The Importance of Website Monitoring & Maintenance: One of the most common misconceptions about owning a website is that “once my website is built, I shouldn’t have to think about it.” This could not be further from the truth. This article outlines some basic website monitoring techniques that will help keep your website strong, safe, and secure.
In 2018, hackers and other bad actors are smarter and more resourceful than ever. They can easily identify websites that are not up-to-date with security standards, patches, and general updates. Over 85% of all websites online today have major vulnerabilities that could easily be exploited.
The Importance of Website Monitoring & Maintenance
So, what exactly is website monitoring, and what aspects of your website should you monitor??
Website Monitoring, plays an important role in maintaining a healthy (and fast) website. Everything from uptime monitoring (insuring your website is always available for your visitors), to WAF (web application firewalls) allow you to keep an eye on the overall performance of your website, while blocking malicious activity before it hits your website. But those 2 things are just the foundation of a strong monitoring strategy.
Website Backups:
Your website should be integral part of your business, and you should have a backup strategy that includes daily backups, and fast redeployment in the case that your website gets hacked or attacked. We recommend following the 14/4/3 (14 daily backups / 4 weekly backups / 3 monthly backups) strategy. Following this (or a similar) strategy will ensure that no matter what happens, you will have a working copy of your website on-hand to deploy in any worst-case-scenario.
Website Butlers recommends backing up your website to an external source like: Amazon S3, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc. Never save your backups on the same server as your website.
Malware Scanning / Removal:
Has your website ever been blacklisted by Google or Norton? Odds are, you had some malware in one or more of your website files. There are several free tools available to scan for malware, but, what do you do when you find malware in your website? Some companies charge hundreds of dollars, or require difficult processes to remove the malware that are hard to follow and understand. That’s where Website Butlers come into play.
We offer a Malware Scanning & Removal plan that will monitor your website 24/7/365 for malicious activity.
Website Speed Monitoring:
Fast sites rank higher in search engines. Fast sites build confidence in their visitors. Fast sites are good for business. Monitoring your website’s page load times can actually increase sales and leads for your business, but more importantly, it will provide your users with the best possible experience.
Tools like Yslow can help you identify why your website is loading at a less-than-optimal speed, and they will give you a simple ranking from A+ – F. It is very important that you understand your website’s speed score, and put together an action list to remediate any issues that may arise.
To be continued…
We appreciate you taking the time to read this article. If you have any questions, feel free to call our support team at 877-WEB-FIXR or email us at support@www.schecherconsulting.com.?