4 Jul 2024 | CloudHost.One, Security, WordPress
Introduction
WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems (CMS) that powers millions of websites across the globe. It offers a wide range of themes and plugins that allow users to customize their websites and add various functionalities. However, it’s crucial to ensure that these themes and plugins are regularly updated to maintain website security.
In this article, we will explore the importance of keeping WordPress themes and plugins up-to-date to safeguard your website from potential vulnerabilities.
1. Performance Improvement
Regular updates play a crucial role in enhancing the performance of WordPress websites. Here’s how:
Optimized Code
Updates often include optimizations to the code of themes and plugins, resulting in improved efficiency and faster loading times.
Improved Compatibility
Updated themes and plugins are more likely to be compatible with the latest web technologies and standards, which can positively impact website speed and performance.
Outdated themes and plugins can significantly hinder website speed and loading times. This is due to:
- Outdated software may contain inefficient or obsolete code that slows down website performance.
- As web technologies evolve, outdated themes and plugins may struggle to work seamlessly with newer components, leading to slower website speed.
By staying updated with the latest versions of themes and plugins, website owners can ensure their sites run smoothly and efficiently, providing a better experience for visitors while also potentially improving search engine rankings through enhanced performance.
2. Enhanced User Experience
Regular updates are essential for improving the user experience (UX) of a WordPress website. Here’s why:
Improved Functionality
Regular updates ensure that themes and plugins have the latest features and improvements, making the user experience smooth and efficient.
Responsive Design
Updated themes and plugins are usually optimized for responsive design, making sure that websites look good and work well on different devices and screen sizes. This means users can easily access the site from desktops, tablets, or smartphones without any problems.
Consistent Performance
By staying updated, website owners can provide visitors with a consistent and reliable browsing experience. Outdated themes and plugins may cause compatibility issues or display errors, which can frustrate users.
Enhanced Accessibility
Regular updates often include improvements to make websites more accessible for all users, including those with disabilities. This ensures that everyone can navigate and use the site effectively.
Streamlined Navigation
Updates may introduce enhancements that improve website navigation, making it easier for users to find what they’re looking for. This ultimately enhances their overall experience on the site.
With these benefits in mind, it’s clear that regular updates are crucial not just for security but also for delivering a positive user experience.
3. Strengthened Security Measures
When it comes to website security, regular updates play a crucial role in strengthening the security measures of your WordPress site. Here are a couple of important points to consider:
- The connection between regular updates and enhanced website security: Regularly updating your WordPress themes and plugins is essential because it ensures that you have the latest security patches and fixes. These updates are designed to address any vulnerabilities or weaknesses that may exist in the software. By staying up-to-date, you minimize the risk of potential security breaches and unauthorized access to your site.
- Common vulnerabilities in outdated software: Outdated themes and plugins can become easy targets for hackers and malicious actors. As technology advances, new threats emerge, and developers work diligently to address them through updates. When you neglect updating your themes and plugins, you leave your site exposed to known vulnerabilities that could be exploited by attackers. These vulnerabilities can lead to data breaches, loss of control over your website, or even compromise the sensitive information of your users.
To illustrate the importance of regular updates for security, let’s consider an example: Imagine you have a WordPress plugin installed on your site that hasn’t been updated for several months. During that time, a security vulnerability is discovered in the plugin’s code. Hackers become aware of this vulnerability and start exploiting it on websites where the plugin is outdated. However, if you regularly update your plugins, you would receive the patched version as soon as it becomes available, effectively closing off any potential points of attack.
By prioritizing regular updates for your WordPress themes and plugins, you actively take steps towards safeguarding your website against potential security risks. Remember, staying up-to-date helps protect not only your own data but also the trust and privacy of your visitors.
4. Benefits of Updates
Regular updates for WordPress themes and plugins offer several significant benefits that contribute to the smooth operation and optimal performance of your website. Let’s explore some of these advantages:
4.1 Addressing Bugs and Glitches
Updates play a crucial role in addressing bugs and glitches that may exist in themes and plugins. Developers constantly work on improving their products and release updates to fix any issues that are identified. By regularly updating your WordPress software, you can ensure a more stable and error-free experience for your users.
