WordPress is one of the most popular CMS on the internet. The best thing you can do when building a website through WordPress is make sure that it is secure enough. It is also true that you can never get your website security up to 100% but can definitely go for 99% milestone. This can also be accomplished by considering some small and big security factors while development. Having a WordPress website owner means that you need to take some extra care of your website in order to secure your and as well as visitors data. WordPress website development includes a wide range of free and premium themes, plugins and widgets for different purposes. These themes, plugins and widgets developed by the vast WordPress developer community around the globe. Below we’ll explain some tips to secure your WordPress website from majority of attacks.

A WordPress website owners can secure their website by following these steps:

1. Keep your WordPress and plugins up-to-date

One of the most important thing is that keep your WordPress files and installed plugins updated to their latest most versions. The developers of plugins and WordPress versions consider the security of a website at highest priority. Most of these new plugins and WordPress versions contain security patches. There are less chances that hackers can get into your website through these security loops but it is important to take extra care of your website through these updates.

2. Evaluate your Login Credentials

It is most important thing that you choose a difficult login credentials for your WordPress website’s overall security. Do not use “admin” as your username or password. It is the default username for WordPress website’s admin panel and changing this with a difficult username can secure your website from hackers. Choose a difficult password as well for your admin panel by using series of numbers, special characters, alphabets or combination of these. The goal behind choosing a tough password is to make it extremely difficult for a machine to crack and impossible for a human to guess.

3. Secure your admin area

You must restrict the WordPress admin area only to people that are actually authorized to access this section. A website visitor should not be able to access your wp-admin folder or wp-login.php file. You can edit your .htaccess file and replace xx.xxx.xxx.xxx with your public IP address. If you want to login your website from multiple computers and devices then simply add their public IP address in new line. It is recommended that you limit the number of incorrect login attempt on your admin section. It’ll help you to secure your WordPress website from brute-force attacks and hackers trying to guess your admin password. The plugin named Limit Login Attempts can also help you to implement the same feature.

4. Use secured hosting for WordPress Website

A secured hosting will add one more layer of security to your WordPress website. While selecting a hosting service always remember to consider those company that has security as a highest priority. Just for an example if your hosting provider doesn’t support latest version of PHP then it’ll also not support the latest version of WordPress as well. Some of the features that one should consider while choosing a service provider are: account isolation, intrusion detecting system, web application firewall and support for latest version of PHP and MySQL.

5. Careful while uploading content on Website

Be careful while uploading any content or script on your website. A new plugin or a theme may harm your WordPress website if it is designed to do so. Developers should upload only authenticated scripts, themes and plugin for their website. Do not download a plugin or theme from a torrent, file sharing websites or warz as it may contain harmful content for your website. The WordPress developer community is very vast and they are dedicated to develop genuine WordPress themes and plugins. You can find all kind of themes and required plugin from here.

6. Hide your WordPress version

WordPress themes used to automatically display the version of WordPress you are using in the head tag of your html code. You should hide your WordPress version from visitors and as well as from hackers. As a new version of WordPress is released then the security issues of previous version becomes public information. If you are using a previous version of WordPress and also showing it to hackers then they can easily get into your website and harm your secured information. There are few lines of code available that can be used in your function.php file in order to hide your WordPress version from your website.

7. Do not allow access to your plugins and directories

A lot of WordPress developers generally don’t restrict access to their WordPress plugins directory. It means if you go to your plugins folder from your browser then it’ll show list of all the plugins that you are using on your website. There are lots of plugins which have some loop holes through which attackers can harm your website. So it is a good idea that being a developer you’ll block access to these folders. You can simply upload a blank index.html file to these directories or use .htaccess file for restriction.

8. Check overall security of environment

You should make sure that any and all computer system and web servers you use are must secured properly. Use the latest version of browser and make sure it is already set to automatically patch. You should also use a genuine antivirus software and operating system and also regularly update it to latest versions. All your authentication system must be secured with complex password which are changed every so often. Frequently scan your computer system and servers for malware or viruses. Use a proper firewall configuration at OS, Router and ISP level, if possible. It’ll secure your WordPress website directly or indirectly.

9. Perform regular website backup

The backup of your WordPress website is really very important. There are lots people that don’t care about backup because they don’t understand its importance and they though backing up an entire website is exhausting. Lots of people just do not want to commit the effort and time into backing up website. Now a days backups can be completely automated and can be scheduled in advance as well. The WordPress Codex has detailed document on how to backup your website manually, otherwise you can use some plugins as well for the same task.

Plugins for WordPress security

There are a list of plugins that allow developers to implement some security layers in their WordPress websites. The list includes:

WordFence

WordFence is one of the most popular WordPress plugin in security category. It scans the complete WordPress directory including themes and plugins for any malware infection. The plugin also prevent your site from bruteforce attacks and can enable two factor authentication system through SMS.

Sucuri Security

Sucuri is the leading company for website security and their security plugin for WordPress which offer various features such as file integrity monitoring, security activity auditing, website firewall, blacklist monitoring and malware scanning. It protect your website from Zero Day Disclosure Patches, DOS attacks, Bruteforce attacks and other similar scanner attacks.

All In One WP Security & Firewall

This is another security plugin for WordPress website which is easy to use, install and reduces lots of security risks by adding recommended security practices. It also protect your WordPress website from Bruteforce login attack, lockdown feature and also notify through email.

iThemes Security

iThemes Security plugin is also very popular security plugin for WordPress websites. It claims to offer 30+ ways to protect your WordPress website from a wide range of attacks. The plugin is easy to install, can stop automated attacks, fix various common security attacks and protect your WordPress website.

Conclusion

WordPress is one of the most popular Content Management System available on the internet and is hosting a huge number of websites in different category. The security of websites developed using this CMS is also very important in order to protect your key information form hackers, viruses and malware applications. You can protect your WordPRess website by implementing some minor functionalities such as keep your WordPress and plugins up to date, use login credentials that are hard to guess, hide your WordPress version from your website, regular backup and securing your work environment. There are lots of security plugins also available in order to protect your WordPress website from viruses, malware functions and autorun scripts.