Why You Need to Review your Site’s Security and Reliability (Vulnerabilities and Site Speed)

It’s our pleasure to introduce a simple system for you to make sure your site is running smoothly and reliably – and speedy too for all your visitors! We reviewed this topic in the past and this is our update to keep you current on best practices and some of the best WordPress and website management tools.

Free Website Tools for Security, Speed Check and Backups

Running a website can feel like a big undertaking, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. You’ve poured your creativity and passion into it, so you want to make sure it’s running smoothly for everyone who visits. Think of your website as a car—it needs to look good, but it also has to run reliably and get your visitors to their destination quickly. Fortunately, there are some great free tools out there that can help you check under the hood and make sure everything is humming along perfectly.

Checking for Vulnerabilities

When reviewing your site you should make sure the site has a proper HTTPS connection aka SSL. However there can be other and related issues you may not be aware of.

A related issue would be that while your site uses HTTPS for most connections you may be inadvertently loading insecure content like images or other files via HTTP only.

Of course a serious concern would be malware. Your site can be hijacked because of a hack or use of an outdated plugin, and your site could then become a host for malware or some kind of spam.

The first course of action is to keep your site (WordPress core, themes and plugins) up to date. The second piece of advice is to use a security plugin like WordFence or Loginizer to prevent some security issues such as brute force attacks.

Lastly use a scanner which will alert you to issues. These are public facing and don’t require plugins or modifying your site. Try Sucuri and its fast free scanner. It can alert you to things like non-SSL insecure content issues and outdated PHP. WP’s recommended version of PHP for your site is currently 8.3 or greater.

Reviewing Your Site’s Page Load Speed

This is actually a fun topic. You want your site to look good, work reliably and thus load quickly. It’s like driving a new car and it has that zoom zoom and fresh vehicle smell.

In order to test the page load speed I use tools like Google’s site speed checker and GT Metrix. Both will allow you to test your site speed and see what bottlenecks there may be.

You can test from locations in your country or region and get an idea of what your audience experience when they visit your site. Slowdowns are often about large images but it can also be the result of code or scripts taking time to load.

Results will give you suggestions on ways to cut down your site. Eliminate or compress large images or video, and consider caching plugins.

Tip: consider using small images in the format webp. It’s a newer format that that has taken over from jpg and png, can maintain high quality through advanced compression. Don’t upload a 4000×3000 high-res file. A 2000×1500 pixel image is usually fine and will be served much faster.

You can also use a tool like Uptime Robot to monitor your site and make sure it’s online consistently. This is especially useful for small businesses using shared hosting, as it can alert you if your site goes offline.

Backup your site!

Always backup your site before undertaking major changes and adding new plugins or changing themes. Try to test before and after. Make notes of take screenshots to monitor your progress. One tool we have used for a couple of years is Backup Migration by Inisev. I use it to make regular backups to zip. I also love that you can clone your site or migrate it to another server. Other plugins are highly rated too. Look for strong reviews and plugins that are regularly updated.

Wrapping Up

We hope this guide helps you feel more confident about managing your website! Knowing what’s happening under the hood with your site’s reliability and speed is a key part of making sure your visitors have a great experience. By using simple, free tools, you can ensure your site is always running smoothly and consistently, just like that brand-new car you’ve been dreaming of.

If you are interested in learning more or improving your website please contact us at tdot.com. We love to help you creatively and lend a hand elevating your sites, social and media projects.

Here are the links mentioned in the article:

WordPress Requirements: https://wordpress.org/about/requirements/
WordFence: https://www.wordfence.com/
Sucuri: https://sitecheck.sucuri.net/
Page Speed Insights: https://pagespeed.web.dev
Pingdom: https://tools.pingdom.com/
GT Metrix: https://gtmetrix.com/
Uptime Robot: https://uptimerobot.com/

Take our course

Interested in learning more about designing and managing your own site? It’s an empowering and DIY-focused process. Anyone can go from beginner to self-starter in a short time.

Consider taking our course Create Websites with WordPress at our sister site tdot.co.