How to Keep Your Site Secure

There’s plenty of incentive to making sure your site is as secure as possible. From our end, we do everything we can to make sure state-of-the-art technology and hardware are up to standards. We’re one of the top website providers out there when it comes to making sure everything is up to date and we’re running one of the best server systems possible in terms of quality and integrity.

However, no matter how advanced the host or hosting program, website installs can still be vulnerable. We’ve talked before about recommending a website like WordPress. Web Hosting for Students is great when you’re using an easy to manage CMS like WordPress; however there are some security vulnerabilities you should be aware of, no matter what CMS or structure you decide to run your site on.

First of all, not all CMS systems will auto-update. It’s important to keep a consistent backup of your website files. If you’re on WordPress, this also includes using the WordPress Export Tool to download your database so you don’t lose all your content. Make sure you also use a backup plugin! Because of space constraints, you’ll really only want to save 1-2 backups.

You’ll want to click and follow prompts that encourage you to update WordPress or your CMS, making sure you have a backup of what’s already on your site for safekeeping.

It’s important to keep your site updated. As your CMS provider identifies security vulnerabilities, the software will be updated to reflect new security measures. You don’t want to mess around with site security!

It’s also important to use secure passwords. It might seem like a pain, but the longer your password and the more special characters and variation you use, the less likely the chances of a hacker getting into your site or someone you know logging into your website. You should also try to vary up your password across services to add and maintain that extra level of security.

If you’re using WordPress, try to stick to only the minimum amount of plugins you need. Plugins have the tendency to conflict with one another or even with an updated version of WordPress, so make sure to check your site after any new plugin installation or site update!

One last note: We are now offering FREE SSL!!! which you can activate for your account within cPanel by going to “Let’s Encrypt SSL”. Let us know if you have any questions!