Website Speed & Security Audit

Vine Digital’s comprehensive Website Speed & Security Audit allows you to gain insight into your website’s overall performance.

The health of your website should be a priority, as it can ultimately make or break the success and profitability of your business. A Website Speed & Security Audit identifies ways to safeguard your site and stay a step ahead of the competition. Get in touch with us today to discuss your individual needs and goals for your site’s speed and security.

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Background

Why Conduct a WordPress Website Speed & Security Audit?

Here at Vine, we are advocates of Open Source solutions such as WordPress. We strongly believe that these types of programs open up possibilities for businesses to thrive and expand with the most cutting-edge technology available.

WordPress websites are remarkably cost-efficient, easily adjusted to meet your needs, user-friendly and offer nearly limitless potential.

Nevertheless, we are aware that WordPress websites, like all others, can be prone to vulnerabilities – particularly if the user does not change the default configurations or keep up-to-date with the current version.

We recognize that WordPress sites can easily become overloaded with obsolete plugins, along with useless coding lines, which can severely impact page speed and load times.

This service was developed to tackle the two most common weaknesses of WordPress websites: security and speed. This combination delivers a comprehensive solution that is unparalleled in its efficacy.

Speed Challenges

In today’s fast-paced world, time is money. When users encounter websites that don’t load quickly and effortlessly, they are likely to move on and find an alternative site instead of waiting for it to eventually launch.

Not only does a faster website offer a superior user experience, but it also ranks higher than its slower competitors. Google takes page speed into account when deciding which sites should rank highest in their search results; after all, what’s the point of having great content if users can’t access it quickly? As one of more than two hundred ranking factors used by Google to determine placement, site speed is an indispensable part of reaching your business goals.

Security Challenges

WordPress is among the most popular CMS platforms available – and for good reason. Its easy-to-use interface coupled with its flexibility make it one of the most preferred content management systems available.

However, WordPress, like all CMS, is not without its vulnerabilities – particularly when it’s not updated to the latest version. Many users avoid updating WordPress to the latest version until the ‘bugs’ have been worked out. In fact, only 60% of WordPress users have updated to the latest version. The remaining 40% are left vulnerable to hacks and malware.

The extensibility of WordPress makes it easy to add new functionality or features with a click of a button, but it also introduces new security risks and vulnerabilities. Every plugin or third party component that you install opens up the potential for a bug which could allow an attacker to gain access to your site.

What Will I Gain From a Website Audit?

Vine Digital will explore all aspects of your website’s speed and security, offering an in-depth look at what’s succeeding and which areas need some extra love.

We will address specific areas that require improvement as well as provide advice and recommendations for technical remediation.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the undertaking, allow the professionals at Vine Digital to make your website faster and more secure. In addition to running site speed and security audits, we can also fix the issues for you! Contact us today to discuss a plan. We have a wealth of experience in this arena to ensure your web page gets up-to-date quickly and efficiently.

A Website Speed & Security Audit will:

  • Assess the health of your site in terms of performance, security, and quality of build
  • Prioritise issues on your site and estimate the effort required for remediation
  • Ensure all parties working on your site understand any vulnerabilities prior to updating
  • Prioritise fixing issues before undertaking any further marketing efforts

Custom Website Speed & Security Audit Services

Think of your website as an iceberg – 90% of the issues are usually hidden below the surface.
Our Website Speed & Security Audit will analyse and assess the following points to ensure that hidden vulnerabilities are brought to the surface:

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Security

We thoroughly assess the application’s security, including inspecting updated core and modules, user/admin permissions, HTTPS settings, SSL certificates and file permissions. Users will be more comfortable visiting your site knowing that their data and information is secure.

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Performance

Poor website performance can have a detrimental effect on user experience, leading to a high bounce rate and lower rankings. We leave no stone unturned to guarantee your site is securely delivered to your audience in the most expeditious manner.