4.2 Compatibility Enhancements
Another key benefit of updates is the enhancement of compatibility between different components of your website. As technology evolves, new devices, browsers, and operating systems emerge, each with its own set of requirements. Regular updates help ensure that your themes and plugins remain compatible with the latest technologies, allowing your website to function seamlessly across various devices and browsers.
For instance, an update to a responsive theme can optimize your website’s layout for mobile devices, making it more user-friendly for visitors accessing your site from smartphones or tablets.
4.3 Improved Performance
By keeping your themes and plugins updated, you can also enjoy improved performance for your website. Outdated software may have compatibility issues or inefficient coding that can slow down your site’s loading speed. This can negatively impact user experience and even lead to higher bounce rates.
On the other hand, regular updates often include performance optimizations that help streamline code, reduce resource usage, and improve overall website speed. These optimizations not only enhance user experience but also contribute to better search engine rankings.
In addition to these benefits, staying up-to-date with WordPress updates ensures that you have access to the latest features and functionalities offered by theme and plugin developers. It also helps protect your website from potential security vulnerabilities.
Effective WordPress version management is a key aspect of website management. By prioritizing updates, you can ensure that your WordPress site remains secure, performs optimally, and provides an excellent user experience. However, it’s important to handle updates properly. Before performing any updates, make sure to backup your website to safeguard against any unforeseen issues that may arise during the update process.
5. Vulnerability Patching
Regular updates play a critical role in patching vulnerabilities in WordPress themes and plugins, which helps ensure the security of your website. Here are some key points to consider:
- Patching Vulnerabilities: Routine updates include security patches that address vulnerabilities in themes and plugins. Vulnerabilities are flaws in software that can be exploited by hackers to gain unauthorized access or control over your website. By regularly updating your WordPress themes and plugins, you stay ahead of potential security threats and reduce the risk of a breach.
- Preventing Unauthorized Access: Staying up-to-date with updates is crucial for preventing unauthorized access and control of your website. Outdated software often contains known vulnerabilities that can be exploited by attackers. By installing the latest updates, you ensure that these vulnerabilities are patched, making it harder for unauthorized individuals to compromise your site.
- Protecting Sensitive Data: Vulnerabilities in outdated themes and plugins can lead to data breaches or loss of control over your website. Attackers may exploit these vulnerabilities to gain access to sensitive customer information, financial data, or even take complete control of your site. Regularly updating your WordPress themes and plugins helps protect against these risks, safeguarding both your data and your users’ information.
Ensuring that you install updates promptly is essential for maintaining the security of your WordPress site. By staying up-to-date with the latest patches and fixes, you minimize the chances of falling victim to security breaches or losing control over your website.
“Regularly updating your WordPress themes and plugins helps protect against these risks, safeguarding both your data and your users’ information.”
With vulnerability patching being a crucial aspect of WordPress security, it’s essential to prioritize regular updates to keep your site protected.
The Risks of Neglecting Updates in WordPress Security
Neglecting updates for WordPress themes and plugins can pose significant risks to the security and performance of your website. Here are some key points to consider:
- Subpar Performance and Glitches Caused by Outdated Software: Outdated themes and plugins can lead to slower load times, unresponsive pages, and overall poor website performance. This can result in a frustrating user experience and deter visitors from returning to your site.
- Security Breaches and Data Loss/Control Issues: Failure to update WordPress components can create vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit, leading to potential security breaches, data loss, or unauthorized access/control of your website.
- Negative Impact on User Experience, Traffic, and Revenue: Outdated software may cause glitches, crashes, or display errors that diminish the overall user experience. This can negatively impact web traffic, user engagement, and ultimately, revenue generation for your business.
By neglecting updates, you expose your website to these risks, potentially compromising its security, performance, and overall success. It’s crucial to prioritize regular updates for your WordPress themes and plugins to mitigate these potential issues.
Conclusion
Regular WordPress updates are essential for maintaining the performance, user experience, and security of your website. By prioritizing these updates, you can ensure that your website operates seamlessly and remains protected against potential threats.
