Know The 20 Best WordPress Security Tips on the Web Released in 2019: Enhance Your Security!

As WordPress is an open source that is why the website owners think that it is vulnerable to all sorts of attack. Hence they complain regarding the security of WordPress the most. If you are also facing the same, then you will need to secure your WordPress website as soon as possible. However, you don’t have to worry much as the fact is partially true. WordPress cannot be blamed entirely for this fault because you shall also need to take some responsibilities as a website owner. Now the question is how are going to protect your site. Hence we have explained some tricks you can apply to secure your WordPress site. Given below are some of the most effective and proven WordPress security tips that you can apply its easily

Take a Look at the 20 Best WordPress Security Tips on the Web

Let’s focus on the WordPress security tips we can apply to work in a tension-free environment.

1) Add a Website Lockdown Feature

You can set up the website lockdown feature for failed login attempts. It is going to lock the site automatically when hackers will make force attempts to log into your site. You will get notified if someone is repetitively using wrong passwords to break through your site. A plugin can come to your help in this case to ban the attacker’s IP address. This is why it is one of the most popular WordPress security tips used by most of the users these days.

2)Use Two-factor authentication

Introduce a two-factor authentication module on the login page of your WordPress site for restoring the security. You might set up a regular password followed by a secret code, secret question, a set of characters, etc. You might enable the Google Authenticator app for sending a secret code to your registered mobile number. As a result, a person needs your phone to log into your WordPress site.

3)Use Your Email ID for Login

Using an email ID instead of a username is a more secure approach to log into your WordPress site. It’s due to the reason that usernames are easy to predict than email addresses. WordPress has several security plugins and multiple scanning process to set up login pages so that users can log in by using their email IDs.

4)Rename the Login URL for Your WordPress Website

By default, you can access the login page of WordPress via ‘wp-login.php’ added to the main URL of the site this is will surely acts as one of the best WordPress security tips that you can try out. Only hackers get aware of the direct URL of the login page of your WordPress site and use their Guess Work Database for logging into it. The Guess Work Database is the combinations of several guessed usernames and passwords. As you have already restricted the user login attempts, replace the login URL. You can thereby restrict an unauthorized entity from accessing the login page of your WordPress site. Hence only the person with the exact URL is able to log in to your site.

5)Reset Your Passwords

Change the password of your WordPress site periodically and keep your site secured. You can create your password by combining number, uppercase and lowercase letters, and special characters. You can choose long paraphrases as they are impossible for hackers to predict. But, a bunch of numbers and letters is better as it isn’t easy to remember like paraphrases. Nobody has that time to frame such unique passwords. Hence take the help of a quality password manager to generate safe passwords for your WordPress site.

6)Automatically Remove Idle Users from Your Site

Never leave the wp-admin panel of your site open on your device for others to see. Any passerby might modify the information on your site or alter your user account. Therefore, install a feature so that users are automatically logged out if your WordPress site remains idle for a certain time period. To perform this task, install a plugin and set a time limit for idle users

7)Secure the Wp-admin Directory

Wp-admin is the basic foundation of any WordPress site and hence it’s important to protect it. Otherwise, a breached wp-admin is going to damage the entire WordPress site. This is why experts recommend for protecting the wp-admin of your WordPress site with a password. Therefore, submit two passwords to access the dashboard of your WordPress site. One password will protect the login page while the other one will secure the admin area of WordPress. If you want, then you can lock all parts except some particular parts of your site.

8)Use SSL to Encrypt Data

It is a smart way to secure the admin panel through an SSL(Secure Socket Layer) certificate. It ensures a secure transfer of data between the browser and server users. Hackers will find it difficult to breach the connection or change the information of your WordPress site. And hence it is proved to be the best ever WordPress security tips that you can easily implement. You can purchase an SSL certificate from your hosting company for free. If not, then approach a third-party company for the same.

9)Add User Accounts with Care

You will need to deal with multiple people accessing your admin panel if you are running a WordPress blog. Your website thereby becomes more vulnerable to external threats. Therefore, use a plugin to ensure that the passwords users are using are secure.

10)Change the Admin Username

We would recommend you not to choose ‘admin’ as the username for your main administrator account. Be extremely careful while installing WordPress and do not set an easy-to-guess username for hackers. Your site is safe until hackers are able to figure out your password.

