If you have a WordPress website or WooCommerce store, you know that a lot is going on behind the scenes.

To ensure your site’s wellbeing and security, you need to keep track of every update, change, install, login, setting, and so on — but how?

Luckily, there’s a tool that will help you do just that. The activity log allows you to track all the activities you want and then some. It’s a must-have tool in your arsenal, as it offers a chronological, sequential record of all the actions performed by website users.

Why use an activity log?

Based on the activity log’s alternative names — “audit log” and “security log” — you can see why it matters for the ongoing success of your site. 

Whether you want to remain as productive as possible, simplify troubleshooting, ensure compliance, or all of the above, an activity log documents all of the key events that happen on your website. Track everything from content changes to updates, plugin installs to theme changes. 

Is there an unexpected or unexplained event? Did a page disappear? With an activity log, it’s easy to see the cause.

Are you holding sensitive information? An activity log supports optimal security. 

And this is just the beginning. With WordPress Activity, you can track:

  • Theme switches
  • Menu additions, updates, and deletions
  • Widget changes
  • Settings updates
  • Contact form submissions
  • User data (additions, deletions, registrations, logins, etc.)

View a full list of activities and events here. 

Ways you can use the activity log

The activity log is versatile and easy to use, allowing you to troubleshoot anything from system failures to bugs. 

1. Monitor team tasks

Your team is vital to your success, but only if you operate efficiently. 

If you have several contractors or team members working on your site, the activity log helps you ensure all critical tasks are completed. 

  • Are team members responding to comments as directed?
  • Are blog posts ready for your review?
  • Are theme or plugin updates being performed?
  • Has your web designer made the changes you requested?

An activity log is not a substitute for effective team management. However, when you have clear-cut, time-stamped data, it makes your job a lot easier. The idea here is to maintain user accountability. 

Are you a one-person operation? An activity log is still important to hold yourself accountable or at the very least, provide you with a history of the updates and changes you made — some of which you may have forgotten along the way. 

2. Catch unauthorized changes 

The simple thought of a hacker can send chills up any site owner’s spine, especially when your website houses personal or financial information. With the activity log, you can keep an eye out for any unauthorized changes. 

Unauthorized changes caused by a hacker may appear as odd new user accounts, plugin and theme deletions, unapproved page changes, etc. 

Your first indication of a hack might be an alert from your Downtime Monitoring tool. If you know your site is down, you can quickly check the activity log to see what happened right before it went down and find out if the activity was suspicious.

3. Identify an issue when something goes wrong 

Say goodbye to the guesswork that comes with site debugging and the panic of losing money or subscribers every minute your site is down. From code issues to plugin conflicts, there are all kinds of reasons your site may experience trouble. The quicker you solve the issue, the better. 

If you can pinpoint approximately when something happened, the log can tell you the where, who, what, and why. For example, if you know that your site went down around 2:30 PM, you might see that a plugin was updated at 2:29. That means that one possible solution to the issue may be to roll back that plugin to its previous version.

Whether you work on your site yourself or with a developer, the log will save you both time and money. 

4. Restore a backup

There’s a long list of possible reasons why you would need to restore a backup as quickly as possible — a code error, plugin issue, or hack. The activity log works seamlessly alongside real-time backups. 

This means you can restore your website to the point right before an error occurred. So, in the scenario mentioned above, you could choose to restore a full backup of your site from the minute before the plugin updated and broke things. 

How to use the activity log

Viewing your site’s activity is a fairly straightforward process once you get the hang of it. 

  • In the top left corner, click on My Site(s).
  • If you run more than one site, click Switch Sites, selecting the site you want to review.
  • Click Jetpack, and then Activity Log.

You’ll now be able to view previous events. For each action, you can see when it was performed and who performed it.

The WordPress.com plan that you have determines how long events are stored. If you have a Free, Personal, or Premium plan, all activities are stored for 30 days. If you have either the Business or eCommerce plan, activities are stored forever.

With any paid plan, you can filter events by their date range or activity type. For example, do you want to see the activity for widgets only? Or would you like to view activity for media, people, and site settings? Tick the boxes you wish to view in the “activity type” drop-down menu. 

Take advantage of the WordPress activity log

Whether your eCommerce site is your livelihood or you run a blog near and dear to your heart, the activity log is the ultimate way to keep tabs on your work. 

Built into every WordPress.com plan, you can use it to troubleshoot issues, direct and monitor the actions of your team, or restore your site in case of an emergency. 



Thursday, February 17, 2022





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