Covid-19, your site security and speed.

I know Covid, site security and site speed sounds like a strange combination of words for a Post title. Read on. During this period when so many things are disrupted from normal, the internet is also feeling the impact.We all know that the internet traffic has skyrocketed because more people have been stuck at home because of work closures. More people have been turning to the internet to fill those hours of boredom. 

Sadly, the opportunists, hackers and spammers have seen this as a boon for them. They have ramped up their efforts to take advantage of this situation. Covid opportunists. At the same time, the services that run to make the internet safe, are taking a heavier load also. We mostly believe all this technology is fully automated, so whats the problem? The problem is the support services that make this all possible are human beings, monitoring and maintaining these systems. Closing the cracks when they appear. They are in overload.

I see people with websites asking for help on Forums. Regular topic where people are looking for simple advice for basic problems. But I also see people terrified by sudden increases of attacks during this Covid period on their websites, trying to gain access to their admin accounts. Mostly they are aware of this increase because the security firewall on their site is reporting them. Sure, they should revisit the settings and check their firewall is set at optimal configuration. That is always good practice. Beyond that, just be vigilant and move on. This is all part of this same theme. 

I also see a lot of people chasing the quickest possible load for their website. Yes we all want that. But get the important criteria right and don’t go breaking things that were working well before.

The increased traffic the internet is experiencing, is having an effect on some infrastructure. Networks of servers are needing adjustments to smooth out the chinks. No  its not broken. Its just adjusting. Things are a little unstable at the moment as fluctuations are outside the norm.

A further word on website speed. Learn the important indicators. The scores used at the very top of the test are not about SPEED. THEY ARE ABOUT HOW CLOSE YOU ARE TO SUPPOSED “BEST PRACTICE”. Check any of the big names, high traffic sites like Apple.com.

You will see they don’t get high scores. Its true. What they do get is fast load speeds and first paint. They have a lot of add-on functionality and things happening in their “0n-load” times in their Waterfall charts. But the first visual of their site loads quick. People get to see something , something to digest, well before they want to actually take an action or press a link. While they are doing this, the site completes it load in the background. The visitor is totally unaware of the full load time. First paint is everything. If you want speed! focus on time to first byte and time to first paint.

Now is probably not the right time to make major changes to your website. At least not in response to traffic, speed and the current environment. By major changes, I mean undoing all the good work you did before that actually worked. You should stay in touch with forums relative to the theme you use, the plugins you use, the host server you use. If you see a spike in issues with any of these, then research it, qualify that it is real, then take action if necessary. Alternately wait till things settle. Do some research. Plan for the future.

Settle petal, one things for sure. Tomorrow is a new day with new challenges.

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