Keep Your Site Secure and Running Smoothly
WEB SERVICES
WordPress Site Security and Maintenance Plan
If you don’t take care of your WordPress site, you could be exposing it to avoidable risks. Every day without updates or security measures makes your site more vulnerable to potential attacks. For instance, not updating the WordPress core or plugins could allow hackers to exploit known vulnerabilities. An outdated site can be subject to malware infections, data loss, or sudden slowdowns.
Our security plan also includes periodic audits and reports, with semi-annual, quarterly, or monthly frequencies. These audits focus on indexing and technical issues that, if left unaddressed, can hinder site performance. With continuous monitoring, we can promptly detect and resolve potential issues, ensuring your site maintains excellent search visibility and continues to attract qualified traffic. A site that’s always up-to-date and protected not only avoids these issues but also receives a better rating from Google, improving your search ranking.
WP STARTER
Basic Maintenance and Security
€
149
per year
-
2 reports on security, attacks, and technical errors
WP PRO
Frequent Maintenance and Security
€299
€
249
for the first year, then €299or €28 per month, the first 3 months free
-
Firewall, malware scan
-
4 reports on security, attacks, and technical errors
MOST CHOSEN
WP ADVANCED
Advanced Maintenance and Security
€399
€
349
for the first year, then € 399or € 35 per month, the first 2 months free
-
Firewall, malware scan
-
12 reports on security, attacks, and technical errors
-
Emergency anti-hacker response 7 days a week
MOST EFFECTIVE
In Simple Terms
What do I risk without a security and maintenance plan?
A WordPress site without regular maintenance is an easy and risky target. Here’s why you should pay attention:
- Hacker attacks: Every 39 seconds, a hacker attack occurs worldwide. If your site is not protected, it is exposed to vulnerabilities that can lead to serious compromises. This not only results in the loss of sensitive data but can also cause service interruptions that damage your reputation.
- Business damage: An offline or compromised site can drive away customers, causing immediate losses in sales and bookings. Even a single interruption can lead to dissatisfied customers and negative reviews, harming your business.
- Malware: Hackers can inject harmful code into your site, which not only infects your visitors but also undermines your position on search engines. 63% of businesses that experience malware attacks lose customers, and often their online reputation is irreparable.
- Content loss: Without a regular backup system, you risk losing years of valuable work. Statistics indicate that 70% of small businesses that suffer severe data loss close within a year. Don’t let your hard work go to waste due to an error or attack!
- Low visibility in search resultss: Your site risks remaining invisible in search engine results, making it difficult for potential customers to find you online. This can lead to a decrease in organic traffic and, consequently, a reduction in sales and conversion opportunities.
Don’t wait until it’s too late: protect your site and your business with regular maintenance. Investing in security and optimization is not just a precaution; it’s a necessity to ensure your peace of mind and the growth of your business.
WordPress updates: what are they for and what do they involve?
WordPress updates are divided into three main categories:
- WordPress Core: This is the "engine" of your site. Each update includes new features, performance enhancements, and security vulnerability fixes.
- Theme: The theme determines the appearance of your site. Theme updates are important for maintaining compatibility with the latest versions of WordPress and fixing any bugs.
- Plugins: Plugins add functionality to your site. Without updates, plugins can become weak points easily exploited by hackers.
Hackers look for sites that are not regularly updated, as they know they can exploit old vulnerabilities. The basic plan we offer includes a semi-annual update of the core, theme, and plugins. However, this plan does not include a testing environment (staging site) to check for potential conflicts between plugins. If issues arise, troubleshooting is not included in the basic plan, and only plugins that do not cause conflicts will be updated.
Secure login: why it matters
The backend of your WordPress site is the access point to your most critical content and functions. Hackers and bots are constantly trying to gain unauthorized access, and an insecure login can become an open door for them.
To ensure your site's security, it’s essential to implement effective measures for a secure login. Here are some of the main measures we can put in place:
- Custom login URL (included in all plans): Using a custom login URL makes it harder for hackers to find a way to access your site. This simple change can drastically reduce automated attacks.
