Do you run a WordPress website? Then do yourself a favor and consider the following must-have security tips and the Best Ways to Secure Your WordPress Website. Each of these will go a long way to making sure your website is a far, more secure place to manage your business through.
Use secure hosting
First off, you need to make sure that you are using secure hosting. Many people make the mistake of not using secure and strong enough hosting. This will come back to bite your business, so make sure that you keep this in mind. If you make the promise to yourself to use strong and secure hosting, though, you make sure that your WordPress website is going to be safe to use and to work on.
Many people go for cheap, nasty hosting options. Stop making it so easy for your website to be attacked. Instead, make an investment into a security checklist that starts with buying hosting that is worth the money. It’s a small but significant step that is almost certain to produce the standard of results that you would want and need.
Don’t let your hosting needs become a frustration. By following on with some secure hosting, you make sure that your WordPress site is kept on a secure, safe, modern hosting platform. Paying too little for hosting comes with a cost, after all: security.
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Hide WordPress identifiers
Next, you should be sure to get rid of all WordPress identifiers. For a lot of people, this will begin with getting rid of the most obvious WordPress identifier of all: your login credentials. When you try to log into this site, do you still use the old /wp-admin login that is the default? If you do, then you absolutely have to change it.
You need to get rid of any identifier that makes it obvious your site is a WordPress product. You can manually change all of the login features to make them much harder to find. You can also make a lot of stress go away with website management if you get rid of identifier like the ‘created on WordPress’ tags that often appear near the bottom of your website. WordPress is very powerful, but experienced hackers can have a field day with it.
As such, you should do everything that you can to throw hackers off of the scent of your website. To do that, you simply need to look to hide the major identifiers that make it obvious this is a WordPress website. If you do that, you’re much more likely to get positive results and improve safety standards.
Install a security plugin
The next thing you should look to do is install a popular WordPress security plugin. Many exist, and depending on your site type (and budget) many options will be suited to your needs. The best way to find the best plugin for your site is to simply do a Google search for ‘WordPress security plugins for INDUSTRY websites’ and replace ‘INDUSTRY’ with your website type. For example, an eCommerce store will need a more robust (and expensive) security platform than a basic blog.
You should always look to get a new security plug-in installed ASAP, though. They are essential to the long-term safety and secure running of your website. With our one, you are asking for trouble, so keep that in mind. With a plug-in, you make it much more likely that your website will be able to be used by studious internet users. You will also take out much of the hard work and challenge in getting your website optimized.
Typically, websites which are already powered using plug-ins are far more likely to get search engine benefits with regards to ranking. Always keep this in mind, as it’s essential to your long-term success.
Keep passwords secure
One thing that you should do is keep all of your WordPress login passwords secure. We recommend that you use a tool such as BitWarden. This is an easy to use – and free – password management tool. It allows for easy access to a password generator that will create some very ambitious password which are nigh-impossible to crack and break.
All that you need is a ‘master password’ and you could create passwords for every account for your site. This is great for adding much-needed complexity into all of your passwords, making sure they are much more likely to keep people locked out when they should not have access. If you get a password manager, you can also automatically refresh and change passwords for WP accounts. You could also do this through various WordPress plug-ins.
The master password that you use is often best set to something VERY personal. So, think of the most particular in-joke that you can think of: something only that you and, at the most, one other person would get. Something that could never be inferred or grabbed from chats, social media accounts, that kind of thing. Get this right, and your passwords will be much more secure.
Protect input fields
Next up, make sure that you take the time to secure and protect input fields as best you can. This might seem like a small thing, but it can make a big difference to the overall standard of your care. If you are serious about reducing the amount of wasted contacts and phishing attempts, though, make sure that all input fields – mailing sign-ups, contact forms etc. – are all protected and secured. For example, you should get something that can make people verify their personal presence, which can often be done via plug-ins.
Such tools are small but significant in the bid to make sure your website can be safe and secure to get access to. Protecting input fields can be tough work, and it often requires more than a bit of work on your end to get it right. For this reason, we recommend that you use a plug-in platform to help add extra protection and security. This stops bots, spammers, and everyone else, really, from filling in the forms and wasting your time.
Get this right, and you will be much, much more likely to get more robust contact security. It will also stop your business e-mail from being loaded up with phishing attempts, scams and various spam.
Generate backups
While it might seem obvious, many of us make the mistake of not generating backups for our WordPress website. While a lot of hosting packages offer backup systems, getting a backup plug-in is utterly essential. This creates incremental backups of your site so that data is never lost, and that you are never left at the mercy of good (or bad) luck once again.
The reason why you should generate backups is that hosting problems are sadly more common than one might expect. Therefore, if you put all of your faith in a hosting platform keeping your data secure, you are taking a needless risk. So, why not generate backups that can give you all the help that you need to make sure you stay on the right track? It is easy to do, and many affordable (and free) back-up generators do exist.
Having backups to keep all of your work safe and secure is not something that you should take lightly. It’s a huge part of making sure that you can protect all of your work, and make sure that you spend less time wishing you’d made a backup in the first place.
Stay up-to-date
Another problem you are likely to have is being able to stay properly up-to-date with your website. Lots of WP site owners see that little ‘update’ image for WordPress, and they ignore it. The same goes for your website theme, layout, features, and plug-ins. Do this at your peril, though! Many people will benefit if they choose to stay up-to-date with the help of some WordPress security updates. Make sure all of your plug-ins are updated, and never fall out of sight with updating all of your apps, add-ons, and extras.
If you do this, you are much more likely to get your site up-to-date and working well. The minute an update is made, nefarious types are already working on exploits to break into the old versions. Those who are too slow to update will then be victim to those who wish to do everything from harvest data to steal control of your entire business. As such, you should do everything that you can to stay properly up-to-date for all of your software needs.
Letting your website go out-of-date is not a good idea whatsoever. Keep all of your tools updated, then, and you can avoid some expensive, irritating problems later on down the line.
Use VPN on public WiFi
Lastly, if you ever need to access your site when you are out and about in public, use a Virtual Private Network (VPN). Why should you use a VPN? They offer a very, very easy solution to make sure you can stay private and protected and research from Bestvpn shows that 25% of internet users use one. If you want to upload a new blog post or something to your website, and you want to do it on the way to work/when travelling, doing so by using public Wi-Fi is, at best, foolish.
We recommend that you avoid making this mistake as a lot of people do. It’s a dangerous idea, and one that can really hit you financially if you make the wrong choice. Public Wi-Fi is often like the Wild West; you can find yourself immediately at risk of data harvesting and various other unscrupulous issues. With that in mind, then, make sure that you never connect to your site using a public Wi-Fi option.
It’s a small change but one that can be so important to keep essential data and information free from prying eyes. Get this right, and you could soon be spending a whole lot more time benefiting from safer, sturdier connectivity when accessing your site on-the-go.
The post Security Checklist – Best Ways to Secure Your WordPress Website appeared first on WP Fix It.
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