SmallBiz Website

SmallBiz Website: A member asks…

I am curious to find out what blog system you’re utilizing? I’m experiencing some small security issues with my latest site and I’d like to find something more safeguarded. Do you have any solutions?

Practical Help is powered by WordPress, the most popular content management system (CMS) used on the internet. WordPress is on 48% of Technorati top 100 blogs, and writers publish over 46 million posts monthly using WordPress. Not bad for something that’s free! For small businesses, start-ups, non-profits and virtually anyone who wants a voice on the internet, my recommendation is to go with WordPress to power your website. You’ll be joining the ranks of such superpower blogs as The New York Times, the NFL, TechCrunch, UPS, CNN and over 74 million other websites.

WordPress isn’t just for bloggers! Lots of small businesses use WordPress for their company website – even if they don’t use the blogging functions. There are thousands of free and low-cost templates available to customize WordPress for your company and show a fetching and unique face to your current and future customers. The basic functionality of WordPress can be extended just about any way you’d like – there are over 750 million plugins on WordPress.org that can give you whatever kind of functionality you need.

That’s not to say that WordPress is all that secure on its own. Fortunately, there are some great plug-ins that can lock down your website against hackers, spammers and other nefarious netizens. If you allow visitors to post comments or create an account on your website, you are going to have to guard against abuse of those privileges. Since you mentioned security issues, here are three plugins you could consider:

1. The simplest of the batch is All In One WP Security & Firewall – easy to use and powerful enough for most WordPress websites that don’t conduct e-commerce on their site (Paypal doesn’t count).
2. My favorite is iThemes Security Pro – gives a great balance of powerful security measures and ease of use
3. One of the toughest is Bulletproof Security Pro – but it’s not for the casual webmaster, complicated to set up and takes work to keep things safe yet accessible.

You didn’t mention e-commerce, but I have a quick tip for you if you use that on your website:  Purchase a SSL Certificate – from your webhosting provider or from a reputable firm like Symantec (formerly Verisign), Thawte or Comodo.  At the least, you want to secure any website pages that have e-commerce on them as well as any pages where someone either logs into their account, creates a new account, or edits their account.

If you need help implementing a WordPress-powered website, please contact us, or any one of thousands of WordPress developers who can help you create a unique look and feel that expresses you – with security and safety as a priority.

There are plenty of other content management systems available besides WordPress. Other full-featured types like Joomla and Drupal I’ve found harder to work with, and some ‘site builder’ systems like Wix and Weebly I’ve found to be too limiting – they are more for the small business that wants to invest the least amount of time and effort to develop a web presence. I think that there is really no one system that’s best for everyone, but I think WordPress offers the best value for the investment.