In the past few years, security has become a foremost concern on the web. The websites have become a soft target for the hackers and they have always been around to keep you on your toes, specifically if you are running your online business using WordPress.
Be it a Brute-force login attempt, cross-site scripting or denial of service, WordPress has always suffered from the security vulnerabilities. According to one survey from WpWhiteSecurity.com, 73.2% of the most popular WordPress installations are vulnerable, which can be detected using free automated tools.
There is no denying that WordPress Development Services bring tons of benefits for your online business but when it comes to the security, it is something you must consider a do or die situation. If we talk about WordPress security, it is often referred to as hardening and even it makes sense too! No matter how hard you put the efforts by putting various reinforcements and checks, it can always find itself in harm’s way.
Do you feel your WordPress site is under threat? You have taken help from the WordPress development company, but still, you don’t have WordPress security in place? This post will help you understand 5 ways you can secure and protect your WordPress site at your own.
Get the Username and Passwords Improve
One of the very first and basic steps is to take care of what username and password you are using to login into WordPress. Many of us are least bothered about the username and keep the default admin as the username. Try to use a different and unique username, which is hard to break.
On the other hand, ensure to use the passwords that are complex and comprised of different letters, characters, and number. Avoid using a password that is matching to the username. Also, you should not use common words that are easy to crack.
Think about SSL Certificate
Another mistake that many website owners make is to overlook the importance of SSL certificate. It is important to understand that HTTPS will allow your browser or application to connect securely with a website. Installing SSL certificate will bring plenty of benefits including trust, credibility, improved SEO results, better performance and more. You can hire WordPress developer or a Professional WordPress Development Company to get it done for you.
Say NO to Third-Party Code
One of the main culprits for the security vulnerabilities in WordPress is 3rd party code. They are also the hardest part to crack when it comes to securing your website. Check if your website is still using plugins, themes and outdated version of WordPress or not. If you are getting help from the WordPress Development Services, asks the provider to help you understand whether the plugin is actually needed for your business or not.
You can ask the team to validate the code of any third party theme or plugin in order to ensure it contains proper sanitation and escaping. If you want to validate at your end, then you can simply search for the below strings:
- esc_attr
- esc_html
- wp_nonce_field
- wp_nonce_url
- sanitize_text_field
- $wpdb->prepare
If you find any of these strings available in the plugin, you are good to go ahead.
Don’t forget to tweak wp-config.pho file!
When we talk about WordPress, wp-config.php file is the core of it. It is the most crucial part of your WordPress website when it comes to security. Starting from the database login information to the security keys, it contains all the critical information.
Ensure that you move it any non-accessible directories instead of the default root directory. All you need to do is to copy everything from wp-config.php into a different file and put the below snippet in it, which redirects the path of your other file.
<?php
include(‘/home/yourname/wp-config.php');
You also need to change the security keys and update the permissions for the root directory.
Update WordPress site on a regular interval
It is one of the easiest yet essentials steps for securing the WordPress site. Version updates from WordPress bring a lot of security enhancements and bug fixes. Therefore, it is always a great idea to get your site on the latest version. You also need to pay attention to updating WordPress themes, plugins and passwords on a regular interval to avoid any issues at a later stage.
With these 5 basic security tips, you can be sure on a way to improve WordPress security. The list we discussed is not exhaustive, but it will surely be a great help for the site owners having no technical knowledge to keep the site safer until they get help from the WordPress Development Company. Want to hire WordPress developer to improve the security of your site? Want to share other best practices for better security? Hit the comment now!
Author Bio:
Nishant Desai – Digital Marketing Strategist at Pixlogix Infotech Pvt. Ltd. I love to write about the latest trending updates, WordPress, Web Design, SEO and other interesting information. I believe in Learning, Sharing and keep growing together.
