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How to secure your WordPress site

WordPress is a secure platform, but there are certainly more things you can do to protect your site from malicious attacks. Many of these security improvements are easy to implement and can be done manually in just minutes, others can take hours.

Why is WordPress site security so important?


Of course, no platform can be 100% secure. Hackers trying to find their way into even the most well-protected sites. And since WordPress is one of the most popular platforms for building an online store and site, it is one of the targets for attack.

It is especially important to take extra steps to secure your WordPress website. Put just as much time and effort into this endeavor as you did building your site in the first place (if not more). Fortunately for you, dear reader, there are many simple, quick ways to improve your site’s security, as well as some more sophisticated techniques you may want to use.

Switch your site to HTTPS

HTTP is the protocol that transfers data between your website and any browser that tries to access it. When a visitor clicks on your home page, all of your website content, images, and code are sent through this protocol to the visitor’s location. But it is important to have HTTPS protection, which was originally used for sites with sensitive information and online payments, but nowadays it is mandatory for every site to load with HTTPS.

Change the username if it is admin

Very often agencies submit the project with the default username admin, be careful with this and secure your site without wasting time!

We mainly pay attention to this, because according to our tracking, the first attacked user names on the sites are precisely admin. Create a new user in your admin panel, then delete the admin user.

Create a strong password

We strongly recommend to you set a strong password using upper and lower case letters, different symbols, and numbers. Thankfully, WordPress will indicate how strong your password is.

To do this, go to Users > All Users from your WordPress admin dashboard, and click on your username, from the Edit Needs box > Change Password.

Enable the firewall

If your hosting provider provides a firewall, enable it.

A WAF on your WordPress site will function as a barrier between your website and the rest of the web. The firewall monitors incoming activity, detects attacks, malware, and other unwanted events, and blocks anything it considers a risk.

Implement two-factor authentication

Before we move on, there’s one more technique we need to look at two-factor authentication (which also goes by two-step authentication and a host of other similar names).

Two-factor authentication involves using a smartphone or other device to verify your login.

Be careful when installing new plugins and themes

The great variety there is also a variety of low-quality software.

Developers who are not careful or lack the necessary level and experience can create plugins that are unreliable or insecure. They can use bad coding practices that leave holes that hackers can easily exploit.

The important step here is to pay attention to plugins and themes with recent updates, and that the plugin version matches your WordPress version.

It is important to mention here that maintaining an up-to-date version of WordPress, theme, and plugins is one of the efficient ways to avoid a system breach.

Keep your website up to date

Your work isn’t over just by installing the plugins and themes you want for your site.

You’ll also need to keep them up to date to make sure they work well together and are protected against the latest threats.

We advise here that if you are doing the update and not a technical person, be sure to back up your site and online store first, in case the update stops any functionality or breaks your site. Thus, you will have the opportunity to restore its previous state from a backup.

Minimize WordPress users

Do not create many users with admin rights on your site, even a maximum of two is recommended. Delete inactive users as well as employees who no longer work with the site.

Limit login attempts

We at Webness recommend that you limit your wrong password and username attempts to 5 attempts in 12 or 24 hours.

Use CAPTCHA

The danger comes from spam that hides phishing links or malware. To get rid of spam messages, configure CAPTCHA on your website or online store.

Hide your login page or change the login URL

WPS Hide Login is a good and easy plugin to hide and change the login address in the system.

Update PHP to the last version

Keeping WordPress up to date isn’t enough to keep your site safe and secure – you need to make sure you’re running one of the latest PHP versions as well.

Protect your database

WordPress uses wp_ as a prefix for all your related tables. Bad news! If you use the installer, there is already a prefix of random letters and numbers.

Scan regularly for malware

Regularly scan your site for malware and remove plugins and themes you don’t use.

If your website gets hacked, professionals will spend hours (maybe even days) trying to repair the damage. You could lose data forever or see your personal information compromised — or worse, your customers’ data. Therefore, we advise you to use the technical support service, which will ensure the security of your site and your peace of mind.

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