.
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I’m Laurie Cantus, owner of the amazing Go2Girls Virtual Assistant team and I have seen far too many business owners devastated, depressed and desperate for help because their website crashed.
For most business owners, a website is the heart of their company. And when it breaks down, so do they. Over the years, I’ve seen so many people lose hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars when their website went down, simply because they didn’t have the right systems in place to protect their work.
As both an entrepreneur and someone who supports other business owners with technical tasks such as creating and maintaining WordPress sites, I know firsthand how important your website is – and how much freakin’ work goes into building, updating and monitoring them!
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No matter where you are in business, if you have a WordPress site, it’s likely that you spent days or even weeks pouring over all the pieces that go into building a web presence. Choosing colors, designing the menu, uploading images, organizing materials and of course the copy … all that long and laborious writing that comes with creating a website.
The sad truth is, sometimes websites just break. Whether it’s a faulty plugin, a wonky theme update or some jackass who uses his or her computer brilliance for evil instead of good (aka the “bad guy”, or cracker) … eventually, something will go wrong with your site.
Formatting conflicts could happen, functions could stop working or – worst case scenario – EVERYTHING could just disappear.
Still, there are other things that could go wrong besides a complete loss.
Malware could be introduced into your system, which can install a virus on your computer or website (which can then install the virus on OTHER people’s computers and websites). Malware can also install password-stealing programs, or cause your content to change or redirect people to other websites that offer, you know, other services that you probably don’t want associated with your heart-centered coaching programs, for instance.
What’s super frustrating is that so many business owners start looking for help with securing their WordPress site AFTER a crash happens, when it’s too late for anyone to do much more than provide a shoulder to cry on and then help try to puzzle all the the pieces back together.
Like I mentioned before, WordPress sites are fantastic and their increasing popularity among business owners is well deserved. WordPress allows anyone to build, design and populate their own personalized website. Unfortunately, WordPress is also growing in popularity among hackers. Whether they’re doing it for simple malice or for profit doesn’t really matter in the face of damage done. So, the question becomes:
What is the best way to prevent a cracker, virus, wonky plugin update, or some other kind of unexpected calamity from destroying the website you worked so hard to build?
WordPress Security Begins with Website Backup
If you don’t back up your site on a regular basis and you lose it due to malware / mistakes / broken plugins or updates / hacking / etc., what would you do? For most business owners, the possibility of recreating their website – their most prized business possession – is pretty unlikely. Plus, watching all your hard work go down the drain is so disheartening that you wouldn’t want to go through it all again, even if you had the ability to do so.
It goes without saying that most of us buy insurance for the things we hold precious: our cars, our boats, our homes, our lives … and wouldn’t you just feel like dying if your precious website disappeared?
Backing up your website is just like investing in insurance. It offers the security and peace of mind that goes with knowing your site is protected or, in this case, recoverable.
In any scenario – whether your website is completely wiped, severely infected, or just plain broken – it’s not really a big deal as long as you have a reliable backup that you can easily restore.
In my work with business owners who built their own WordPress websites, I’ve learned that the vast majority of them don’t give their site a second thought once it’s launched … which is a HUGE problem.
A solid, reliable, current backup is absolutely essential if you want to protect your site and secure your content.
There are 2 backups that you need to create on a regular basis:
• Database Backup: This protects your pages, posts and the content you create for your website.
• Site Backup: This protects the work you did to make your site stunning including the theme, widgets, and all that time-consuming customization.
Plus, it’s important to update and maintain your site on a regular basis. This includes updating your plugins and themes … and making sure that you have a good backup in case something goes wrong in the process. Because WordPress is so user friendly, updates can be done with the simple click of a button on your dashboard … which is actually pretty scary.
That’s because sometimes when you update a plugin or theme, something breaks, or, there could be a flaw in the code or an incompatibility with your customizations. Unless you’re super computer savvy, you’re not going to know until it’s too late to do anything about it. So, it is absolutely essential that you not only have a backup, but that you’re sure it’s a good one so if something does go wrong, you have the capability to fix it.
