WordPress Security Check – Security Tips For All Website Owners
Want a quick WordPress security check? Do you want to know the three vital WordPress security tips every WordPress website owner should know to have your site secured against hackers? This article is about taking the minimum viable steps to WordPress security. This means the minimum outlay with the maximum protection.
You're a WordPress website owner and you’re probably concerned about hacking – and who wouldn’t be? In this article I share three vital tips you must know to be properly protected against hackers. To ensure your website is not hacked and you lose everything, you need to read this article immediately to take your WordPress security to the next level.
WordPress Security Tip No. 1: Get The Free WordFence Plugin
Why Is This Important?
You need something to stop brute force attacks – the repetitive trying of different passwords over and over again. This is a common tactic among hackers. The great thing is that you can protect against this sort of attack - and for free!
What Is The Tip?
The tip is to get hold of the WordFence plugin. WordFence does a number of things for you to improve your security, and one of them is to act against brute force attacks. In simple terms it limits hackers guessing your password by locking them out after a number of failed attempts.
It also detects changes to your WordPress code, plugins or theme – which can be a sign of a malware attack. It monitors access attempts and the paid version even allows you to block specific countries and IP addresses which show signs of repeated hacking attempts.
How To Implement WordFence
To implement WordFence, just go to the WordPress plugins site, search for the free WordFence plugin, download it and install it.
You can even do this from within your WordPress site. Just sign in to your WordPress Dashboard, go to the Plugins tab, click ‘Add New’ and search for Wordfence. When it shows up in the search results, click to install it.
This Tip Is Priceless Because …
For the outlay of precisely zero Dollars, Pounds or Euros you can protect your website against hackers. It’s not the whole solution, but as a zero-cost option, it’s one you should have in place.
WordPress Security Tip No. 2: Have Hard To Guess Usernames And Passwords
What Is The Tip?
This tip is simply to have hard to guess usernames and passwords for your WordPress backend. Yes, I know, am I really spending time sharing this with you? Yes I am, because it’s vital.
Why Is It Important?
This tip is important as it’s a security tip that won’t cost you anything, yet will pay dividends. And it’s the first thing a hacker may try to gain access to your site, as it’s the least amount of effort for them.
I read a report on computer security last week. It’s frightening how many sites have an admin username of ‘admin’ and a password of ‘password’ or ‘test1234’ or even ‘12345678’. In fact the most common username and password combination is 'username' and 'password'!
If you have a username and password this easy to guess you may as well have no security at all.
How Do You Implement This Tip To Get Better WordPress Security?
WordPress will generate a very hard to guess password for you – you just need to ask it to! Sign into your Dashboard and go to the Users tab. Click on the user you want to change. About half way down the screen is an option to change your password. Allow WordPress to recommend one for you. This will be neigh on impossible to guess.
And if you have an admin user called ‘admin’ set up another admin user with a harder to guess username then delete the original one called admin.
WordPress Security Tip No. 3: Get Your Site a Robust Backup Plan
Why Is This Important?
No matter how good your security, a determined and skilled hacker can still get access to your site. Therefore you need a robust backup strategy so you can quickly and easily restore your site.
The alternative, once your site has been wiped out, is to rebuild your site from scratch, with all the cost, inconvenience and delays associated with that.
And this does happen, regrettably with increasing frequency.
What Is The Tip?
So whatever site you have, you must have a backup strategy. And whatever strategy you choose to use, you must have a reliable backup system in place. There are a number of systems around, but there will be one that suits your budget and needs.
How Do You Implement This Tip?
For many people running WordPress, I now recommend VaultPress. It’s a backup system run by Automattic, the people who write WordPress itself. It’s robust, trusted and affordable.
Just open a web browser and search for VaultPress, select the option that’s right for you, and once VaultPress takes its first backup, you’ll be protected.
WordPress Security Check - Bonus Tip
Now that you've got the three important tips for WordPress security success down, I'd like to invite you to get even MORE advanced help with my bonus tip.
What Is My Bonus Tip?
Many hackers gain access to your site through an out of date copy of WordPress. Older copies of WordPress have been found to contain vulnerabilities that hackers exploit. As soon as WordPress identifies these vulnerabilities, they issue a new version. And, as with all WordPress code, this update is free.
If, however, you do not update WordPress to the latest version, you can be leaving an easy access door available for any hacker.
What’s true of WordPress versions is also true of your theme. Your theme, if not at the latest level, can be a source of attacks. And what’s true of WordPress and your theme is even more true of outdated plugins. Plugins are great, and add functionality to your WordPress site.
So you must keep your WordPress version, theme and all plugins updated to the latest level.
Keeping Everything Updated
The trouble is, keeping WordPress, your theme and all your plugins up to date can be a considerable drain on your time. If you miss just one update, your site can be vulnerable. And the longer you leave it, the more threat it poses.
Is There An Answer?
In response to this problem, I offer a cost-effective service to ensure your WordPress website is up to date. I will ensure your site stays up to date. That’s WordPress itself, your theme and all your plugins. I monitor your site and take action to update any component that is out of date and hence a vulnerability.
WordPress Security Check - Next Steps
If you're a WordPress website owner who wants to ensure you always have the latest version of WordPress, each plugin and theme then get my WordPress maintenance service - NOW! It's just £5 per month for each site.
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