Managing updates doesn’t have to be overwhelming. With hosting providers like CloudHost.One, regular updates are included in most plans. This means your WordPress themes and plugins will be automatically updated without any extra effort from you.
Being proactive with updates not only protects your site from vulnerabilities but also improves user experience and helps maintain traffic and revenue. Regular updates are a proactive way to keep your WordPress site healthy and secure.
24 Oct 2022 | CloudHost.One, Company News, Telecoms
Although we’ve been providing some telecoms services since we started, it’s never been promoted much. A lot has changed over the years, with some of the services we once provided becoming redundant, and we’ve been looking to launch new partnerships over the past year.
Our new services will be going live this week and include:
- Virtual Landline – an 01 or 02 number, that’s not tied to a physical desk phone;
- Call forwarding – routing calls to another phone (landline or mobile) or phones;
- Hosted VoIP – a full internet phone system that can use phones or mobile apps;
- Phone Numbers – not surprisingly – a full choice of local, national or freephone;
- SIP Trunks – if you have your own PBX we can provide the SIP trunk connection.
Virtual Landline and Call Forwarding
The simplest option, a Virtual Landline service provides a local number and routes those calls to another phone, often a mobile. This enables you to receive calls when you’re out and about, or to reroute calls to a colleague as needed. If you are wanting to make calls as well, consider a VoIP option instead of forwarding.
Single VoIP extension
A single VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) extension can be used to add a ‘virtual line’ to your mobile using an app, or to replace a traditional phone line (these are being phased out and all ‘landline’ phones are moving to VoIP). This includes a local or national number, allowing you to both make and receive calls on your chosen device.
Hosted VoIP Platform
If you are looking for more features, we have you covered still. Our VoIP system isn’t limited to a simple single phone line: but if that is all you need we’re not going to complicate things. You can also take advantage of…
- multiple VoIP extensions – great for additional staff or devices
- additional phone numbers (eg different areas of the country)
- call routing control – handle calls in different ways as required
- call groups – route calls to a group of people simultaneously
- conference room – callers can dial in and all speak together
- IVR menu – route calls based on selections from a call menu
- voicemail – callers can leave messages, with email notifications
- call recording – record incoming and/or outgoing calls if needed
Phone Numbers
We can provide numbers for any UK geographic code (starting 01 or 02), as well as on the non-geographic 0330 range or freephone 0800 numbers. We may also be able to take over existing phone numbers by porting them to our platform.
We’ll be adding more information about these services shortly, but please contact us to find out more and we can help tailor a solution for your needs.
21 Jul 2021 | CloudHost.One, Company News
There’s always new things being worked on in the background, and sometimes we forget to shout about them, so here’s a brief roundup of some of the updates over the last couple of months.
WordPress 5.8
A new version of WordPress was released last night – that was what prompted this post – and this is being applied to all hosted accounts. There are some new features with the block builder, though most sites we are aware of on out platform are using other builders and won’t notice the changes.
Support
Thanks to everyone who has remembered the new support address – service@cloudhost.one for those rare occasions when help is needed. Tracking everything here has made things much easier on this side, which in turn means quicker responses and resolution. You may occasionally see emails come from help@managedsupport.online which is the default mail address for the support ticket system, and the one used for some of the white-label support provided in partnership with other providers.
We’re also adding some help articles on the platform at managedsupport.online – this isn’t to replace personal support at all, but you may sometimes be directed to a specific article here to answer some issues (for example, changing DNS records so that we can supply an SSL certificate, or connecting social media feeds).
LiveChat is now available in the admin area of almost all hosted WordPress sites, on the front-end of all our sites, and in the Hosting Control Panel at my.cloudhost.one. We are also trialling a co-browse function that will enable us to request that you share your current browser page when messaging us via chat.
Booking Manager Plugin
We’ve been using a Booking Manager plugin within WordPress to enable customers to book online meetings with us for a while. This has recently been updated and we’ve also updated our licencing agreement so that we can provide this service on client websites as well as our own.
The plugin can be used to let your customers book one-off appointments or to to book onto an event where multiple attendees are allowed. If this may benefit you or your business please get in contact.
