How-To: Crash-Proof Your Website

This week, BRICKS Deputy Editor Madeline Reid shares some advice and useful tools for protecting your web projects from bugs and break-ins.

I have a confession: a few months ago, the BRICKS website broke down. Not just a single page, but the entire back-end of our website crashed without any clues as to what caused this problem. While the website externally continued to function successfully, our control portal had disappeared and as such, no pages were editable or publishable.

Since joining Tori at BRICKS in 2019 and updating the magazine’s website, I have been the dedicated Tech Support in our office. While I believe I possess the same tech-savvy skills most millennials and Gen-Z share as digital natives, I don’t have an IT background and can’t write code. This typically means that whenever an error message appears, I’ll jump on Google or watch a YouTube tutorial hoping that a kind internet stranger has already shared their solution.

This time around, however, was different. I had nothing to Google or questions I could submit to a forum (besides, ‘please help me urgently fix my website’). I spent hours pouring over online solutions to no avail, messaged any and every tech-whizz friend I knew, and even paid for third-party tech support that took days at a time to reply via email. In the meantime, we were making do by uploading and formatting all articles directly from the WordPress mobile app, a platform with significantly less functionality than its web counterpart.

More than a month on from the initial glitch, I logged on one morning to find the website completely fixed. Our issue – very luckily – appeared to fix itself, but it became apparent that there was more we could do to ensure this wouldn’t happen again. 

I’m sharing this experience as a cautionary tale, as I know firsthand the stress and anxiety that can come with a broken website. So many of you will have your projects hosted on digital platforms, and use these URLS as shareable portfolios for prospective employers or freelance clients. So whether you’re starting a magazine and hosting high-bandwidth videos or you’re just looking to showcase your graduate work, these are some steps you can take and tools you can use to protect your online work.