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Functionality

Analysing your site’s functionality provides you with a comprehensive overview of the platform’s data structure. This includes content types, internal linking, taxonomies, views and any other connections. Assessing these key components enables a comprehensive understanding of your website’s architecture.

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Theme Implementation

Vine Digital takes a comprehensive approach to assessing and analysing your front-end infrastructure. Our experts look for security risks and ensure that your website, theme, and plugins are up-to-date and operating with the highest standards of best practices.

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Configurations

To ensure that your website is functioning at its highest capacity, we monitor the system health and updates while verifying that it is running on the latest recommended PHP version, so you can be confident that your platform is always up-to-date!

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Module Usage

Oftentimes during an audit, we find an abundance of modules that can cause a website to become swollen and hampered in its performance. To ensure optimal results, we simplify the manner in which these modules are used.

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Custom Coding

When it comes to custom coding, there are sure to be difficulties. To ensure the safety and security of our customers, we carefully inspect all customised modules for compliance with the latest industry-standard protocols at every step.

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User Permissions

A major security threat can be present in user permissions. We determine who has access to your platform and the different levels of their permissions. This is one way to ensure your site remains protected.

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Error Log

Carefully inspecting the error log and vigilantly evaluating all warnings is essential for identifying any potential problems that may plague your platform. If you don’t understand what an error log is telling you, that’s where our expertise comes in!

Client Success Stories

While this is a brand new service, we’ve made marked improvements with Vine Digital’s own website during our recent redesign by implementing some of the strategies laid out in our speed and security audit.

While incorporating site-wide animation as well as captivating design, we were able to increase our page speed by 200%! This goes to show that complex and engaging design needn’t sacrifice performance! Check out our in-depth case study to learn more about Vine Digital’s website redesign.

Our Website Speed & Security Audit Strategy

Step 1 General WordPress Review

Step 2 Analyse Themes & Plugins

Step 3 Performance Assessment

Step 4 Content and Database Review

Step 5 Security Check

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Step 1

General WordPress Review

The first step involves ensuring the WordPress version and plugins are up-to-date, as well as checking for any mistakes in the site health. Additionally, we will check the SSL certificate is present and that internal links are correct. Vine will also check the SEO health of the site as a whole.

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Step 2

Analyse Themes & Plugins

To ensure your website is secure, stable and running optimally, we will conduct a theme and plugin check. This involves conducting a general quality assurance (QA) test on the website, searching for mistakes and bugs, checking components based file system of the theme, verifying all 3rd party services and external libraries used, evaluating build and deploy conditions, looking at header, footer and menu implementations to make sure they are up-to-date with latest WP template layouts, examining PHP functions used in the codebase as well as validating HTML/CSS/JS/PHP files to ensure no discrepancies exist. Doing this will help identify any security related issues or performance bottlenecks that need addressing.

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Step 3

Performance Assessment

This includes running pagespeed performance tests, checking vector icons, logos and illustrations in SVG format, ensuring cache settings are correctly configured, minification settings are suitable, image size and format are optimised for the web, CDNs are set up properly and server settings such as PHP version and extensions are optimal. Additionally, lazy loading of images, backgrounds, iframes, videos and scripts can help improve speed. All these steps will help ensure your website performs optimally for visitors.

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Step 4

Content and Database Review

Conducting a comprehensive content and database review helps to identify drafts, test pages, unwanted plugins, images in the database, comments and spam, broken URLs, links and images. This review will ensure that all elements on the website are up-to-date and accurate, as well as ensure that any potential risks or weaknesses such as malicious code or malware are detected before they cause harm to users and their data.

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Step 5

Security Check

This includes checking and configuring backups, ensuring secure access for git/sftp and deleting old users, installation of the appropriate security plugin, adding two-factor authentication (2FA), a custom login URL and limited attempts to log in, confirmation that the site admin address is correct, and setting the correct email address for the site admin user. All of these steps are essential in securing your website.

Why Partner With Us?

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Industries Expertise

Our team of experts are skilled in both website security and site speed optimisation, allowing your website to be faster and more secure than ever before.