Other Plugins
There have also been major updates to some of the other plugins that we use and install on some sites:
- Social Media feeds – pull a feed from Facebook, Instagram or Twitter straight to your site, this could simply show all recent posts or could be filtered to show just pictures in certain albums or posts with certain hashtags. YouTube feeds and gallery is also now available.
- Gravity Forms and extensions – our preferred form plugin can now be styled to match the site design more easily, and some of the extensions that we now have access to bring enhanced functionality to the forms and your site. Fields can be pre-populated, show only if certain other values have been selected, and more.
- Anti Spam protection – this is now available on all hosted sites, preventing spam submission on contact forms and comments without any trick questions being asked (you know, click all the buses etc).
- Popups and Overlays – most of us have a love/hate relationship with popups, but they can be really useful sometimes. We’re making some changes to how this are used on Divi-based websites now, making for a much better (and faster) user experience.
Email Marketing
We don’t promote our email marketing platform much, but if you are looking to keep in contact with people with an email newsletter/updates, cloudhost.email may be of benefit to you. It’s not as feature-rich as something like MailChimp, but it’s also a fraction of the cost.
26 May 2021 | CloudHost.One, Security
Let’s not beat about the bush, it’s a been a bit of a strange year. Face masks and distancing became ‘normal’, and as for what the next few months hold… well, that’s still anyone’s guess.
Have we learnt anything in this strange time though? Some would say they’ve learnt not to trust politicians, or local or national Government, but that’s not really the road I want to go down right now…..
Back in March 2020 several people said – or at least thought – “it will all be over in a few weeks” and put parts of their normal routines on hold for that time. Ian Dickson‘s advice at the time was “plan on this lasting six to eight months”. Some no doubt laughed, but many people I know took this advice and planned accordingly. Whichever school of thought you subscribed to here though, one thing was common for us all: no one knew how long it would last or what would happen. I dare say it’s often like that in a lot of businesses, organisations, even families.
We adapted to doing things differently. For some this was harder than others. I’ve been advocating, practicing and facilitating remote/home-working for almost twenty years. I used Zoom before most people had even heard about it. In many ways I had it easy, but not everyone did. I had the privilege of helping some people transition to working differently, of helping businesses change their focus and way of working (hate the P word), and watching some thrive over the past year. I’ve also seen some former colleagues and friends slide away into the background, sometimes their businesses too.
We put more effort into protecting ourselves. Washing hands, social distancing, wearing masks, and now vaccinations. We stopped doing things that could have a higher risk (not necessarily through choice, but generally for the right reasons) and got to know the insides of our homes much better.
But what about our data?
Throughout this period of putting more effort into protecting ourselves, I’ve had several failed hard drives come in for repair and recovery, and been called upon to recover a number of hacked websites too. It’s left me wondering what it would be like if we applied some of the lessons and changes of the past year to our digital lives as well as our personal lives.
The simple takeaway is backup, backup, backup. Whether it’s the files on your computer, the photos on your phone, the USB stick that you carry around, your emails, your website… whatever digital data you rely on: backup!
Washing hands. Two minutes isn’t long in the scheme of things, and a squirt of hand sanitizer here and there doesn’t really eat into our productivity. Yet we so often pull a USB memory stick thing or external hard drive out of it’s slot without making sure the computer isn’t still accessing it – the quickest way to cause corruption and data loss. We don’t save out work as we go along ‘just in case’ (goes and presses save draft). We don’t install the updates for software we rely on, or the themes and plugins on our website… You get the idea: quick and simple steps that can help prevent bigger problems.
Social distancing. We became wary of other people getting too close, but make little effort to protect ourselves with unique/complex passwords as we know we should. We’d wipe down the handles of a supermarket trolley but not run an anti-virus scan on our computer or website. We’d limit the number of people we were with, yet some web designers and hosts will put multiple websites onto a single account, so that if one gets breached the hacker has access to spread their virus or malware to them all. I’ve seen it happen sadly.
