Managing a WordPress Installation – A New Service from Hipposerve

You won’t get far on the internet without viewing a WordPress site. In fact, you are looking at one now. It is estimated that 75 million websites are currently running it as a content management system (CMS). From the official Star Wars website, to Sony, Disney and Bloomberg – if you use WordPress you are in good company! To see other famous WordPress sites have a look at here, at 40 Big Name Brands that use it.

At Hipposerve we understand that a large proportion of our customers will want to use WordPress to create their digital presence. As well as servers optimised for WordPress installations we have specially trained staff who have supported WordPress users for many years. This means we can offer you expert support and advice on using this package.

Despite being very flexible, with a wide range of pre-built themes and plugins, it is not necessarily the most simple way to create a website – it requires quite a bit of management to keep it updated and secure. With Google now ranking on site security this is all important. Other website editors such as Weebly, offer a quicker way to get a site online. However, these can have their limitations whereas it is the almost limitless possibilities of WordPress that make it so attractive.

We make installing WordPress easy, and it can be done with single click from your control panel. If you need instructions how to do this, they are here.

How Important is WordPress Management?

WordPress is a constantly evolving web application. New features and improved security are being added all the time. In addition to that; any plugins you may have are also being updated and improved regularly. Even if you leave the admin area of your site alone for a few weeks – when you next login, there will be updates required.
This presents a problem. If you are not constantly on top of your installation you can leave it vulnerable to security and data breaches. This is fine for companies like us, as we use the admin area of our website on a daily basis. For many of our customers however – they have their own business to run – and don’t want to be wasting time constantly checking their online installations.

How Our Management Service Works

There will be two types of of customer, those who already have a WordPress installation and those who want a new installation and we have two types of products for those customers.

Customers with an Existing WordPress Installation – Setup Fee £6.99

• Admin user created for Hipposerve team so we can administer your installation.
• Website health check for speed and security
• Bespoke caching and security set up if required
• Recommended plugins installed
• Monitoring features installed
• Monitoring and management setup
• Backups setup using an encrypted connection, off site to Amazon AWS S3
• Initial File and Database Backup

Customers who want a New WordPress Installation – Setup Fee £9.99

• Latest WordPress Installed with recommended plugins for speed and security
• Requested themes installed if required (if not base themes used).
• Admin user created for Hipposerve team.
• Admin user created for customer
• Website health check for speed and security
• Monitoring systems installed
• Monitoring and management setup
• Backups setup using an encrypted connection, off site to Amazon AWS S3
• Initial File and Database Backup

Once Set Up – Our Management Service for Both Types of Customer – £8.99 per month

• Site Monitored 24/7
• We can add  4 Content Posts p/m (content must be provided, additional posts charged at £6.99 a post)
• When updates are available a file and database backup is taken
• Site is then updated
• 1) WordPress core updates included
• 2) WordPress plugin updates included
• 3) WordPress theme updates included
• 4) WordPress translation updates included
• File and database backup also taken nightly.
• Backup retention is 20 days (subject to acceptable use policy – larger sites may have to pay an additional data fee)
• All backups are offsite and stored using Amazon’s AWS S3
• Monthly site/database optimisation

Customers Who Have A Managed Contract with Third Party Designers

If you have used a third party to design your website and you have a management contract with them. We recommend that you contact them first. You might find that this kind of service is included as part of your management package. If they do not offer this as a service then feel free to contact us.

WordPress Management Service – In Summary

WordPress is a powerful CMS and is a fantastic tool to use. For maximum security it does however need to be well managed and kept up to date. Outdated plugins and WordPress core files can leave your site vulnerable to malware and hackers. A site with poor security can also damage your search engine rankings. Keeping your site maintained can be a headache which is why we offer our own WordPress Management Service. For full information about it, visit our site here.

About Us

Hipposerve is a UK based company offering Web hosting, domain names, specialist email services and a range of other features to help you make your online statement. We offer outstanding customer support that always works on a personal level. You will always be treated as an individual – not just another customer. We also have a range of tools to help get you started:

Hipposerve Domain Tools

1. Domain Price List – updated daily
2. Domain Promotions – updated daily
3. Domain Suggestion Tool – (this is currently only compatible with a few tlds, but can be used to find good names for the others)
4. Domain Registration – (this allows you to filter down the tld’s into different categories to make it easier to find them)

Ordering a hosting package is a fully automated process which can be completed from our website. If however you wish to discuss package options with us, or any other hosting related query;  just drop us a line at our support desk.

You can also phone us on 0330 043 1502.

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