“If you want to do updates safely and securely, don’t do them on the actual site. Do them on a copy of the site,” Megan explains. Using a staging site allows you to rely on a copy of your website that has no public visibility. According to Meagan, we use staging sites in order to keep our live production sites healthy.

Website owners are stuck with a conundrum. Plugin, theme, and core updates are imperative. Not only do updates allow you to benefit from the most current technology, but they also help to guard your WordPress site from hackers. However, applying an update to a live site can cause an issue or two. So, what’s a WordPress website owner to do? Update smart by using a staging site, of course.

If you haven’t been lucky enough to catch Meagan’s talk in person, here’s your chance to catch the video of her at WordCamp Hamilton. Watch it now and discover why using a staging site is something you will want to consider. For more WordCamp talks, go to WordPress.tv.

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My iPhone, laptop, even a new air purifier I recently purchased all had the option to buy some form of a maintenance plan. I’ve never regretted purchasing one because while I’d like to think of myself as responsible, I’m far from graceful. Working in the tech industry now as the Director of Client Strategy at WDS, I’m often asked whether or not an ongoing website maintenance and support plan for a website is necessary. My answer is always the same, “Absolutely.”

I understand being hesitant to engage in this extra expense. I’ll be the first to admit that YouTube tutorials, online classes, and documentation have me believing that I’m an expert developer at times; and while these tools are helpful, they don’t always account for the unexpected. There are many reasons why ongoing support is critical but let me just share a few.

Plugin, Theme, and WordPress Updates

All of the code that goes into making WordPress work is often referred to as the “core.” WordPress sends out updates a few times a year to ensure that the core is always in tip-top shape. Some releases are small, but some are important, containing things like critical security updates. Every update is worth taking seriously.

Plugins are created by this amazing open source community to extend the functionality of your website. Plugins can update more or less frequently depending on how engaged the developer is in improving the tool.

There’s also your website theme to think about. Whether you’re using a free or premium one, chances are that as WordPress releases new updates, so will your theme.

I hesitate to hit that “update” button sometimes. You don’t always know how your website will be affected. While most agencies develop websites to be as update-proof as possible, there are no guarantees. Having a professional on deck to handle these updates for you is critical in the ultimate performance and health of your website.

Security

Hacking: it’s a term we are all familiar with. A quick look at the news and there is a story of some website being hacked somewhere. There are numerous measures you can take to protect your website. Some are easy and could merely require a plugin, but others tend to be a bit more complex. With ongoing support, trusted professionals will ensure the health of your website. One thing you may want to consider is if your website is being monitored on a regular basis. Constant security scans alert the website owner if a file has been tampered with, if there are irregular logins, or even if there have been DNS changes. Regular monitoring can detect if these changes are out of the ordinary and quickly put things back to normal.

Backups

Here is a typical scenario—you hire someone new to work on your website. It could be a new developer or maybe someone just adding content. They are given more access than they need, and accidentally something happens, and your site is not looking like it should. If you have regular backups being performed on your website, restoring to the last one should be a painless process. Without backups, you are in for a ton of investigation and work. Having regularly scheduled backups is the insurance policy you need most.

Big and Small Changes

The real hero of a maintenance and support plan us simply having access to a team of experts available to help. That form you want to add to the website, those images that you just haven’t had a chance to upload, the new ads you want to put on the homepage; with a support team, it’s as simple as letting them know your plans and then allowing them to take it from there. Think of your support team as an extension of your business. They are here to support you. No task is too small or large.

This may seem like a lot, and it is. There is no need to tackle all of this yourself. That’s why WDS has Maintainn. At Maintainn, a brilliant team of support specialists is there to answer your questions, help plan for changes, secure your website, back it up regularly, and update it consistently. All of this is to ensure you have a high performant and rock-solid website. Not only does this bring you peace of mind but it also assures your visitors are enjoying their experience. Yeah, there may be some additional investment, but it can’t compare to the investment needed if these safeguards are not in place.

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Part 2: Why Does WordPress Multisite Matter?

If you have not read it already, go read Part 1 in this series, as it introduces the new terms WordPress uses for its Multisite environment. It also provides a high-level view of what WordPress Multisite is. In this part of the series, we will go over the why WordPress Multisite matters.

WordPress Multisite takes the hassle out of maintaining several individual WordPress installations, each hosting only a single site. It comes in handy in organizations with several brands, departments, or business units that need to share functionality, or data, in a convenient manner. It helps IT teams spend less time maintaining multiple hosting environments, patching security issues, and ensuring sites are kept updated. In my example (see Part 1), WordPress Multisite allows me to create a platform as a service (aka, PaaS) hosting environment for family and friends.

Let’s delve a bit deeper into some of the powerful features of WordPress Multisite.

Centralized Management

Because WordPress Multisite is running from a single installation of WordPress, it brings all the sites together into one centrally managed location. This has several benefits, including:

• Shared core/plugin files
• Shared updates
• Super admin management

Let’s look at each of these in more detail.

Shared Core/Plugin Files

Maintaining multiple individual WordPress installations can be a pain, as you are required to ensure the WordPress core files, plugin files, and theme files are available for each installation. WordPress Multisite simplifies this to a single copy of all the files. Let’s use the following illustration as an example.

• Acme Corp has four departments that each need a website: HR, Engineering, Products, Support.
• Acme Corp has a standardized style guide and required functionality for each site.

With a typical WordPress single site setup, Acme Corp would normally be responsible for four completely separate sites, including all the developmental operations that go into it, such as hosting plans, DNS management, and remembering which plugins need to be installed for consistency.

WordPress Multisite flips that situation on its head. In the Multisite paradigm, Acme Corp will now save time and money with one installation, one DNS entry, one hosting plan. Plus, all themes and plugins are available to every site out of the box.

One Place to Update All the Things

That brings us to updates and security patches. Getting updates processed and completed in a simple and efficient manner is important. In the Acme Corp example above, it would take four times the effort to get all the sites updated. As the number of sites you run expands, so do the efforts of maintaining these sites.

WordPress Multisite simplifies this down to the same amount of effort it takes for a single site. With just a couple of clicks, updates are applied to all sites on the network. There is no need to remember account information for multiple sites, or run the risk of forgetting an important security patch on one of the sites, and thus compromising potentially sensitive data.

Site Administration Made Easy

Providing proper access levels is paramount in any organization. Users should only have the level of access that they need to do their job and nothing more. The person in charge of administrating the site will need administrative access over all things. In WordPress Multisite, the administrator role remains, but it is limited to the site on which the user has been assigned the administrator role. For users who need access to all of the sites, a new role called super admin is introduced. Super admins have the ability to manage network level actions as well as get into the dashboard on any site. This allows super admins to not only control the network, but to also help site administrators when they have questions or need assistance running their site.

By now, you should understand what WordPress Multisite is and why it it is such a valuable tool. In the next and final part of this series, we will cover when using WordPress Multisite is a good idea, and if it could be the right fit for your organization.

Photo by Carl Heyerdahl on Unsplash

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