The internet is a wonderful place, but it’s not immune to cyber threats. In the modern digital landscape, WordPress Security should always be a webmaster’s top priority.
In this brief article, we’ll be discussing five basic WordPress strategies you can use to make your WordPress security tighter than before.
1. A Strong Password Goes A Long Way
WordPress hackers are persistent. An oft-repeated hacking tactic involves the use of password generation tools to conduct brute force attacks on websites.
You might think it’s a gamble of sorts, but considering the number of targets per day and password combinations, the risk is highly calculated.
So, who becomes the victim?
Well, the ones who have a weak password on their websites are the ones at most risk of getting their website hacked.
The solution to this is to use a strong password on your WordPress site. When you’re first setting it up, you need to create a strong password for your site.
But here’s the thing: creating a password is one thing, and remembering it is another.
Fortunately for you, there are plenty of online password managers you can use to store your passwords. These password managers are secure storage spaces that help keep and encrypt passwords for your various websites.
The following is a list of popular password managers:
- LastPass
- Dashlane
- Passbolt
2. Keep Your WordPress Updated
A common way to ensure your website’s security is to update all the major areas of your WordPress installation. It includes keeping the WordPress core, theme files, and plugins up-to-date.
WordPress has a team of developers constantly working on updates and keeping the user-experience secure. They constantly roll out new updates for WordPress users.
Because of the Number of Threats on the platform, the developers are always hard-at-work towards removing security flaws in the latest versions. A similar case can be applied for theme and plugin developers.
If you’re a webmaster, you need to keep updating your WordPress installation to ensure that your site isn’t compromised due to security flaws in an older version. It’s like lazily keeping your backdoor open, thinking, “who would ever rob me?”
Now, let’s talk about plugins.
For a WordPress user, plugins are essential. They add much-needed functionalities that help take your site to the next level. But installing too many plugins and not updating them when new versions are released borders on website suicide.
When it comes to themes, you need to keep up with the updates. To get better features, some webmasters install pirated versions of paid themes. It is extremely counter-intuitive because not only can they carry potential viruses, but you also can’t update them.
To ensure maximum security when it comes to plugins and themes, you need to dig deeper into a theme’s technical side and check the latest versions and compatibility.
3. User Role Management
User Management on WordPress allows you to create multiple user accounts. If you’re running a large team, this can be quite beneficial in that writers can upload content directly.
The downside to this is that with so many users, there’s bound to be a few team members who will have a weak password. Even if that’s not the case, there are plenty of ways a user-account can be compromised.
When setting user roles on your website, you need to set appropriate permissions as well. It restricts users to particular access points. For example, a user role by the name of “Author” is limited to uploading, editing, and managing their content, and that’s it.
4. Integrate Firewall
Creating a digital forcefield allows you to gain supreme Jedi powers on the internet. Star Wars references aside; a firewall is a useful tool if you want peace of mind regarding your website.
A firewall helps secure your site from external attacks even when you’re not active. Even if you don’t have the latest versions of your plugins and themes installed, you can rest easy knowing that any vulnerability will be detected by it.
In addition to protection, firewalls also detect unusual spikes in traffic and help you avoid DDoS attacks on your website. Moreover, hackers and uninvited bots are automatically blocked, thus preventing their access to your website.
WordPress has a wide variety of b2c and B2B WooCommerce Plugins that you can use to create a firewall. WordFence and Sucuri are among the finest sources of a firewall on the internet. You can even download Cloudflare to protect your site from DDoS attacks by rerouting the traffic through their secure servers.
Lastly, we would mention that if you select a good hosting service, you can gain the necessary benefits built-in like firewall and CDN from the server’s end.
5. Backup Your Site
Having a backup can be crucial in the event your site gets hacked or taken offline. With a backup in place, you can rest easy knowing that you’ll have an operational site you can choose or restore from in any eventuality.
As discussed in the previous step, a good host can prove monumental in helping your site be secure and backed up at all times. If your site’s current version is facing any security or performance-related problems, a good host will have a working backup of your site.
If you want more control over how you’re backing up your site, don’t fret. WordPress comes with a wide range of backup plugins that can help you backup your site manually. The following are the best backup plugins:
In case of emergencies, it’s always best to have a backup plan. WordPress backups, therefore, should be the mainstay of your website operations at all times.
Conclusion:
In this article, we talked about five of the easiest and important ways to protect your site from hackers. With these in your arsenal, you can gain the security layer you need to have on WordPress in the event of any drawbacks.
Author Bio:
Jibran Ahmed Sheikh is a WordPress Expert at Codup.co. A WordPress fanatic by day and a reader by night, Jibran enjoys exploring the ever-changing world of Technology, Development, and eCommerce.
