The Ultimate Security Guide for Your WordPress Site in 2024

Are you doing everything that is necessary to keep your site secure?

Remember, Security is one of the most important factors when it comes to a site, whether you are using WordPress or not. It is so much crucial that even your whole business may depend on it. When there are problems with your site's security, it's natural that users will avoid your site. Ultimately, you will lose valuable customers and it will result in decreased sales.

Besides that, unauthorized people may take advantage of your information while your site's security is vulnerable. So, you need to be extra careful when we are talking about any kind of breaches that might happen.

We already discussed Top WordPress Security plugins that may improve your site. Today we will guide you through the process of making WordPress security strong for your website.

Security Issues within Your WordPress Site

WordPress is an open-source platform and the community is very strong. Being open source, WordPress allows any individual to access the core codes. There is a high chance that anyone can modify it. Isn’t this information enough to scare you off?

Well, think again! Why almost 42% of the world's websites, which is almost 60 Million, are using WordPress?

The answer is simple. While someone is trying to break the code, more than double people are voluntarily detecting those and fixing the bugs in the core code. This makes WordPress almost risk free and reliable.

Nulled WordPress Plugins

How to Keep Your WordPress Site Secure

WordPress is the most popular and largest CMS out there. It is true that – it's highly secure, robust and also flexible in many ways. With some simple and easy do it yourself (DIY) tricks, you can make your site 100% secure and prevent any kind of breaches. Let's find out then what this WordPress security guide has to offer.

Use Different and Strong Passwords

Cracking your password is not that difficult. A hacker does not use wild guesses to do so. They gather enough information about you that can be later turned into readable data by hack-tools. And if you have multiple accounts synced together, the task gets easier.

It is wise to never use the same password for two accounts. Use different passwords for your website database, hosting server, admin panel, FTP accounts and connected email accounts. It is better to use long passwords made of both numbers and alphabets.

Make Admin & Other Usernames Unpredictable

Using a unique username you can enhance your website's security. When you have a simple username, potential attackers are more likely to guess the right one. However, a long username is more difficult to guess. Also, you should always use different usernames for different accounts. This way, hacking into one of your accounts will not disclose usernames of your other accounts.

Update Your Site & Plugins Regularly

There is a reason companies have a dedicated team to introduce new or fix existing features. Developers and hackers are in a never-ending battle. And every once in awhile hackers figure out a loophole which can be exploited. The developers then try to fix the flaw by writing new codes. Which puts the hackers searching for another flaw that is still undetected.

Regularly update your WordPress version, themes and all the plugins from the official website. Monitor the PHP version you are using. It should automatically update with your WordPress.

Find A Strong Hosting

A web-hosting provider acts as a home to your website. There are many hosting providers. Choose the one that has automatic WordPress update and backup facilities. And if you are using a Payment Gateway such as Stripe or PayPal, make sure the servers meet the PCI Compliance requirements.

Ideally, a good web-host provider is home to thousands of websites. And if one website gets infected on that host, it is quite possible the remaining websites will also be similarly affected by it. Look if it has the capacity to isolate an infected website before starting the patching phase.

Make Good Use of SSL

SSL Secure Sockets Layer is a digital certificate that facilitates the establishment of a secure connection between server and users. This is mandatory for any website receiving sensitive user information such as credit card details. Many web-hosting providers include an SSL certificate in their package.

Turn off the Coding of your Site

Always keep the Code Editor turned off on your website. You can do so from your WordPress dashboard. This will prevent other users of your site to make unnecessary changes, when if their ID's are hacked.

A Regular Backup can Save Your Anytime

You might say backing up your website is not efficient as you need to pay double for maintenance. But there are people who feel comfortable backing up their websites multiple times at different locations. Backup is required for the sheer nature of websites at present. Modern websites have to deal with sensitive information to deliver their services. And partial or complete data loss puts the website in jeopardy.

WordPress Store Update

The first thing you want to do after experiencing an attack is to restore your website to its previous stage and recreate the content. But how can you do that if you do not have any backup files? Can you imagine how long it will take you to build your website from the ground again?

You can avoid such an event by using hosts that provide backup support. One.com stores its backups in a different location. It makes sure the backup files are accessible at any time.

Limit Login Attempts

Your website can identify forceful login attempt made by bots. You can solve this problem by setting a limit to the number of login attempts before the IP address is blocked from making further requests.

Don't Forget about Access Roles

By limiting the actions a certain individual is authorized to take, you can enhance your website security. You can specify certain tasks that you expect from individuals and give them access to only the portion of the data necessary to complete the task. You can define roles on the grounds of authority, responsibility, and competency.

wordpress user roles explained

Related: How to create custom roles for your site?

Preventing SQL Injection

Using this technique, attackers get access to your database. You can use this technique to bypass the authentication step of requests to use the data server. Attackers can easily copy all the data from the database. You can avoid this problem by using a strong username and password. You should also change the table prefix name.

Authentication Keys

WordPress uses cookies to verify the identity of logged in user by analyzing the stored data on the browser. To make this information hard to break into, WordPress uses keys and salts in the wp-config.php file. These keys and salts encrypt your password and store them.

RelatedWordPress security tips that you can follow.

Final Thoughts

Apart from the above techniques, there are many other ways you can make your website secure. However, if you only follow these steps and use a reputed firewall and security plugin, that would be enough.

Please remember, using a firewall is important. You can find a strong hosting which has firewall built-in. So, why are you waiting for? Take advantage of this article and follow the above steps. Make your site's security stronger than ever using this ultimate WordPress security guide.

Don't forget to share your opinion in the comments below.

Mainul Kabir Aion
Written by

Mainul Kabir Aion

Data Story Teller, Content Strategist, and WordPress Blogger. Passionate about Researching, Data Analysis, and Email Marketing. Always ready to learn new things and take challenges. Loves to help and empower team members.

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