Fresh

Don’t drop the ball now that the ball has dropped! That’s right, it’s a new year, and time to make new resolutions and goals as well as re-commit ourselves to standards and quality in web design and development.  One of the most critical periods in the creation of a new (or redesigned) website is what we at eROI call the “Deploy” phase. This is when all the hard work the team has put into a project culminates to one defining moment when you flip the switch and the site “GOES LIVE” for the whole world to see.  But more important than the actual flip-switching is the pre-launch phase where we make sure the site is ready for prime time, so to speak.

One of the most important steps in the pre-launch phase is an in-depth QA process, including usability and cross-browser testing.  But let’s assume that step has already been completed and your site is bug free and looks snazzy in all the major browsers.  Heck, let’s even say you’ve got a kick-ass mobile version and that everything degrades gracefully with javascript disabled, or on a horrible, outdated browser (I don’t think I need to name names here).

Aside from making sure everything works and looks good, here is a list of items to check on and implement (if you haven’t already).  Many of these may seem rather trivial compared to larger issues like site functionality, but the little details are important and you want to put your best face forward when presenting a new website to the world.  The lack of a favicon may not drive people away from your site, but those small details will be noticed and appreciated by users as well as peers in the industry.  Other items on the list can be much more crucial to the usability and success of the site.

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Nobody WANTS to have their blog hacked.  But without a few basic precautions, you could be practically inviting them in without knowing it.

When you install WordPress, you will automatically have a user account named “admin.”  Everyone who knows WordPress knows this.  And that includes the bad folks who want to get admin access to your site.  Because they know that your site probably has an administrator-level account with the username “admin,” half the work is done.  Then they just need to figure out your password.  One of the most common attacks on WordPress sites is called “brute force” password guessing. A script will keep trying different password combinations until it finds the correct one.  They usually aren’t successful, but sometimes they hit the jackpot – and you don’t want your site to be the lucky winner.**

To defend against this type of attack, there are three fairly basic things you can do:

1. Have a good password
2. Get rid of the “admin” account
3. Ban anyone with too many failed login attempt

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