WordPress Security Best Practices
September 27, 2017 Sanjay Dabhoya

For years, WordPress security is a talk of the town for every WordPress site owner. We have seen many website owners constantly worried about how to secure WordPress websites from hackers.

Being an open-source script platform, you cannot deny vulnerability to all sorts of attacks. But you shouldn’t blame WordPress because that can be prevented.

Every week, Google blacklists around twenty thousand websites for malware and fifty thousand websites for phishing.

We would recommend paying careful attention to WordPress security-related activities. If you are still unknown to WordPress vulnerabilities then get ready to face consequences. It is high time to know the security measures for the WordPress website in 2021 in case you missed last year.

Here we share a few useful tips to secure your WordPress-based websites. However, you need to take other preventive steps also to ensure the safety of websites against malware and hackers.

Securing your WordPress website doesn’t mean risk elimination. It is all about risk reduction.

But, before elaborating the useful tips, let’s quickly go through the risks associated with the poorly secured website followed by the importance of website security:

Risk of poor security:

1. Damages business reputation– As mentioned earlier, if your website is hacked even once, it can ruin the reputation of your business and your customers would prefer to stay away from your website.

2. Data at risk– A breach can put sensitive and important data like your customers’ personal information and passwords at risk.

3. Malware distribution– Some hackers are notorious for installing malicious software on a target website, and you may distribute malware to the users unknowingly.

4. Loss of revenue– Hacking your website costs you a lot as you lose the trust of your customers, and as a result, your revenue decreases gradually.

Powering millions of websites, WordPress is a soft target for hackers. Although no website is100% secure, you can certainly minimize the possibility of hacking.

Let’s take a look at why it’s important to secure your WordPress website.

1. Prevent your online business from losing reputation and revenue.
2. Protect your customer’s sensitive and personal information.
3. Reduce the risk of spreading malware on other websites.
4. Build a strong business image and staying on the top by offering a secure web experience.

Do not worry if you are not technical, you can easily implement these tricks yourself. Here is a WordPress security checklist to be followed to prevent WordPress hacking:

 

1. Take Backups Regularly

Even if your website is secured, it is always advisable to take a backup for any critical and sensitive business information. The backup is your first line of defense. You should set the backup at regular intervals of one day or one week on the basis of the frequency of updating your website. You can use backup solutions like BackupBuddy to set automatic backups.

Moreover, a WordPress backup service like BlogVault offers more than just daily backups. It allows users to take on-demand backups and even schedule backups. The plugin takes incremental backups to make sure that a large WordPress website is properly backed up. BolgVault also offers real-time backups for WooCommerce websites. Users can access up to 365 days of backups which they can easily restore with the click of a button. Besides these, other facilities include migration, off-site off-server storage along with free staging, and merging facilities.

 

2. Keep Your Website Updated

You always receive notifications of new updates in WordPress. Yes, that annoying notifications irritate you but consider them and update them. You can set the updates as manual or automatic. Setting automatic updates is easy but sometimes compatibility issues can give you headaches. Hence we suggest updating your WordPress website manually.

 

3. Optimize WP File Permissions

File permissions play a significant role in keeping files safe. You can restrict user access through permissions. Wrong permissions can be dangerous. For example, you should not configure directories with 777 permissions because these permissions give a reading, writing, and execution access to everybody.

When there are a lot of users, you may find it difficult to allow permissions to them. A User Activity Log Pro WordPress plugin remains handy to serve this objective. When there is a requirement for many people to log into your website, this plugin can work wonders.

User Activity Log Pro WordPress plugin

User Activity Log Pro WordPress plugin

 

4. Use 2-Factor Authentication

However complicated and strong your password is, it has always a risk of being known to smart hackers. Therefore, you should use 2-factor authentication for login. Also, you should avoid using “Admin” as the username because it is the most frequent and easiest name! That’s not all. A strong password and unique username are not enough to secure your website. You should use iThemes Security WordPress plugin to enhance the login security.

iThemes Security WordPress Plugin

iThemes Security WordPress Plugin

 

5. Hide Admin Panel

How about hiding your back panel or the backend URL? It is always helpful because a hacker cannot break in. You can prevent even the most forceful cyber attacks by hiding the backend URL. You can do so by creating a customized login URL. Also, you can hide your WordPress version number to remain protected against mass hacker attacks.

Cyber Attack

Source: hackmageddon.com

This plugin is a great help in monitoring day-to-day activities done by various users. Hackers initiate the cracking activities mostly through admin login. By monitoring activities, you can prevent any suspicious activity done on a website.

Useful Read: WordPress Maintenance Checklist (Must Perform Regularly)

6. Get Plugins from Known Resources Only

One of the biggest advantages of WordPress platform is its huge treasure of plugins. The official repository of WordPress has over 55,185 plugins.

wordpress plugins

But, it is always necessary to check comments or reviews and support info before downloading any plugin because a plugin may come as a Trojan for your website. Always remember to trust only known and reliable resources to get plugins.

 

7. Limit Login Attempts

A genuine user can enter the right credentials in maximum three or four attempts. You should limit the login attempts based on this fact to eliminate the possibility of guessing your password by a hacker. When you fix the limit on failed attempts, you provide another level of safety to your WordPress-based business website.

login attempts locked

 

8. Never Download Premium Plugins without Paying Anything

Yes, premium plugins are pricey because of their enhanced performance and excellent functionality.