Wearing masks. The barrier to help prevent the spread of the virus, stopping it from getting in (or out, or both… let’s leave the exact science and questions about type and filters to one side for now for the sake of the analogy, thanks). In the digital world the obvious equivalent would be a firewall. Windows has one built in. Your router may too. Does your website? We install WordFence on all WordPress sites we manage, and one site reported over 500 blocked access attempts one afternoon last week. Someone was clearly intent on causing some damage to that site. They couldn’t. We also recommend CleanTalk to protect against spam submission on contact forms and comments.
Prevention is better than cure – we’ve all heard the adage, and it’s so true in these examples. Last week we were called upon to look at two websites that had been compromised. One client hadn’t even started to build anything on their site at the time, but it was redirecting visitors to malware. Given that there was nothing on there the quickest and safest option was to just delete the files and start again. The other was a well-established business site with content that had been built up over a number of years. Someone had gained access, edited the content of files, installed others, and the net result was that the site was no longer accessible at all. We were able to restore the entire site within a couple of hours, but had there been a backup in place it would have taken ten minutes.
Practical Steps
Right, enough wittering on: what steps can you take to protect your data?
- No matter what else, take regular backups of your data. If your site is hosted with us you have access to manual backups in the Hosting Control Panel and can take your own backup at any time. If you are on a Managed WordPress plan (CloudHost Connect) then we are running regular offsite backups for you.
- Keep each website in a separate hosting account so that others aren’t vulnerable if one gets compromised. It can mean paying slightly more, but we can sometimes negotiate on the cost of additional hosting accounts.
- Have a Firewall and other protection in place. Most Hosting providers will have some level of protection on their network already – do check and make sure it’s enabled. If you are using WordPress, install and configure WordFence to help protect the site for you… again, if you have a Managed WordPress plan with us then you’re already covered, and CleanTalk can be added if needed.
- WordPress is the most common CMS, and therefore the one that hackers prefer to target. It’s really important to make sure that the core code, themes and plugins are kept up to date. (Yes, we can…)
- Check who has access to your website and hosting account. Remove people who no longer need access and make sure that passwords are unique, complex, and changed regularly.
Help if you need it
If you have any concerns about your own website, hosting or computer then get in touch and let’s see explore what might need to be done.
Extra WordPress tools on CloudHost.One™
If you have WordPress Hosting on our platform you also have access to some additional tools in your Hosting Control Panel that can help keep the site safe and secure.
You can quickly see which Plugins and Themes are installed and enabled, and can deactivate them if needed from the Control Panel (this can be helpful if one is causing problems). Users can be viewed, added, edited or removed from here also.
If you are looking to make changes to your WordPress site, our 1-click Staging environment can be a huge help. It will create a copy of the site so that you can work on changes without affecting the live site, and once you are ready you can then push all those changes from the Staging site to the Live site in a single click.
Finally, the Checksum Report checks the core files of the WordPress installation and determines if they match those of the official WordPress core repository. Should it find any possible problems you’ll be alerted, and can then fix those files. (You may want to also take advantage of the Malware Scanner further down the page too!)
2 May 2021 | CloudHost.One, Company News
We’re making it easier to access help and support with WordPress, by bringing back the LiveChat function in WordPress Admin.
This has been added to most sites via a branded Child Theme – currently for sites using Divi, Astra or Impreza. Child Themes allows customisation to be added to a site without affecting official theme updates, and we have either added our own branded Child Theme to sites or updated existing ones to push this functionality out, as well as simplifying the layout of the Dashboard by removing unnecessary elements. There is also a new box on the Dashboard with our details and a link to managing Hosting accounts.
To make it even easier to provide support using the LiveChat function, we will be able to see what page you are on, your WordPress username and associated email address.
The chat box will look similar to the image here, but if it is covering essential elements on your screen or you want a larger view of the chat, there is an option to pop out widget under the menu bars in the top right. You can also request an email copy of the conversation if necessary.
There is an option under the menu bars to set your name if you want to.
Hiding LiveChat
One of the problems we have experienced with LiveChat in the past is that the chat bubble/icons sometimes covered important buttons on the page itself. This had previously made it difficult to update Services in our scheduling tool, and required skillful mouse control to add images in some cases. It’s the main reason that the service was removed from sites, but we have added some controls to completely hide the LiveChat tool if it does cause you any problems.