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Operational Excellence

We constantly strive to hone our internal systems and procedures, integrating custom-made workflow tools to produce the best outcomes for our clients.

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Bespoke Solutions

Our strategies are tailored to meet the individual needs and objectives of every website and every client. Whatever you envision for your site, we will help you achieve.

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Innovative Services

Our team members are constantly learning, honing in on the latest skills applicable to website speed and security and staying ahead of the curve.

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Our Clients Are Our Partners

We are confident that we will exceed your expectations with the outcome of our collaboration and become an ongoing partner with Vine Digital.

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Transparency Every Step of the Way

We want to provide our clients with the insight needed to make informed decisions, so we supply you with the knowledge necessary for successful strategic planning.

Frequently Asked Questions

WHY IS A WEBSITE SPEED & SECURITY AUDIT IMPORTANT?

WHY IS A WEBSITE SPEED & SECURITY AUDIT IMPORTANT?

With a thorough Speed and Security audit, you can close any gaps on your website that are preventing optimal performance. By adopting this strategy, customers will benefit from an exceptional user experience. It will also increase your conversions, and ultimately, your bottom line.

WHEN IS THE BEST TIME TO CONDUCT A WEBSITE SPEED & SECURITY AUDIT?

WHEN IS THE BEST TIME TO CONDUCT A WEBSITE SPEED & SECURITY AUDIT?

Now. Establishing a strong base for your marketing efforts is of utmost importance. It’s essential to take the necessary steps now in order to ensure future success.

WILL A WEBSITE SPEED & SECURITY AUDIT DISRUPT IN-FLIGHT WORK?

WILL A WEBSITE SPEED & SECURITY AUDIT DISRUPT IN-FLIGHT WORK?

Absolutely not. We never touch the live site; we instead load both the code and database into our local development server, allowing us to run our audit tools without interruption or compromising your site’s performance.

WHAT’S NEXT AFTER A WEBSITE SPEED & SECURITY AUDIT?

WHAT’S NEXT AFTER A WEBSITE SPEED & SECURITY AUDIT?

Our team is well-equipped to assist in the successful execution of solutions that were discovered through our website speed and security audit. This audit includes prioritised issues, estimates and turnaround times so you can quickly start improving your site’s well-being as well as business performance.

WHAT OUR HAPPY CLIENTS SAY

“I strongly recommend Vine Digital.”

“They have a team of talented members who are a pleasure to work with and that will do their best at all times to deliver outstanding results. They have helped us design and develop a new website in a smooth and straightforward process that exceeded our expectations. We are looking forward to continue working with them in improving our digital presence.”

Bruna Baeta

Brand Manager, Banana Boat

“EXCEEDS EXPECTATIONS every single time.”

“Vine have been an integral part of our small marketing team and managing our SEO and Google search and display ads – the way the projects are managed is spectacular, and the delivery of our website was well above our expectations. We’ve recommended Vine’s services to several businesses, and look forward to working on even bigger projects in the future. Thanks once again for being the core of our digital team.”

Arjun Vasan

Head of Marketing, Lebara Mobile

“A must for any growing business.”

“Vine is the best, hands down. They are highly adept at challenging your thought processes and strategy, and go above and beyond to ensure you’re happy as a client, which is demonstrated in the results they deliver (this is a results-based business after all)! I’ve already recommended them to several businesses and will recommend them to anyone who asks.”

Robin Marchant

Head of Marketing, MedicalDirector
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Background

Ready to get the ball rolling?

Vine Digital’s Website Speed & Security Audit mitigates risk of hacks for WordPress sites. However, is not comprehensive “security” nor a guarantee that your site will not be hacked. Vine Digital doesn’t provide Hosting Packaging Services; Site Security, Malware Protection, Firewall, CDN (and should not be relied upon for the sole source of Back-up’s). Your organisation’s IT team should research and implement appropriate website security measures to meet your business requirements independently. Vine isn’t liable for website downtime or revenue loss as a result of security breaches/ hacks.