Popular website development platform WordPress is now used in over 25% of all of the world’s websites! This is an amazing feat for an open-source platform that was only born on May 27th 2003, the blink of an eye in web technology circles!
It has now surpassed other favoured development platforms such as Joomla and Drupal but why is this? WordPress was initially created due to the need, at the time, for an elegant and well-architectured personal publishing system enabling bloggers to publish their own, or others guest blog content, for their own readership.
Freely available WordPress themes and plug-ins
So, the rise of the blogger was thus partly responsible for the initial creation and Launch of WordPress as a stable blogging platform! It also helped that it was based upon open source PHP and MySQL technology, licenced under GPL (GNU General Public License) back in the day, as it still is today.
This all meant that developers could get their hand on the core WordPress software for free, only needing to pay for specific add-ons (known as plug-ins) where none were available for free.
What’s more, many developers also pooled resources to provide not only free plug-ins but also free ‘WordPress Themes’, that enabled anyone, from beginner to those with just a modicum of website development knowledge, to develop their own site with a professional look and feel.
This all remains the case today, with many developers happily sharing plug-ins and themes free of charge within the happy WordPress ecosphere!
Secure online trading with WooCommerce
WordPress is now a stable mature and elegant solution, even for E-Commerce sites with the popular WooCommerce plug-in enabling rapid website software development for those needing to trade online. In fact, according to recent research WooCommerce now powers over 37% of online shops!
Ease of online marketing with WordPress and WooCommerce
It is fair to say then that WooCommerce is now, by far, the most popular E-Commerce platform for those that are serious about the online marketing of their products or services.
With additional WordPress plug-ins such as Yoast, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is now also a doddle for users of WooCommerce. Such plug-ins can now automate many previously onerous digital marketing tasks. This even includes adherence to the AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) concept, the new standard for mobile web pages that online search giant Google has recently started to endorse.
The ability to easily add new website pages and blogs also helps WooCommerce advocates to keep their content fresh and up to date, which is good for online visibility in the search engines such as Google, and for website visitors alike.
Securing your WordPress installation
Security has been one of the major issues that the WordPress platform, along with other platforms, has had to face, in part of course due to its success!
Nowadays there is a vast array of security plug-ins available for WordPress which makes the task of securing websites developed within its ecosphere far easier than before. In fact, some of the security plug-ins for WordPress are even free of charge, albeit often with somewhat limited functionality. Premium ‘paid for’ versions will generally provide more comprehensive features.
What security features should you look for in WordPress Security plug-ins?
For free plug-ins, and naturally for any paid for plug-ins, we think you should look for the following as the minimum in acceptable functionality:-
- A variable Admin login URL page to help defeat hackers
- The ability to hide your WordPress version from prying eyes
- Real time logs of suspected nefarious hacking attempts
- Firewall functionality
- Malware detection
- Instant Email or SMS notification of any identified hacking attack
- Automatic plug-in updates
- Ability to scan hosted files outside your own WordPress installation
- Some level of technical support
You may be a novice web developer or organisation that does not have time to worry about your websites security. If so consider using specialists in WordPress website security and secure hosting by contacting the team at Security Audit Systems.
Never leave your website vulnerable to hackers. Take no risks when it comes to the security of your website and your user’s confidential financial or personal information
Some level of online security is better than none and with the vast number of security plug-ins for WordPress your website and its visitors will be safer from attack with a security plug-in installed. To help your decision making, here are just a few WordPress Security Plug-ins from all the available WP security plugins available, with no particular recommendation from us:-
- Sucuri Security
- Wordfence
- IThemes Security (Formerly Better WP Security)
- All in One WP Security & Firewall
- Acunetix WP SecurityScan
Other security plug-ins are available directly from the WordPress organisations own website, just browse the features of each, read the reviews available online and make your own mind up, based upon what we have discussed today!
Whatever you decide to do regarding your websites online security, remember that any protection is better than none. Whether you choose one of the above or something else, we wish you all the best online!
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