Launch day has arrived and your site is officially live! You might think the work is done and, yes, some of it is. But if you neglect ongoing site maintenance you’re not only at risk for security threats, but you also put the design and functionality of your site at risk.
These issues might go unnoticed until you log on one day to an email from a client saying a contact form isn’t working. Or even worse, your site has been hacked. Unfortunately, without proper site maintenance, these risks are more common than you might realize.
It’s important to recognize the need for site maintenance, but it can also be helpful to understand why certain issues might happen.
Why are WordPress sites vulnerable to attacks?
WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems (CMS) out there. And it’s popular for a reason! It offers fantastic functionality and flexibility. We use WordPress for the vast majority of the websites we build. However, with popularity comes risk. Attackers know that a huge number of sites are built on WordPress and they use that to their advantage. Though, it is important to note that WordPress core software is rarely the problem. The overwhelming majority of identified vulnerabilities originate from third party plugins. Plugins are common and often necessary for various aspects of your site to be built and function, but they are not without risk. Properly updated, trusted plugins are very safe, but regular maintenance is a must. Without consistent updating, plugins open your website up to security threats.
You may also think your site is small in the greater scheme of things, which means it’s not a target, but that is a common misconception. Hackers may not choose a specific business in their strategy. They are more commonly choosing the site and its software for targeting opportunities They run large scale scans to look for vulnerabilities in plugins and exploit them on many sites at once. Because of this, plugin creators regularly publish updates and patches to ensure their users are protected. But these updates have to be applied to your site in order to be effective.
What does getting hacked actually look like?
We’ve all seen hacking in movies, but what does it actually look like when your site gets hacked? The answer might surprise you. You may picture a site defaced with symbols or imagery from a hacker, marking their territory like something you’d see in a movie from the 90’s. But attacks such as these are not most common. Petty hackers are annoying. More serious hacking attempts (and successes) are an actual threat to sensitive information belonging to you and your site users.
Common hacking methods in 2026 may involve:
- Spam Injection: With spam injection, your entire site might appear completely normal on the surface. But with these attacks, hackers add pages to your site or replace internal links with their own links that lead to other sites such as fake pharmaceutical companies or websites with graphic content.
- Malicious Admin Accounts: This form of hacking involves gaining access to your site and creating new users with administrative rights. These often go unnoticed for extended periods of time unless someone is regularly monitoring user accounts on your site. After the hackers are sure they’ve gone unnoticed, they begin adding redirect scripts into your website code that send visitors to scam sites. These scripts can even just add the redirects on mobile devices, so when a site owner visits on a laptop or desktop everything looks functional causing the issue to go unnoticed until customer complaints start rolling in.
- Card Skimming: This method involves implanting code in a site that collects users’ credit card information at checkout. It’s the digital equivalent of physical card skimmers placed on gas pumps and ATM machines.
There are many types of hackers who employ various tactics to access sensitive data. Keeping your site maintained and up-to-date is vital to help protect yourself from attacks.
What do plugin updates actually do?
The purpose and function of plugin updates are twofold. Plugins help keep your site safe and secure, reducing the chances of security threats, but they also keep your site working (and looking) like it should.
These things come in all forms. An update could be a very minor patch to fix a small bug that the plugin developers noticed. It could be a feature addition. Or it could be a major security patch.
When plugins aren’t up to date, certain aspects of your site may not work as intended. And plugin updates can lead to a chain reaction. When one plugin is updated with fixes or improvements, it may result in other plugin developers rolling out updates to increase compatibility. Meaning plugin updates are an ongoing process, needing regular oversight and monitoring.
Plugin updates fix things, but they can also break things
While keeping your site up to date is necessary for both security and functionality, it’s also important to know that updates sometimes break portions of your site. This is typically due to compatibility issues with other plugins. For this reason, a site backup should always be made prior to updating plugins. And if a plugin does break something that causes you to revert to your back up, you should be sure to monitor for other plugin updates that will fix the compatibility issues. Once the new updates roll out that resolve compatibility, you can update the plugin that caused the errors along with the newly updated plugins. If you only updated a single plugin, it is easy to determine which plugin caused the issue. However, when you run multiple plugin updates at once, it can be trickier to pinpoint the exact cause. But this type of troubleshooting isn’t something you have to manage on your own. We offer WordPress maintenance services for this exact reason. Our team performs updates on a monthly basis (or more often for very critical updates) and if an issue arises we take care of the troubleshooting, allowing you to focus on running your business, not fixing your website!
Are all of your plugins really needed?
The answer to this question isn’t always straightforward. There are a lot of nuances involved with plugins and proper investigation is required to determine what plugins are in use and truly necessary. Certain plugins may be required for your site’s forms, SEO, e-commerce, and more. Some plugins may have been added and never used, or were once used and have since been replaced by a different plugin. Older plugins, especially free versions, may no longer be updated by the plugin developer. Plugins such as these pose a significant security threat to your site since they fail to protect against the latest exploitation tactics. Part of ongoing site maintenance should involve periodic audits to evaluate and remove defunct or no longer necessary plugins.
We offer a plugin audit report template to clients that really helps to grasp this process and make educated decisions. Expendable plugins are then removed to improve performance and maybe even save you money.
What does site maintenance involve?
Site maintenance can be a daunting task, especially for those unfamiliar with the process. Having a team of professionals to support your site is ideal, but we know not everyone has an in-house webmaster. That is where we can help! WEBii offers various services in order to keep your site performing optimally.
Our basic WordPress site maintenance services include:
- Monthly upgrades to all necessary elements including WordPress core and plugins
- Technical testing following all major upgrades
- Backup and restore assistance should an upgrade cause errors
- Support from our team of experts who stay well informed about critical alerts and the latest exploitation tactics
- Reports following each upgrade cycle
Other maintenance services we offer:
- Comprehensive site scans to identify potential vulnerabilities
- Plugin audits to identify defunct or unnecessary plugins
- Removal of defunct or unnecessary plugins
- Plugin recommendations
- Plugin implementation and set up
- Add-on security recommendations like website firewalls
Don’t let site maintenance get you down! Contact us today to discuss our ongoing maintenance options.