Q. Let’s start by getting to know you. Can you tell us a little about yourself and the story behind your business?
I’m Robert Burko, CEO of Elite Digital, with over 20 years of experience in digital marketing. Elite Digital is Canada’s leading digital-first agency, servicing enterprise and SMB clients from a wide range of industries.
We help our clients dominate the digital landscape by harnessing the full power of the online ecosystem to deliver comprehensive solutions spanning web design and development, search marketing, SEO, social media, email marketing, and much more.
With over 20 years of experience, our clients trust us to deliver best-in-class solutions that drive real results.
Q. Before using SafeUpdates, how did you manage website updates, and what challenges did you encounter that led you to adopt this tool?
We pride ourselves on delivering websites that meet the highest security standards for our clients. But, like all WordPress sites, there are very frequent updates required to ensure that everything is always up-to-the-minute.
In the past, we had some automation tools, but there was still a lot of manual work that took extra time. Oftentimes, our DevOps team would manage multiple environments to ensure updates could be performed safely away from production sites.
In addition, post-update, we’d run various tests to ensure pixel perfection and no unexpected new defects. Given the large volume of sites we manage, we needed a tool that could help us streamline operations so we could spend more time on the high-value activities that propel our clients forward and less time on WordPress maintenance.
Q. Which features of SafeUpdates have been most beneficial for managing your website updates?
At Elite Digital, we pride ourselves on “pixel perfection”. That means we cannot risk anything breaking during a routine update.
The fact that SafeUpdate has built-in testing and automatic rollback gives us the assurance we need that updates are performed automatically while being incredibly safe.
Q. Can you provide an example where SafeUpdates prevented a potential issue during an update?
Advanced Visual Regression Testing is a truly great feature that essentially gives our team automated eagle eyes to catch even the smallest of issues caused by an update.
As can be the case with WordPress, sometimes an update doesn’t go smoothly, but with SafeUpdate, we get notified, rolled back, and our talented development team can then go in and address the issue.
Q. How has integrating SafeUpdates into your website maintenance routine improved your processes?
We love being super efficient with our time so that we can focus our energy on the activities that produce the highest impact for our clients. By automating some of the routine maintenance processes with SafeUpdate, we can spend less time on that and more time on the things that matter.
When we factor in the efficiency boost across all the WordPress sites we manage, it swiftly adds up to a very big time-saving. This is a win for our clients and a win for us.
Q. What has been your experience with the automation features in SafeUpdates, especially regarding reducing update risks?
The automation features are great because they allow us to manage everything at scale without having to worry about any time lags in maintenance windows.
The fact that SafeUpdate goes through each step meticulously while ensuring the end result is the desired one, lets us minimize risk across the board. Even in the times when manual intervention is needed, SafeUpdate sets the stage and alerts us so we know when we have to spring into action.
Q. How does SafeUpdates support your overall strategy for site maintenance and security?
WordPress is an amazing platform, but it is one that requires a proper and sound maintenance strategy to keep sites safe and secure. At Elite Digital security is a top priority and something that is a dominant focus for us. We must protect sensitive PII and site security because our reputation and the reputation of our clients are on the line.
With a 20-year track record of success, we don’t want to jeopardize that and have any sort of incident. With SafeUpdate working in the background around the clock, it affords us top-tier coverage at scale across a ton of websites.
Q. Based on your experience, what advice would you give to someone considering SafeUpdates for their website?
90% of vulnerabilities on the WordPress platform come from outdated plugins. That is a serious percentage that has to be top of mind for anyone building on WordPress websites. If SafeUpdate can help automate that and mitigate the risk, then it makes websites a lot safer and more secure.
This can give everyone peace of mind so the staff at our digital agency and our clients can sleep well at night.
Sandhya Goswami
Sandhya is a contributing author at Cloudways, specializing in content promotion and performance analysis. With a strong analytical approach and a keen ability to leverage data-driven insights, Sandhya excels in measuring the success of organic marketing initiatives.