- Locking users after failed attempts (included in WP PRO and WP ADVANCED): If someone tries to guess your password, the system can temporarily lock access after a certain number of incorrect attempts. This limits unauthorized access attempts.
- 2FA or two-factor authentication (included in WP PRO and WP ADVANCED): Requiring a second verification method, such as a code sent to your smartphone, makes it much harder for anyone to access without authorization, even if they know your password.
- IP Whitelist (included in WP PRO and WP ADVANCED): Allowing access only from specific IP addresses ensures that only authorized users can access your site. This is especially useful if you work from a fixed location.
- Country blocking (included in WP PRO and WP ADVANCED): If you don’t need traffic from certain countries, you can block access from those regions, further reducing the risk of attacks.
- reCAPTCHA v3 (included in WP PRO and WP ADVANCED): This Google tool helps distinguish between real users and bots. During the login process, reCAPTCHA v3 analyzes user behavior without interrupting the experience, providing a risk assessment. If suspicious behavior is detected, it may request further verification. This adds an extra layer of security, making it more difficult for automated bots to access your site.
- Regular password updates: If requested, it’s advisable to update passwords regularly. About 61% of successful hacking incidents are due to password theft, often because passwords are too simple or reused across multiple accounts. Regularly changing passwords enhances your site’s security.
Why backups are essential and how often to perform them
Having a backup of your WordPress site is a fundamental security measure. In our Pro plan, we offer a monthly backup of all site files and the database. If you choose the Advanced plan, backups are performed weekly, and, on request, they can even be daily. But is it really that important to have a recent backup?
Assessing backup frequency based on site type
The frequency of backups depends on your site’s characteristics:
- Sites with frequent updates: If your site is constantly updated with new articles, images, or features, a weekly or daily backup is highly recommended. This allows you to recover all recent changes in case of issues.
- E-commerce: If you run an online store, where there are new orders and sensitive customer data daily, having a weekly or daily backup is crucial. In case of an error or attack, you can quickly recover critical information such as orders, customer data, and inventory.
The benefits of regular backups
- Protection against human error: Unintentional changes to the site or accidental deletion of files can be quickly resolved by restoring a recent backup.
- Recovery after hacker attacks: If your site is compromised by malware or hacker attacks, a backup allows you to restore it to its original state without losing important data.
- Problematic updates: Plugin or theme updates can sometimes cause conflicts and issues. With a backup, you can quickly restore the site to a working version.
- Minimizing downtime: In case of technical issues, a backup allows you to get the site back online quickly, avoiding traffic and customer losses.
An additional advantage of our service is that the backups performed by Depp Design do not impact the hosting space you're paying for. We use our dedicated servers to store backups, ensuring they don’t affect your site’s performance.
Backup retention: Monthly backups are retained for 12 months, while daily backups are kept for 1 month. This provides you with a good time window to restore your site if needed.
Anti-hacking measures
Every day, thousands of websites are attacked by hackers, who try to exploit system vulnerabilities to gain access to sensitive data or to compromise the site itself. According to some statistics, approximately 43% of cyberattacks target small businesses because they often have less advanced security measures. Hackers act with various motives: to steal information, spread malware, or simply harm the site.
To protect your site, we have included several advanced security measures in our plan. These include using custom usernames for the administrator and safeguarding crucial site configuration files. We block unauthorized access to sensitive parts of the site and prevent hackers from executing harmful files in the most vulnerable directories.
In addition, we disable features that hackers might exploit, such as automatic notifications to other websites (pingbacks) and file editing directly from the WordPress control panel. We also enable bot protection and limit the information hackers could use to find weaknesses in the site.
All these measures are designed to make your site less vulnerable and more difficult to attack, protecting your data and that of your users.
Staging site: a safe development environment
A staging site is a copy of your website created in a separate environment where you can test updates, modifications, and new features without affecting the live site. Essentially, it is a "trial" version of the site that allows you to experiment and troubleshoot in complete safety.
But why is it so useful, especially when it comes to security and updates?
