Activity Log can be extremely useful if your website is managed by a small team or has hundreds of collaborators working behind the scenes to track every change they make in your website. With the activity logs on your website, you can easily track the changes and in case of some issues, you can quickly find the source of the issue. Maintaining an activity log for your site can be vital for both security and accountability. Today, we will be learning everything about the activity logs and why your site needs an activity log.
Activity Log is a list of all actions taken by every user on a given system. On a WordPress website, activity log will record every time a post is added or edited when a user attempts to log in, whenever the site is updated, and much more. In simple words, activity logs provide a summary of everything that happens on your WordPress site. This can be useful especially if you’re working with a large team of administrators, or your site has a large amount of traffic. Also, it is crucial for maintaining a secure website that runs smoothly.
Having said that, let’s now have a look at the reasons why your site needs an activity log.
Why Your Site Needs an Activity Log
Implementing a WordPress activity log on your website has numerous benefits. And today, we have listed out a few reasons on why your site needs an activity log.
To Ensure Accountability
While working in any collaborative project, accountability is considered to be one of the important parts. Each of the team members is given a set of responsibilities that they need to uphold to a specific standard. Accountability enables you to see if the task has been performed as expected or if any mistake has been made. It will be much more difficult to find the source of errors if you lack accountability. With an activity log, it is a lot easier to track the actions of everyone on your website and find out the source of the errors effortlessly.
To Improve your Site’s Security
Many website owners use various methods to keep their website secure from the errors and viruses. However, there can be automated attacks as well, for example, “brute force”. It is one of the most common security issues where a bot will try to enter your site by repeatedly attempting to log in using randomized user credentials until it hits a valid combination. Many site owners don’t even realize these type of attacks on their website. And with an activity log on your website, you can quickly identify suspicious or harmful activities at a glance. You can then take measures to stay safe from these issues. Therefore, implement an activity log and always have an eye on the automated attacks and errors.
To Ease Out the Troubleshooting Errors
In many cases, you may even be stuck for hours just trying to diagnose the problem. Fortunately, having an activity log can also make it easier to perform troubleshooting. In case of any troubleshooting errors on your website, your activity log will provide you vital clues as to what the cause was. Undoubtedly, one of the easiest ways to find the cause of an error is to see what happened just before the issue occurred. You can access your activity log to narrow down your troubleshooting within minutes. It will save both time and effort for you.
To Meet Regulatory Standards
You and your site can surely benefit from implementing a WordPress activity log. However, you might even find that being able to track the activities on your site is mandatory. In fact, several regulatory compliance bodies require it for certain websites, including those run by businesses.
This includes the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which was put into effect for all sites handling the personal data of EU citizens. A large part of having a GDPR compliant WordPress website is being able to track everything that happens on your site. Along with tracking site activity, the GDPR also requires you to prepare for and handle data breaches efficiently. This is something an activity log is also capable of helping you with. However, it’s also important to note that no single plugin can make your site compliant with the GDPR or any other regulation. A WordPress activity log is a great tool to help you with this.
To Have Greater Control Over your Site
It’s vital to know what’s happening on your site all the time. Activity logs are meant to track down activities on your website. You can track user activity such as changes to content, profile updates, failed logins, and more. When you have information like this at your fingertips, you can quickly track down the source of any problem and maintain tight security. By tracking down every move, you sure do have a greater control over your site.
Conclusion
Having an activity log of every significant change, along with details about when it happened and which users were involved, makes it simpler to deal with unexpected events. Even if you’re the only user on your site, this type of log can help you track down the source of changes that are the result of successful hacking attempts.
Even the smallest changes made to a WordPress website can have dynamic results. That’s why, it is extremely essential to keep track of everything that happens on your site, especially if you own a website with a lot of users.
If you have anything to add, ask or share, please mention them in the comments section below!
Reference: Manage WP