6 WordPress Security Tips
WordPress is one of the most popular Content Management Systems available on the market. It offers users a convenient way to manage the content on their respective websites. As good as it performs and as good as the features it offers its users, it has certainly had its fair share of challenges on the security front. The general consensus is that an open source script is particularly vulnerable to all kinds of attacks. Truth is, it is usually the opposite. But that doesn’t stop WordPress websites from being attacked. However, it is generally not WordPress that is to blame. Instead, it is a result of the user not keeping up with the responsibilities as a web owner. Luckily, there are a variety of things that you can do in order to minimize your chances of getting your website hacked. Below, we will be going over some of them.
Top WordPress Security Tips 2017:
1. Lockdown Feature On Too Many Attempts.
One of the main things that you will want to do is set up a complete lockdown feature which gets enabled when too many login attempts have been made. This feature alone can solve a lot of problems and keep your website from getting brute force hacked. Whenever there is a hacking attempt with repetitive wrong password inputs on your website, the login process will lock up and you will be notified of the multiple attempts to log in to your website. There are several different plugins that you can use in order to enable this kind of feature. Some plugins even allow you to determine how many failed attempts before the attackers IP address is banned.
2. Enable 2-Factor Authentication.
This is one of the best ways to prevent hackers from gaining access to your website. This kind of feature enables the website owner to choose two different components to the login process which can either be a regular password followed by a secret question or you can set it up to generate a random code in an authenticator application generated from your phone. This will allow you to secure your website and get notified whenever someone is attempting to login without really inconveniencing you at all as long as you have an authenticator application downloaded to your mobile phone.
3. Use Email For Logging In.
You will want to be sure to use one of your emails as a login instead of using a username. Your email is going to be much less predictable than your username. By having a unique email address for your account, you will be able to really minimize the chances of someone gaining access to your WordPress website.
4. Use a Strong Password.
Another major thing that you are going to want to focus on when it comes to securing your website is your password. You should work to generate a strong password for your WordPress site. You can utilize a password generator to help generate an effective password.
5. Update Regularly.
Another major thing that has to be done in order to maximize the security of your website is to keep your WordPress website constantly updated. WordPress is something that is constantly being updated and they are constantly pushing out security patches that you want to update to as soon as possible. Not updating your plugins or themes can result in your WordPress website being hacked due to allowing hackers to attack the vulnerabilities in your website.
6. Backup Your Website.
Regardless of how much effort you put into securing your website, you want to be sure that you have a full backup of your website at all times just in case. Keeping an off-site backup of your website is a surefire way to ensure that your website remains as protected as possible. If you have a viable backup, you can always restore your WordPress website to a complete working state anytime you want which is what every website owner should want to be able to do.
By following the tips above, you should be able to effectively secure your account and keep unauthorized users from gaining access to it without your consent. Some of the measures discussed above are simple to implement and can be very effective at securing your WordPress site.
These are things that business owners or webmasters could potentially accomplish on their own, but failing to backup WordPress and keep the core files, themes and plugins up to date can create security vulnerabilities, website errors and compatibility issues, putting at risk your website’s health.
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