WordPress Security Tips
Keeping a WordPress website is an ongoing process that you must stay up to date with. Not staying up to date can lead to hackers gaining unwanted access to the website and causing serious damage.
Updating:
A few simple steps you can take is to just keep the WordPress version up to date. The WordPress team are always rolling out updates and fixes for security issues raised by both the developers & the community. It’s, therefore, important to make sure when a new update is released you do it. Keeping plugins updated is also just as important as they too should receive regular security updates to continue to operate securely on the latest version of WordPress.
Secure Hosting:
Besides keeping everything up to date version wise you should consider server security too. Make sure you are using a trusted and secure hosting provider as hackers will often look for ways into the server not necessarily the website. If you are unsure about yours, you can always take a look out our managed hosting plans here.
Accounts & Permissions:
It’s also standard practice to ensure you setup user permissions whether your website allows users to sign up or not. Make sure all user permission are set correctly for the given role as incorrect permission may give an unwanted user undesirable access to your website. Remeber to set a strong password for the admin account and change it on a regular basis. It’s also a good idea to change the default WordPress username from ‘admin’ to something a little more unique which makes it more difficult for someone to guess the admin login.
Limit Login Attempts:
One plugin we do suggest installing is ‘Limit Login Attempts’ which will allow you to set how many attempts you or a user can make before being locked out of that account for a set time. This can stop automated bots from trying to guess their way in with common usernames and password and the same for hackers.
SSL
You can also install (or have setup) an SSL certificate, this stands for ‘secure socket layer’. It encrypts data between the browser and the server so information sent in forms can’t be stolen. There are a few other gains from this too which are listed below:
– Customer Trust (looks much safer)
– Good for preventing against phishing attacks
– Can boost search engine rankings
– All information is encrypted