WordPress is becoming more and more popular. And not without a reason. This CMS platform is free, pretty easy to set up, and really user friendly, which is mainly thanks to a WYSIWYG editor plus really easy to manage media gallery. Additionally, the system allows a multi person editorial team to work together, with specific roles and hierarchy assigned. Plenty of different plug-ins and free themes/templates allow customisation of the site’s look & feel, according to the owner’s needs. The built-in blog functionality allows quick and easy articles publishing, which could be easily positioned in the search engine, and integrate with other blogs and social media feeds.
Having all the pros, we can’t although forget about some cons (fortunately, they can be effectively eliminated – see below). There are just a few of them, but before you get started with WordPress, you need to be aware of their existence.
The fact the platform is available for free is its biggest advantage, but becomes also the weakest point. WordPress is an open source product, what makes its code publically available, which means everyone could find flaws or backdoors. The same problem concerns Google’s Android – this causes the green robot phones more vulnerable to any kinds of hackers’ attacks, than competitors’ operating systems. So the popularity and free of charge availability makes it very attractive for any criminals. Every single user of WordPress has to be aware, that setting up and launching a WP based site is just a beginning which has to be followed by regular maintenance. However the vulnerability can be eliminated by couple of actions:
- So called WordPress hardening, which consists of some code changes and configuration tweaks, making data access more difficult for unauthorised individuals.
- Regular care of WordPress updates. The administrator has to check availability of free platform upgrades, patches, and security enhancements.
- One must not forget about plug-ins, which de facto are mini applications, which code, in most cases, is also widely available. Their authors also issue free updates, that should be installed when only they become downloadable.
- No web site is 100% attacks proof. So even, if owners look after all three things listed above, they need to keep creating backup copies of all PHP files, documents, and not forgetting about the SQL database keeping all the vital information. In case somebody brakes in, backups saved in a safe place allow to reestablish a healthy site quickly.
Voo Voo Voo offers the Clients not only creation of the WordPress CMS based sites (we build custom templates but also work on ready free or premium themes), but looks after Customers’ safety, too. For enterprises and individuals running WP sites, we could perform security audits, followed by WordPress hardening. We have also monthly plans covering web sites support and monitoring which include updates on regular bases, security monitoring, and backup services, which in case of problems allow resetting the site within 24 working hours, without additional costs.
We also have lots of experience in creating WordPress based extranets, which for authentication could use even external databases. Their advantage is making assigned content available only for registered users. On top of that we offer WordPress SEO optimisation, which means we know how to make such a site well positioned by search engines, such as Google or Bing!. When site SEO is in place we could run a positioning campaign for you, too.
In case you would be interested in above services, please do not hesitate to contact us.
