Welcome to 2019! Now a new year has arrived it’s the perfect time to take a look at your personal and business goals for the next 365 days and come up with resolutions to help you achieve them. In today’s post we’re taking a look at resolutions you can put in place to help elevate your WordPress website to the next level.
First thing’s first, you need to make sure your resolutions are realistic. In a similar vein, we suggest keeping them to a manageable number – five or less. It can be tempting to pledge your dedication to two pages of goals but how long can you keep the momentum going once the new year rush of work kicks in? Don’t join the millions of people who let their goals slip by the wayside by the end of February – set SMART, focused resolutions and you’ll see success before you know it.
Without further ado, here are five resolution recommendations for WordPress website owners in 2019:
Back Up Your Site
This is one of those basic tasks that can get forgotten when work gets busy and to do lists grow longer and longer. While you might have been putting this off thinking your site data is safe, leaving your site without back ups can have catastrophic effects if the worst happens.
You may find that your hosting provider performs regular back ups for you, so in the first instance we suggest reviewing your current hosting agreement to ensure this functionality is included. If not, it’s time to implement a back up system that can give you peace of mind.
Keep Your Site Updated
Again, while this may seem like a basic task it’s staggering how many sites are hacked each year simply because they run outdated themes and plugins. Hackers are always on the lookout for new ways to exploit vulnerabilities so it’s imperative you keep your site fully up to date at all times to minimise risk.
Making a recurring monthly event in your calendar (that you don’t snooze and forget about!) is a great way to ensure you find the time to keep your site up to date.
Regularly Review Security
Setting aside a morning each quarter to perform a security audit on your site is something we recommend all website owners do throughout 2019. Legislative and technological changes mean that security is an ever-evolving thing so we urge you to keep your finger on the pulse, stay up to date with new requirements and regularly review your site’s security protocol.
Get to Grips with Gutenberg
The release of WordPress 5.0 also signals the release of the much-discussed new page builder, Gutenberg. While the jury is out on whether or not Gutenberg is a step in the right direction, it’s here to stay and is set to be a huge part of the WordPress landscape in 2019 and beyond.
Spend some time getting to grips with Gutenberg on a staging site and minimise the headache of trying to learn on the go when you have a looming deadline.
Spring Clean Your Site
The new year is the perfect opportunity to start as you mean to go on and give your site a new lease of life. A full rebuild might not be needed but a design facelift and some tweaks here and there that you’ve been meaning to arrange are simple ways to get your site running at its best for all the new projects 2019 has in store.
To discuss any design or development requirements you can get in touch with our team of WordPress experts for advice and a tailored quote.
