WordPress Security Guide: 14 Pro Tips to Secure Your WordPress Website

Looking to improve the security of your WordPress website?

Here, I’ll share all of the techniques and strategies I’ve learned while running an award-winning WordPress blog.

Just like to let you know,

WordPress has recently become a popular target for hackers. Many users have asked: “Is WordPress secure?”

And here’s my answer:

Yes, WordPress is secure.

However, when we use multiple plugins, themes, and, on occasion, hosting that follows security practices, our WordPress website becomes subject to many types of attacks and hacking.

Fact: WordPress powers over 33% of the world’s websites, making it not only the most popular CMS platform but also the most vulnerable to hackers. If you’re new here, check out the WordPress Beginners Guide.

As an end user, you have a few options for securing your WordPress blog.

I’ve learned a lot of strategies, which I’m going to share with you today so you don’t have to worry about losing your WordPress website to hackers.

If WordPress is safe, why is WordPress security important?

As previously said, WordPress is secure by default; however, when you host it on an insecure server or add new code in the form of themes and plugins, you increase the possibility of being hacked.

This helpful article for hardening WordPress includes

“The vulnerabilities that mainly harm WordPress website owners come from the platform’s extensible components, notably plugins and themes. These are the most common ways of attack used by cybercriminals to hijack and misuse WordPress websites.

These vulnerabilities are usually established on purpose; rather, they are the result of errors and oversights during development. Many plugin and theme developers are not well-versed in security, therefore they are prone to accidentally writing risky code. When vulnerabilities are discovered, developers typically patch them by publishing updates”

Hackers typically target a WordPress site for personal gain, such as boosting backlinks to spammy sites or redirecting a WordPress site to other websites. Sometimes it is done so sophisticatedly that you are unaware you have been hacked or that a backdoor has been planted on your website.

Of all the CMS they cleaned in 2018,  WordPress tops the infected CMS with 90%.

That’s some scary information for any WordPress owner, which is why you must roll up your sleeves and implement some best practices to improve WordPress security.

14 Proven Tips to Secure Your WordPress Blog

1. Configure WordPress backups.

Even though I’ve provided several tried-and-true strategies for securing your WordPress blog, you must guarantee that you won’t lose anything if something goes wrong.

Failing to use a proper WordPress backup solution is the most serious error you can make. When a large website, such as Sony or Dropbox, can be hacked, a hacker will find it quite easy to breach your WordPress blog.

So the first step is to ensure you’re taking a daily blog backup.

You can use the backup system provided by your hosting provider or a third-party backup solution like Blogvault, VaultPress, or Updraftplus.

If your hosting company provides backups, be sure they are stored on a different server.

2. Choose a Reliable and Secure Hosting Company.

Your WordPress installation is just software installed on a server. The cornerstone of a secure website is a server with enough security measures to protect your website from hackers.

A secure WordPress hosting usually includes:

• To mitigate DDOS attacks, set up a server-level firewall.
• Physical security is ensured by using cutting-edge hardware and a top-tier data center.
• Regularly upgrade the operating system and apply the most recent security fixes.
• Contains intrusion detection systems for malicious activities or policy violations.

I understand that it is difficult to determine which hosting business is trustworthy against hackers, which is why I have compiled this list of secure WordPress hosting companies:

1. SiteGround: An award-winning hosting company that uses an anti-bot AI engine to protect against well-known attacks.
2. Hostinger: One of the highest-rated hosts with excellent security.
3. WPEngine: A managed WordPress hosting provider that is suggested for business WordPress sites. They provide backups and security at several levels.
4. A2 hosting: This is ideal for a WordPress blog with heavy traffic. ShoutMeLoud.com is likewise hosted by A2 Hosting.

If your current hosting provider is not secure and does not provide security-related help, switching to one of the above-mentioned hosts will make a significant difference.

3. Use the latest version of WordPress.

Keeping your WordPress software up to date is the most important safety protection for any WordPress blogger. This is something you don’t want to miss.

When WordPress sends an update, it indicates that they have repaired some bugs, introduced some functionality, and, most significantly, included certain security features and fixes.

When you see this message: “WordPress x.x.x is available!”

Update it.

Nowadays, updating your blog is as simple as a one-click update.

Make sure your theme and plugins are compatible with the most recent version of WordPress. If an update has been rolled out but is not a security update, I recommend that you wait 5-6 days before other users stop reporting defects in the current version.

4. Update the WordPress plugins.

As previously noted, WordPress and plugins both deploy updates to address bugs and security vulnerabilities.

An insecure plugin or third-party script can frequently lead to a security breach on your WordPress website.

