WordPress Security Steps for Beginners | Website Designs Content
- Updated on: 2020-03-09
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Keeping your WordPress website secure is very important, especially if its your business website. Think about all the hard work you’ve done to make your site active, engaging, and useful to your visitors. Think of all the effort that went into every single blog post and think of the trust you have built up with your audience. If you don’t want to waste your time, you do need to be concerned about your website security. This is especially important for any business, one hack of your website could result in your domain name being blacklisted, your emails not working and a loss in business… so let’s look at what you can do.
When you install WordPress, you’ll be asked to create a username. You want to use a username that is personal to you rather than using anything default that everyone else would have. If you have already used “admin” as your username, the best thing to do is to create a new, safer admin username and delete the old username.
The default WordPress prefix is wp_. Since everyone (especially hackers) knows this, it’s best to install it properly and change the prefix. If you’ve already set up your site, you can still fix it using the link below, although it will be much harder to accomplish. However, it will make your website safer and more secure.
During installation, you will be able to tick a button to limit login attempts. Choose a low number like 3 or 5. That way, hackers can’t set up a program to keep trying to log in to your site until it figures out your passwords and login information.
WordPress allows five default user roles: administrator, editor, author, contributor, or subscriber. Each role gives the user different permissions to make changes to and use your website or blog. If you have a WordPress multi-site network, then you can also assign a superuser so that they have access to add and delete sites.
Every WordPress website allows you to update the code using the built-in code editor. You can disable this feature by turning it off. You’ll have to do that by updating the code in your wp-config.php file or by using a one-click hardening feature in the Sucuri plugin.
WordPress is usually set up to automatically update the core files for WordPress, but sometimes it’s not. Anytime a new version of WordPress comes out, you should update the files because it will keep your site more secure.
Updates for themes come out often too. Usually, these are important patches and security updates that keep your site safe. Always update them as soon as you notice an update is available.
Developers update their plugins often for the same reason. They fix bugs, improve functionality, and close holes that hackers can get in. Update the plugins when new updates come out, and don’t use outdated plugins that don’t get updated, and delete those you no longer use.
Anytime you create passwords for anything, make them hard. It may seem like a pain, but if you create a password convention that only you understand, it will be simple to remember them. Make them long, a combination of symbols, letters, and numbers, and change then every 90 days.
In addition, use good security software and back-up methods to keep your site safe. It might seem like a pain when you’re setting it up, but it’s going to be worth it because you’ll be protecting all your hard work and avoiding infecting your users and yourself with malware and getting blacklisted by Google because of it.