11)Modify the WordPress Database Table Prefix

Change the WordPress database table to something unique as this WordPress security tips is recommended the most. Otherwise, the default prefix might make your site prone to SQL injection attacks. You can prevent such attacks by changing the ‘wp’ term to some other item. But, what will happen to those who have already installed their WordPress site with the default prefix? They can use a few plugins and change the prefix. Only remember to backup your WordPress site before doing any activity to your database.  

12)Monitor Your Audit Logs

It is important to understand what type of user activity is going on your WordPress multisite. You shall be aware of whether the writers or contributors to your site are changing their password or not. You can thereby take measures to prevent the activities which you don’t want to happen on your WordPress site. Theme and widget changes are reserved only for admins of the WordPress site. Check the audit log to know whether the activity is going on your site without your approval.

13)Connect the Server Correctly

Connect the server through SFTP or SSh while setting up your WordPress site. You can use SFTP as it is more secure than traditional FTP. It ensures security in the transfer of files across the server. If your hosting provider is not providing this service, then do this manually.

14)Set Correct Directory Permissions

Set the directory permissions carefully to secure your WordPress site at the hosting level. Otherwise, wrong directory permissions might have fatal effects for those who work in a shared hosting environment. It is advisable to set the directory permissions to ‘755’ and files to ‘644’ in order to secure the directories, subdirectories, and individual files respectively. You can even take the help of File Manager located inside your hosting Control Panel to execute this task manually. Or else, you can use the ‘chmod’ command to set the directory permissions via the terminal connected with SSH. Check your correct permission settings before proceeding with this method.

15)Update WordPress Security

It is essential to keep your WordPress security up-to-date to fix the bugs present in the older version of security settings. If you do not update your WordPress themes and plugins, then you might get in trouble. If the bugs are fixed, then hackers won’t be able to exploit them in the near future. This principle applies for all WordPress products, its plugins, themes, and so on. You will receive notifications if an updated version of WordPress is available and the fixes needed. Update the WordPress plugins manually and then move towards the plugins in your dashboard. Use the update link when a new version of plugin is available.

16)Remove Your WordPress Version Number

Hackers might find your current WordPress version number and make try to attack your WordPress site. Hence use a specific plugin to make your WordPress number invisible to hackers.

17)Prevent DDoS Attacks

A DDoS attack refers to a type of strike in which attackers use multiple programs and systems to overload your server. Though this attack affects your server bandwidth, it does not modify your WordPress siles. If you do not solve this issue, then DDoS attack might crash your WordPress site. Suck an attack is common for large companies where cyber terrorists target their server bandwidth.

18)Block All Hotlinking

You might find an image online and would like to share it on your WordPress site. You can use that image only when you have the required permission or paid for it. Once you have the authority, you can use the URL of the image to place the photo on your WordPress post. Though the image is shown on your site, you lack the control as it is hosted on the server of another site. Hotlinking is a process in which an outsider might steal your server bandwidth and show your image on their WordPress site. As a result, it slows down the loading speed of your site and you would have to bear high server costs. To prevent such an activity, block all hotlinking before hand.

19)Use ‘.htaccess’ to Disable Directory Listing

The visitors of your site would get access to everything that is there in the directory. For example, let’s assume that you have created a directory named ‘data.’ You can simply type ‘https://www.example.com/data/’ in your web browser and access everything present in the directory. Remember you won’t require a password to get this work done. Therefore, do not put an ‘index.html’ file if you create a new directory as a part of your WordPress site.

20)Disable File Editing

Having an admin access to your WordPress dashboard, a user can any edit files associated with your WordPress installation. The files includes all plugin as well as themes of your WordPress site. You can avoid this activity by turning off file editing on your site.

Whatever we have explained in this article is a right direction towards the security of your WordPress website. Now, you can end your worries as the above WordPress security tips will make your task easier along with an effective security system. The more precaution you would take, the harder it would be for hackers to break into your WordPress site.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Why do I need to secure my WordPress site?

Security is the essential at every stage of running a website and WordPress is not an exceptional to this. Hackers are always looking for ways to breaking into sites and modifying it as per their need. Hence it is essential to secure your WordPress site as much as possible from outsiders.

• How can I protect my WordPress site from hackers?

 

The 20 best WordPress security tips on web provide the maximum level of security for a WordPress site. They are so important, that you cannot miss out a single one for securing your site. It’s time to take care of your site and say no to hacking.

• What are the 20 best WordPress security tips on the web?

Adding a website lockdown feature, two factor authentication, changing admin username, using SSL, and more can contribute towards securing your site. Therefore, implement each one of them to build a wall against hackers.