Is It possible that someone will pay for a premium plugin and then distribute it for free?
The answer is simple- NO!

By downloading premium plugins for free on your website you give an entry to malicious plugins. They may harm your website by any means, so stay away from such plugins.

Related Reading: Why Buy A Premium WordPress Plugin (Is It Worth It?)

 

9. Go for HTTPS

When you switch the WordPress website to HTTPS, you ensure its protection from hackers and any unreliable hidden scripts.

Also, you can get a better ranking on Google SERPs because WordPress has made it mandatory to have HTTPS for considering the website on search results. Your tech-savvy customers will notice HTTPS and put trust in your website.

 

10. Use Security Plugins

Last but not least! You use plugins to enhance the performance of your website. You should use them to improve the security of your site as well.

iThemes Security, WordFence, User Activity Log Pro etc. are a few of the most popular security plugins for WordPress website. Such plugins monitor every suspicious activity and protect your website by locking any vulnerable areas.

Related Read: Top 10 WordPress Security Plugins 2021 (Keep Your Site Secure)

Conclusion:

It is a herculean task to secure your WordPress website completely with little or no technical knowledge. These security measures will certainly help you minimize the potential risk of a cyber-attack or data breach.

At Solwin Infotech, we understand the worries of website owners. As a renowned WordPress development company, we take care of every aspect related to the safety of the website and provide real-time technical assistance. Let’s connect to keep your business website safe and sound.

Categories : Tips and Tricks, WordPress

Related Posts

mm

Sanjay Dabhoya

Founder & CEO

Sanjay is an entrepreneur who has been contributing to the overall vision of the organization as a mentor. Apart from being an entrepreneur, he is a developer, trainer and reader. His unique and innovative ideas has helped the organization and the clients to thrive and achieve a progressive business objective.

Read more posts by Sanjay Dabhoya

Really enjoyed this post?

Be sure to subscribe to the Solwin Infotech newsletter and get regular updates about awesome article posts just like this and much more!

Comments  (20)

  1. Cyril Will says:

    Nice article about WordPress security!

    I also worked on WordPress. So, I always want my articles to be safe and these blog help me to do that things.

    Thanks 🙂

  2. Satya Lavany says:

    Hi,

    Thanks for sharing your experiences. Really this article will be very useful to startups.

  3. Muneer says:

    Wow, Great Post.

  4. Lora says:

    Hey There. I came across your blog using search. That is a really well written
    article. I’ll be certain to bookmark it and get back to reading
    more of your
    useful information. Thanks a lot for the post. I’ll be back 🙂

  5. mrythemizer says:

    I and also my friends ended up studying the great solutions located on the blog and then unexpectedly I had a terrible feeling I never thanked the site owner for those secrets. The boys became certainly very interested to read through all of them and have surely been tapping into them. Appreciate your actually being very helpful and for pick out this kind of decent issues millions of individuals are really needing to understand about. Our own sincere regret for not saying thanks to sooner.

  6. Lonnie Thibodeau says:

    I like this website very much. Great information.

  7. Darell Sanges says:

    Really Informative Blog Article.Really Looking Forward To Read More. Awesome.

  8. Dudley Szyszka says:

    as soon as I discovered this site I went on reddit to share some of the love with them.

  9. Cherelle Karn says:

    I’ve presented my progress, I’ve found it more useful to take them on a journey and show where I started from, the considerations I had while navigating this

  10. Kim says:

    I’ve been surfing on-line greater than 3 hours today, but I never discovered
    any attention-grabbing article like yours. It’s beautiful worth sufficient for me.

    In my opinion, if all site owners and bloggers made just right content
    as you probably did, the web will likely be a lot more helpful than ever before.

  11. Laurence says:

    Remarkable things here. I’m very glad to peer your post.
    Thanks a lot.

  12. javhd.com.au says:

    Great posting friend. Will be back to read more.

  13. Lela says:

    Great post. I was checking constantly this blog and I am
    impressed! Extremely helpful info specially the last
    phase 🙂 I deal with such information much. I used to be seeking this particular information for a very lengthy time.
    Thank you and best of luck.

  14. Ferne Turnage says:

    We fully appreciate your blog post. You’ll find lots of approaches we could put it to really good use while having no effort in time and capital. Thank you very much regarding helping have the post reply many problems we have had before now.

  15. Bruno says:

    Hello, I log on to your new stuff daily. Your story-telling style is witty, keep up the good work!

  16. Olga says:

    Hello There. I found your blog using msn. This is a really
    well written article. I will be sure to bookmark it and return to read more of your useful info.
    Thanks for the post. I will certainly return.

  17. Antonette Coppler says:

    Normally I do not learn post on blogs, however I wish to say that this write-up very forced me totake a look at and do so! Your writing style has been amazed me.Thanks, quite great article.

  18. Hillary Wolley says:

    I got what you mean,saved to fav, very decent site.

  19. Cruz Cerritelli says:

    Here is a Great Blog You Might Find Interesting that we Encourage You.

  20. Joleen says:

    Thank you for the auspicious writeup. It in fact was a amusement account it.
    Look advanced to more added agreeable from you!
    However, how can we communicate?

Speak your mind

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Note : Please do not spam, no link dropping, no keywords or domains as names; and do not advertise!

30% off