The Covid-19 pandemic has made the survival of brick and mortar stores, physical workspace almost impossible without marking an online presence. The need to create a new online platform for many is a significant cause of concern and anxiety. The presence of platforms known as Content Management Systems (CMS) like WordPress, Square Space, Wix has made owning a website more comfortable than ever before.
Not only do these platforms offer a very easy and user-friendly interface to create a website of your own choice, but it also facilitates future changes and digital content added to the websites. WordPress occupies the top spot for being the most popular CMS across the internet among a lot of competition.
According to a study by W3Techs, among websites built utilizing CMS, 62.4% use the Wordpress platform. For websites that are made using CMS or without CMS, 35.6% USE the WordPress platform.
An array of choices for website design and plug-ins available for WordPress make it the most preferred CMS among the users and the most vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
According to research done by Sucuri of the total hacked websites reported, 94% were built using WordPress. That brings us to the fundamental question of how to secure your WordPress websites? What are the crucial WordPress Security practices that need to be given due importance so that you can keep your word Press experience hassle-free and smooth? Let us here try to look into some of the most critical yet straightforward hacks that will keep your WordPress websites secure.
Restrict Your Login Attempts
Be sure to restrict the number of login attempts that are allowed on your login credentials. Giving unlimited login attempts increases hackers’ chances of guessing the right username and password, restricting the same decreases their chances.
Also, changing your password after regular intervals also throws off a hacker trying to get in. It changes their target password time and again, making them lose interest in retrieving the same.
Provide Firewall Protection
Firewalls are a great way to keep online threats at bay. It allows unknown third parties and software from securing a connection and hence protecting your computer, which you eventually use to connect to your WordPress site’s admin area.
As a plus, WordPress itself allows firewall installation using security tools available. These include but are not limited to Sucuri, Wordfence, iThemes, etc.
User Account Management
If you have many users with access to your website, you should have a clear road map drawn for the role’s allotment to different users, and only limited access should be given to each of them that lets them complete their functions in running the website.
It is always advisable to have a password management system to provide users passwords as per the functions they perform, like the strongest passwords, which should be given to a set of users playing the most critical role in maintaining your website.
Taking Regular Backups Is Crucial
Taking regular data backups of your crucial data and system files should be your top priority as part of your WordPress website’s complete security plan. As the threat of losing these files to a cyber-attack is always there, which may disrupt running your daily business.
Hence, it is always advisable to create a backup copy ready and keep it safe so that it could be used to restore the website in case of any website breach and data loss.
Update Your Software Regularly
You must update your WordPress to the newest version release available regularly. Latest versions will always give you better performance and are equipped with all the fixes for security lapses and vulnerabilities compared to the older ones. It would help if you also kept updating all the themes and plug-ins installed on your WordPress website.
This is particularly important to seal any vulnerable security points. It is equally essential to delete all the plug-ins that are not in use as they only pose a weak security patch that can allow hackers to breach the database and pose a potential threat to the entire WordPress site.
Secure Your wp-config.php Files
wp-config.php files are those files that contain crucial information about the WordPress installation of your website. So, it is of prime importance to secure these files, as any harm to these files will put the whole website to a standstill.
A simple hack of moving this file one step above the root directory of WordPress will keep it safe from hackers, and the running of the website remains unaffected by this action.
SSL Certificate Security
For a secure WordPress website, HTTPS protocol with SSL certificate protects your admin data and provides secure encrypted communication between the users and the webserver. The SSL Certificate provides authentication to the website and builds trust in the user. Buy cheap SSL Certificate from CheapSSLShop to get heavy discounted price that will please your pocket and secure your site in minutes.
Apart from the WordPress website security, SSL secured website has the added advantage of improving customer trust and benefits in SERP ranking.
There are types of SSL certificates ranging from a single domain SSL, multi domain SSL to wildcard SSL certificate available for different purpose. For example, a single domain is used to protect a single domain while a cheapest wildcard SSL certificate is made to secure primary domain and all subdomains, the cherry on the cake. It saves time and money providing security to wide span of subdomains.
In Conclusion
WordPress is the most widely used platform to build a website and has seen the most targeted cyber-attacks. With a little awareness and simple WordPress Security practices, you will be good at achieving a secure website and winning your user’s trust.
