How I keep my client sites safe with GoDaddy Pro

Allie Nimmons November 21, 2019

Peace of mind and a secure investment

Security has been one of the biggest concerns on everyone’s lips recently, especially surrounding WordPress websites. As quickly as we come out with newer, safer pieces of software, it seems like hackers and bots gain more and more traction.

As long as there are websites out there collecting valuable information, there will be people who want that information. And no matter what new tools and tricks we develop to keep our sites safe, there will always be some tried and true methods to keep a website secure.

There are tons of plugins that allow you to monitor the site, scan the site, take backups for you, the works. But the more plugins you have, the more bloat you add to the site. And the more opportunity for vulnerability, which makes it all moot.

GoDaddy Pro provides me with all of these options and more, with only a single tiny plugin added to the site. From preventative methods to just-in-case procedures, I’m equipped to ensure my clients that their investment is always safe.

Website health

Probably the most important thing I use GoDaddy Pro for is overall website health.

Just like a healthy body is safer against illness and infection, a healthy website is a safe website.

As soon as a plugin or theme developer announces a security patch to their software, bots immediately race out to hunt down WordPress sites that do not have that patch updated. As a result, I always tell my clients that updating is best done daily. And they always look at me as though I’m nuts. Who has time for that?

GoDaddy Pro does – or rather, I do, because I use GoDaddy Pro! Being able to easily and quickly update plugins, themes, and WordPress core to their latest versions means I stay on top of new security and performance updates. Bots simply don’t have the time to find those vulnerabilities.

Maybe there was a new version of WordPress released recently and I’m uncertain if all my new plugins will update nicely. I’m able to utilize the Safe Updates feature which will create a restore point for me, compares the site before and after the update would happen, and will help me reverse the update if a conflict occurs.

Website monitoring

One of a business owner’s worst nightmares is their site going down on an important day. No matter what is going on — from grand openings to conferences to sales pitches — the site needs to be up and it needs to look great.

To realize the website is down in the middle of a sale and have to wait hours or days to get it back up could mean way too many dollars down the drain.

The security monitoring tool is incredibly handy. It looks for malware, blacklists and errors that could threaten the website. I can check on-demand or automate them. I can review previous checks and generate a client report to ensure them of the security of the site. I can get notified of anything suspicious via email or Slack.

With GoDaddy Pro I’m able to add uptime monitoring for each of my client sites, just in case something slips through the security monitor. If something happens, I’ll know immediately and can address it even before they know. It eliminates so much of the frantic and frustrated back and forth of trying to work together to find out what’s wrong, especially if my client and I are in different time zones.

Website backups & recovery

Of course, every once and awhile, even my best efforts don’t always turn out the way I want. Maybe I’m on vacation and don’t notice an alert. Or maybe the client gets too brave in updating the site and something breaks.

Even if the absolute worst happens and the site completely vanishes, I don’t ever have to stress over it.

I’ve struggled with a lot of different backup tools. I remember when I was first learning about WordPress, I tried setting up a popular backup plugin. For the life of me, I couldn’t get it to work. Call it user error, call it a complicated system… I ended up giving up and testing my luck with no backups at all.

I probably don’t have to tell you how that went.

Probably my favorite feature of GoDaddy Pro is the way the backups work. I can sell my maintenance clients on the option of monthly or daily backups, depending on what they need. (I have the option of weekly, every 12, 6 or 1 hour, but monthly and daily for best for me.)

I don’t have to set anything up or configure anything. I just make a few selections and with zero code and zero configuration, my backups are off and running. And they’re taken off-site, which means if the client’s host is compromised, we invariably have reliable backups.

I can see at a glance when my most recent backup is. I’m notified if any of my backups fail. And if I need to restore a site that’s gone down, I push just one button to make it happen. That way, I can promise my clients that, if a crash or hack takes place, their site will be back up almost immediately.

For such a small price, and such a small amount of my time, I’m able to guarantee the safety of my client’s website.

Rather than just installing a security and backup plugin and forgetting about it all, I can find a balance between automation and custom-care for each site.

No one wants to pay thousands of dollars for a website, which could very well be the heart and soul of their business, then lose it to a crash or insecure plugin. What GoDaddy Pro allows me to do is give my clients – and myself – peace of mind when it comes to securing their investment.

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