Usually you would just see an orange bar in the lower right of the screen. This may say LiveChat Support or Message Support, depending on whether anyone is available or not. You may also sometimes see an additional image or text above this bar at times. This can be hidden by hovering over it and clicking the X that appears to the right, as indicated below.
We have also added a control in the page footer to completely hide the chat bar or bubble. Clicking on [Show/Hide] at the bottom of any page in the WordPress Admin area will toggle the display on or off.
We’ve also highlighted the options for opening the LiveChat fully if required. Click one the LiveChat link, the [Open/Close] toggle link or simply on the chat bar or bubble itself. These links will not work when the chat is hidden though.
This LiveChat function will connect you directly to us, subject to availability of course. If no one is available you will be able to leave a message, which will be followed up via email – service@cloudhost.one
Future Improvements
Currently the LiveChat is only available on sites using Divi, Astra or Impreza. A Child Theme for Weaver will be added this week, which is the theme used by most of the former Harvest Consulting clients.
We’ll be making further improvements to the LiveChat service over the coming weeks, and hope to enable instant screen-sharing for troubleshooting on Managed WordPress accounts (CloudHost Connect Pro). The LiveChat functionality will be added to our other sites – S6 Connect, CloudHost.One, Harvest Consulting – as well as to other account management areas, including my.cloudhost.one and cloudhost.email service pages and system pages that may be reached if there is a configuration error, so that problems can be resolved.
As always, we’d welcome your feedback on the service, and look forward to helping you soon!
19 Apr 2021 | CloudHost.One, Website Wisdom
It may seem an obvious question, but do you want your website visitors to be able to phone you? If you don’t, that’s cool… we all our our preferences when it comes to client communication, and I’m not here to judge. If you do, then let’s make sure it’s as easy as possible for them.
Show your phone number
The starting point then, is that the phone number needs to be on your website, and it needs to be clearly visible. It sounds obvious, but there’s a few sites I’ve seen recently that haven’t quite got the hang of this. Very often the phone number might show ‘below the fold’ – not on the main part of the screen, meaning the visitor has to scroll to find it.
You need to assume that your website visitors are lazy at best. Make sure the phone number is always clearly visible, preferably at the top of the page. You may even want to add it in the navigation menu across the top of the page if you have one, or add a bar above the menu with the key contact details in.
Link your phone number
Secondly, and assuming they’re lazy again, make it easy for your prospective customers to use that phone number by making it a hyperlink. This is particularly helpful if someone is visiting your website on their phone, but can often help desktop visitors too. By making the number a clickable link, your website visitor can literally click and call you. We recommend using the tel protocol and entering the number in international format with no breaks. If you’re using a visual builder interface you would type something like this in as the link (no http or similar):
tel:+441618060616
If you are coding the link in manually then it would look something like this:
<a href="tel:+443333403380">Call us on 033 3340 3380</a>
Check your phone number
Oh, and let’s not forget the third tip. You may think this would never happen, but we’ve seen it. Not only that, we’ve seen it and let the site owner know, who has let his web guys know, and it’s still there…
Use the right phone number!
If you’re not going to have the right phone number on your website, then how are your customers actually going to find you in the first place? Let’s be honest, it’s easy to hit the wrong key and mistype something, but it’s also easy to check it and fix it.
How we can help
When we’re building a new website or refreshing an existing one we’ll always make sure that the number is clearly visible at the top of the page (unless we’re asked not to) as well as on the contact page, or besides the contact form. We check it twice, and when making it a link will also click that link to make sure it works 100%.
We’ve sometimes added the phone number into the navigation menu. This helps keep it visible, and often we’ll apply a little bit of extra css code so that it looks like a button and stands out from the rest of the menu, or even make it shake to get attention. Adding it in this way also means it will show on the mobile menu, which usually shows as an overlay,
If you need help getting your phone number (or other preferred contact methods) visible and attracting clicks, then get in touch and we’ll help make it happen.
Recent Comments