Updating and maintaining the security of a website is the dirty work. Creating and then checking your backup takes time. It is super risky to do updates without a backup. Then again, not doing updates puts your website at risk too, which means you will really need that backup if you don’t get things sorted out. You can see that this could get complicated.
Keeping your WordPress site secure and up to date will help prevent things from going wrong.
There are many things you can do to keep your site safe:
Update plugins and themes as soon as they become available
Keep your version of WordPress current
Change default settings to deter hackers
Make sure your username isn’t easily hacked or guessed
Have an ultra-secure password on your site
Delete unused or inactive plugins and themes
Install the right security plugins (and update them regularly!)
But let’s be real – who has the TIME?
Even if you do have the time – do you know what you’re doing? (Or, wouldn’t you rather be spending time building your business and focusing on what you do best?)
If you are like most business owners I know, you are far too busy to monitor your backups or stay tuned to plugin, theme and WordPress updates. And, unless your business is “websites and computers”, your strengths and passion probably lie somewhere else, meaning that you’re going to need help when it comes to the techie stuff. And that’s fine because the truth is you have far better things to do with your time and energy … you know, like running your business and serving your clients!
Introducing the Go2Girls WordPress Backup and Monitoring Package
This customized WordPress Backup and Monitoring Package was specially created to take care of all of your website’s backup, update, and maintenance needs, without you having to do a thing.
We will set up security and monitor your system to make sure everything is running smoothly, and that your data is backed up in cases when they don’t. That way you will know that you are doing everything possible to ensure your website doesn’t get hacked, and if it does, to make sure you’re protected and back up and running in no time at all.
Have you been monitoring your backups to make sure they are up to date, and working?
Are you watching for plugin, theme, and WordPress updates?
Do you know how to use or restore your website backup if you need it?
If your answer to any or all of these is no, let us do it for you!
| Here’s what you will get:
* Installation and configuration of our standard security suite of plugins to help protect your site in its day-to-day operations * Installation and configuration of the world’s best backup software (we use Backup Buddy) * Automatic daily backups of your site, so you know you always have a current, working backup of your entire database and website. * Backups stored securely in world class data centers so they will be available, even if your website isn’t * During the initial setup, we will remove unused and inactive themes and plugins |
| PLUS! Monthly monitoring:
* Your plugins, theme and WordPress updates will be maintained and updated on a weekly basis * We’ll provide you with direct access to your personal database and site backups so you have them when you need them or want them * And, we’ll move your backup storage from your server to Amazon S3 so you don’t clog up all of your server space Best of all! If your site becomes infected, is hacked into, breaks unexpectedly or crashes due to some unknown reason, we will restore your site to the most current backup within 24 hours (M-F) at no additional cost! (**We will need access to your web host for this step, in most cases) |
How much would you be willing to pay for this level of peace of mind?
Hundreds? Thousands?
Don’t worry … you won’t have to pay anywhere near that amount.
For a limited time, we will configure and set up your complete WordPress Backup and Monitoring Service for only $97! ($147 Value)
After that, we’ll keep you updated and serviced for just $29 a month.
Imagine! Rest easy knowing that we’re on the job, securing and monitoring your website so that it works at its optimal level at all times. You’ll also get the added bonus of peace of mind knowing that if anything ever does go wrong, you have someone who can fix it quickly and easily … no stress, no hassle and no extra charge!
And, if you sign up now, we’ll even give you the first month of monitoring absolutely FREE!
That’s your complete backup system: Backup Buddy, Amazon S3 storage, standard security plugins, and automatic safeguards against hackers, broken code and the myriad other things that can go wrong with your site for less than you pay for Starbucks in a month!
Sign up now by filling out the form below or contact us for a free 15-minute consultation.
Besides your website, your content and your business … what do you have to lose?