WordPress being the most used content manager in the world, it is quite common for you to receive attacks from hackers, brute force, and robots. For this reason, we have made a compilation of recommendations to protect your WordPress site as much as possible.

When running a WordPress site, you want to make sure that it’s secure and not vulnerable to attacks. This keeps your data safe and gives your visitors the confidence to be protected.

This guide will be based on our experience with WordPress security and will include everything we’ve learned over the years.

WordPress is an extremely popular content management system or CMS. It’s used by over 43% of all Internet websites, and the number is growing every year.

Due to its popularity, hackers are improving their techniques to get into it. Enhancing your WordPress site security is important, and you can do this by following this guide.

Through our years of experience working with WordPress, we have identified 7 important keys that can help you secure and protect your WordPress site. If you are interested in learning about WordPress security best practices, follow these tips and keep away hackers and attackers from your website.

Improve Your WordPress Login Page

Here are the steps you can do to secure your WordPress login page, one of the most crucial things you can do to increase the security of your website.

1. Don’t name any of your WordPress login usernames “admin”.

2. Create a strong password that consists of uppercase, lowercase, numbers, alphabets, and special characters. Don’t use personal information when creating new passwords on WordPress sites: don’t use any personal details like birthdays or names; instead, use randomness in combination with numbers.

3. Apply two-factor authentication for all WordPress user login accounts. It consists of an extra layer of security for your WordPress website login page and its users. One of the most popular plugins for WordPress is available for free WP 2FA.

4. You can also add CAPTCHA if two-factor authentication is not available for you, the easiest way to add a CAPTCHA to your WordPress site is with a plugin. There are plenty of free options on the WordPress plugin repository.

5. Activate the inactive logout plugin, this will log out automatically the users from your site after long periods of inactivity.

Always Keep PHP Version Updated

PHP is an open-source server-side scripting language that’s used to power websites and applications. It’s been around for over 20 years and has become the most widely used programming language for web development.

Like many other types of software, PHP can become outdated if you’re not using it regularly. This can result in vulnerabilities and security flaws that leave your site open to attackers. To ensure that your site is as safe as possible, We recommend updating your version of PHP to the latest stable release anytime it becomes available.

Your WordPress website’s security, performance, and compatibility may be impacted by the PHP version you use.

PHP regularly releases new versions, and each release branch is supported for two years from the date of its stable release. Each PHP release includes a number of language enhancements that help your site to run smoothly.

WordPress Updates

From time to time, WordPress developers release updates that patch bugs and security vulnerabilities that have been discovered in the previous versions of the software.

If an update has been released that fixes bugs or security vulnerabilities in older versions of WordPress, it’s important to keep those versions up-to-date with the latest patching procedures. Otherwise, your site could be vulnerable to attack from hackers who try to exploit any such vulnerabilities on your site.

Updates can be accomplished manually by browsing to your WordPress Dashboard > Updates.

Use a Secure WordPress Hosting

Secure WordPress Hosting is a type of hosting that is designed to protect your website from hackers and other threats. It also ensures that your website is always up and running, even when there are problems with the server.

Secure WordPress Hosting gives you the peace of mind that comes with knowing your site will be protected against malicious attacks by using a number of security measures that include:

• Website Monitoring
• Activity Logs
• Daily Backups
• Staging Environments
• Firewalls
• Dedicated Support Team
• SSL Certificates

Here at GetStartedWP, we host our site on Siteground. It’s a super-fast WordPress hosting platform that focuses on security, performance, and price.

WP Engine It’s also a great WordPress platform to host your site, includes many of the features mentioned above, and has a skilled support team to get you up and running in no time.

Invest in SSL/HTTPS Certificates

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, and it’s used to protect sensitive information on your website. It’s a protocol that provides encryption for web traffic. When a visitor connects to your website, their browser will send encrypted data back and forth. This can include the payment details you collect from your visitors or the personal data of your site visitors.

There is no doubt that SSL/HTTPS certificates help to protect your website and visitors from hackers. It will encrypt the communication between your server and the visitor’s browser and make it difficult for attackers to steal sensitive information like login credentials and other types of information.

Install a Plugin to Detect Malicious Code

Many plugins are available in the WordPress plugin repository that can help you detect malicious code on your WordPress website. You can use a plugin like Sucuri Security, Wordfence Security, Anti Malware, and many other similar plugins to increase the security of your website.

Change the Default WordPress Login URL

Hackers can use the default WordPress login URL to access your website. The WordPress login URL defaults to http://www.yourwebsite.com/wp-admin/, which hackers can easily guess.

It is advised that you should change this default login URL to something else, like

http://www.yourwebsite.com/hard-to-guess-login-url/

This way, if a hacker tries to guess your login credentials through a brute force attack, they will not succeed, as the brute force technique doesn’t help them guess your login URL.

Limit User Accessibility

The more user access you give, the more chances for a website compromise. You should limit your users’ access to only those pages that are necessary for them to work on. This way, if there is any vulnerability in your website, hackers will not be able to exploit it as they won’t have access to other parts of your website.

That’s how to protect WordPress sites from falling into the wrong hands. With our personal experience in the field of WordPress development, we know how important it is to have a secure and safe website. We can assure you that you will see the results in no time if you follow our advice and make changes to your system.

Conclusion

This is how you can improve your WordPress security by protecting your website from potential hackers’ attacks. Besides, you should also scan your website regularly to ensure no suspicious activity has occurred. As a final note, it is important that you do not underestimate the importance of WordPress website security and privacy. If you don’t take care of these aspects, then there is no doubt that your WordPress website will be compromised sooner or later.

It’s also important to understand the significance of regular maintenance to ensure your site is secure. WordPress maintenance involves updating your WordPress core, themes, and plugins to their latest versions, you can read more about WordPress Maintenance in our article: WordPress Maintenance.

If you have any suggestions or questions, please use the comment box below and let us know.

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