- Test updates safely: Updates for WordPress, plugins, or themes can sometimes cause conflicts or errors. With a staging site, you can ensure that everything works correctly before applying changes to the live site.
- Minimize downtime: Making changes directly on the live site can cause temporary issues or downtime. By working in a staging environment, you can ensure that everything is ready and functioning before making changes visible to visitors.
- Troubleshoot without stress: If something goes wrong during the update or addition of new features, you can identify and resolve the issue in the staging site, avoiding compromising the main site.
- Better security management: Testing new features or plugins in a staging site allows you to verify that there are no vulnerabilities before implementing them on the live site, reducing the risk of hacker attacks or configuration errors.
The staging site is particularly useful for those managing complex sites, such as e-commerce or sites with frequent updates, where stability and security are crucial. With our advanced plans, we provide a secure staging environment to test every change, ensuring that the live site remains protected and functional.
Audit and technical problem resolution
Conducting regular SEO audits is essential for maintaining and improving site performance. These audits allow you to:
- Identify and resolve technical errors:
- Broken links (404 errors): Links that lead to non-existent pages need to be fixed to improve user experience and maintain site integrity.
- Missing alt text: Images without alternative text (alt text) are not accessible to users with visual disabilities and are not fully understood by search engines.
- Missing or duplicate metadata: A lack of optimized titles and meta descriptions can compromise search engine rankings and the appeal of search results.
- Low word count: Pages with overly short content may not provide sufficient information for users and search engines.
- Code errors: Errors in HTML, CSS, or JavaScript can affect the display and functionality of the site.
- Improve content:
- Updating and optimizing content: Ensure that your content is relevant, up-to-date, and optimized with the right keywords to meet user needs.
- Removing duplicate content: Duplicate content can confuse search engines and penalize site rankings.
- Optimize site structure:
- Organizing menus and internal links: A well-organized structure facilitates navigation for users and search engines, improving the overall experience.
- Creating a clear hierarchy: Ensure that important pages are easily accessible and well-linked within the site.
Fixing errors identified during the audit improves user experience, increases time spent on the site, and reduces bounce rates—all factors that contribute to better search engine rankings.
Assistance, modifications, or training
In the WP ADVANCED plan, we offer 3 hours of free assistance to help you effectively manage your site. These hours can be used for various needs, such as:
- Technical Support: If you need help resolving issues or managing the site, we are here for you.
- Content Modifications: You can request small changes to texts or images on the site to keep it up to date.
- Plugin Additions: If you need new functionalities, we can help you add specific plugins that meet your needs.
- Training: We offer training sessions, either through video or video calls, to teach you how to manage your site independently.
It's important to note that these hours cannot be used to request structural changes to the site, such as complete redesigns or significant modifications to the theme. Our assistance is designed to support you in your daily operations and ensure a smooth site management experience.
Terms and Conditions of Security and Maintenance Plans
1. Payment
Annual payment: Invoice issued with a due date of 15 days from the date of issuance. In case of delay, the service will be suspended until payment is completed.
Monthly payment: Payment terms can be arranged, including the option of automatic monthly debit.
2. Renewal and cancellation
The annual plan automatically renews unless a written or verbal notice is given at least one week before the renewal date.
Monthly payment: The first year includes 3 free months, with a commitment to cover the remaining 9 months. Starting from the second year, it’s possible to stop monthly payments at any time with one week’s notice.
You may switch to a lower plan, but this will result in the loss of services and additional features of the current plan.
3. Price and service changes
We reserve the right to increase plan prices and add new services and features, but not to remove any. Subscribers will be notified of any changes to prices or plan features at least one month before renewal.
4. Liability
Depp Design is committed to monitoring, updating, and resolving technical issues to protect the site. However, it cannot guarantee absolute protection against all types of attacks. In the event of repeated and highly sophisticated attacks, or in cases of unauthorized access due to client’s compromised credentials, there is always a margin of risk.
5. Service limitations
The service covers security updates, error resolution, and site monitoring. It does not include advanced SEO optimization or services not specified in the chosen plan.