Securing Your WordPress Website: Best Practices and Tools

Protecting your website from malicious hackers and other unsavoury characters should be your top priority. With WordPress being one of the most popular website building platforms in the market today, it’s essential to ensure that your site is as secure as possible.

1. Keep Your Software up to Date

Regularly updating your WordPress site, themes, and plugins is crucial in staying ahead of security vulnerabilities that can make your site open to hackers. WordPress update notifications appear at the top of your website’s admin dashboard. Installing updates as soon as possible is recommended. Alternatively, plugins like WP Updates Notifier or Easy Updates Manager can automatically notify you of new updates.

2. Choose Strong Login Credentials

Having a strong password is synonymous with a secure WordPress site. Using passwords that are 12 characters long, with a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters is highly recommended. Password managers like Dashlane, LastPass or 1Password can be used to store your passwords securely and generate strong passwords. Avoid using common passwords such as 12345, admin, and password. Regular password changes are also recommended, along with disabling the WordPress default admin username and generating new user accounts with admin privileges.

3. Secure Your WordPress Installation

Securing your WordPress installation is key to reducing the chances of your website being hacked. Changing file and folder permissions prevent unauthorized access to your site. WordPress security plugins like iThemes Security, Sucuri Security or Wordfence can automatically detect and remediate common attack vectors such as brute force login attempts and other malicious activities. Securing your website by encrypting it with a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate is also highly recommended as it provides secure and encrypted communication between the web server and the web browser, hence preventing unauthorized access to sensitive data.

4. Regularly Backup Your Website

Despite securing your WordPress site, there’s always a possibility of hackers and other online threats. Regularly backing up your website is an excellent way to ensure your hard work is not lost if you’re caught in a security breach. WordPress’s built-in backup tool is easy to use, and backup plugins like BackupBuddy, UpdraftPlus, or Jetpack Backup can automatically take regular backups of your site and store them on cloud services like Dropbox or Google Drive.

5. Remove Unnecessary Plugins and Themes

To keep your website secure, deleting all unwanted themes and plugins you no longer use and updating the ones you use regularly is highly recommended. This way, you reduce the risk of hosting vulnerable plugins and themes that could be susceptible to attack.

Wrapping Up

Preventing a security breach is paramount to the success of your WordPress site. By implementing the recommended security practices above, you can safeguard your site from security threats. Keeping up to date with current security trends is also essential. If you’re passionate about your WordPress site’s security, make time to read up-to-date security guides and seek expert advice if you feel stuck.