Best WordPress Security Tips to Make Your Site More Secure

There are hardly any free and open source content management systems that have matched the popularity and success of WordPress. WordPress is based on PHP and MySQL and is very easy to use, even for people with limited knowledge of coding.

Many website users are concerned about the security of websites that have been created using WordPress. Their opinion is that an open source CMS, like WordPress, is more vulnerable to attacks. But what they fail to note is that the attacks that may be happening are the result of negligence on the part of website owners themselves. Placing the  blame on WordPress alone for weaknesses left by the website owner is not logical and lacks viable grounds.

As there are sufficient ways offered by WordPress to secure a website, the responsibility shifts to the website owner. If the responsibility is yours (the website owner), then the key question that should concern you is how exactly you can secure your WordPress website. Here are some effortless tricks that will help to improve the security of your WordPress website in 2017.

Update Your Way to WordPress Security

There is a reason why WordPress releases and promotes their updates. The WordPress team is very dedicated to keep your website safe and secure and work continuously to update their system. While the minor releases get installed automatically, you do need to initiate the major updates manually. One of the most popular features of WordPress is that it offers thousands of plugins and themes to website owners. These themes and plugins are developed by third party developers. You will also need to keep these themes and plugins updated in order to maintain security.

Hire Professional WordPress Developers

If your website is more substantial, such as  a business website, it might be difficult to manage everything by yourself. A business website may need an extra layer of security. A professional WordPress developer will have good knowledge about the latest technologies and will be able to utilize those to help improve the security of your site. Apart from helping you to make your website more responsive, browser compatible and SEO friendly, a WordPress developer can make your website secure from all sorts of attacks.

Stronger Passwords for Better WordPress Security

The most common mistake that is done by website users is ignoring the WordPress passwords. Yet, one of the most common forms of WordPress hacking is through passwords. You can avoid the vulnerability of your website by using a stronger password. From the WordPress admin area to the FTP accounts, email address and hosting account, you need to create and use difficult-to-steal passwords.

Best WordPress Security through Plugins

As mentioned earlier, plugins are definitely an advantage to the user. There are many third party plugins that help in scanning, scrutinizing, monitoring and tracking your website to keep it safe and secure. If you have hired a professional WordPress developer, you will gain the extra benefit of their abilities to expand the scope of plugins. While security plugins are very important, you must also remember to install a backup solution.

Securing the Login Page: WordPress Security Tips

It is very important for the users to secure their login page URLs in order to prevent brute force attacks. As the backend of a WordPress website is accessed from there, it is one of the most common ways to launch a brute force attack.  This can be avoided by adding /wp-admin/ or /wp-login.php at the end of your domain name.  You must use the WordPress lockdown feature. This helps in eliminate any attack in the case of a failed login attempt. If your website faces a hacking attack with repetitive use of wrong passwords, your site will be locked and you’ll receive a notification. Using 2 factor authentications and your email as a login are two other ways to secure your logins.

Bonus WordPress Security Best Practices

Apart from the above mentioned security tricks, here are some other best practices that will protect your website from an attack.

• Choose a good website host to ensure security.
• You must be careful with the directory permission settings.
• To ensure the security of your website, disable .htaccess for directory listing.
• You must remove the version number from your website.
• You must disallow file editing in the admin dashboard to eliminate the chances of file editing by a hacker.
• The wp-config.php file must be well protected, as it holds crucial information. The admin directory should also be protected.
• Use SSL for data encryption.

These are the tricks that will help you to protect your website from different types of attacks. If you are a novice WordPress user, then it would be beneficial to hire a professional who can guide you in the right direction. If you use the security features offered by WordPress, you can prevent all kinds of breaking attempts.