The Timthumb vulnerability is one such issue that we have previously encountered. This was due to a script, and many plugins that used it also became susceptible. Such Zero-day vulnerabilities are difficult to avoid, but by reducing the number of plugins, scripts, and themes, you can improve the security of your WordPress site.

Always use plugins that are regularly updated and provide good support. If you are using a plugin that hasn’t been updated in a while, look for a replacement.

5. Use the Latest PHP version

PHP is the backbone of WordPress and currently, the 7.4 is the latest version of PHP. According to the official PHP stats page, they offer security support to any stable version of PHP for 2 years only.

That means if you are using anything below PHP 7.1, you are not going to get security updates.

Here is an interesting stat from WordPress.org, about 71.8% of the WordPress website is using outdated PHP.

Depending on the hosting environment, you can easily alter your PHP version. I strongly advise you to first set up a staging environment and then test the latest PHP version. This is to ensure compatibility, as outdated plugins and themes may cause problems.

6. Use a web application firewall (WAF).

A firewall sits between your hosting server and network traffic. The firewall’s function is to filter out the most prevalent threats before they reach the computer where your WordPress website is hosted.

Three main types of firewall solutions may be used on WordPress:

1. At the network level: This information is typically saved at the network or machine level and is useful when hosting WordPress in your data center. This is the most expensive option and is typically utilized by enterprise-level websites that have control over the physical space in which the server is installed.
2. At the host level: This is hosted by the web application, which in our instance is WordPress. This is not recommended because your host will eventually have to handle the heavy labor of screening out the traffic. This is superior to a network-based WAF, but due to the additional local server resources required, it is not the ideal option.
3. Cloud-based WAF: Cloud-based WAF is typically implemented at the DNS level, filtering the most prevalent types of threats before they reach your WordPress server. This is the easiest to adopt and the most cost-effective option. The only drawback is that you may need to modify the DNS.

WAF detects and protects against typical threats such as cross-site scripting (XSS) and SQL injection attacks.  SQL injection attacks, session hijacking, and buffer overflows. This is a protocol level 7 defense in the OSI model.

There are two recommended services that you can use to implement WAF:

• Cloudflare: Starts at $20/month
• Sucuri: Starts at $9.99/month

This is a highly recommended WordPress security feature for WooCommerce and other WordPress websites designed for business.

7. Hide the WordPress version.

Assume you don’t have the two minutes required to update your WordPress core files. The listed WordPress version may generate an idea for a hacker to break in. If you’re running an earlier version of WordPress and everyone knows it, believe me, you’re doomed.

Most theme designers now remove it for you, but just to be sure, add the following line to your functions.php file:

<?php remove_action(‘wp_head’, ‘wp_generator’); ?>

8. Create a complex login password.

I should not have to say this, but I know too many people who use creative and stupidly complex passwords, such as:

• password
• MAy14267
• 123123

Brilliant.

Please make your passwords complex, include a few special characters (%&*#), and change them every 5 or 6 months.

I would also like to recommend a plugin named Limit login attempts. This plugin will save all IP addresses and timestamps from failed login attempts. After a certain amount of failed attempts from a specific IP, the IP will be blacklisted. This significantly reduces the possibility of a brute-force attack.

Finally, you should start utilizing a password manager like Dashlane to boost your password security.

9. Change the WordPress login URL:

Changing the WordPress login URL page prevents a large number of attacks and hacking attempts. Especially if you have a small team or simply need to access the WordPress dashboard, updating the login page will be really useful.

10. Set a Google alert for indexed pages.

This is one of the less well-known strategies that you may utilize right immediately. You can use Google Alerts to receive notifications anytime Google indexes a new page on your domain name. WordPress hackers frequently create new pages and posts that are not visible in the backend or frontend but are indexed by Google.

When you establish an alert like this, you’ll know if something happens without your knowledge. It’s worth it because it’s free and only takes 2-3 minutes to set up.

Here’s how to accomplish it.

• Go to Google Alerts.
• In the “create an alert about” field, enter site:domain.com.

• Change How frequently to “as it happens”, language to “any language”, and how many to “all results”

You will now receive fast notifications when a new page is indexed in the search engine.

11. Check WordPress Folders File Permissions

Check the file manager of your WordPress folder in the File Manager in your cPanel or via FTP.

It’s okay if it’s 744 (read-only). If it’s 777, consider yourself exceedingly lucky not to have been hacked yet.

Most bloggers are ignorant that when they move to web hosting, their file permissions change as well. Check all file permissions after moving your hosting.

12. Delete the default admin user.

This is one of the most important pieces of advice for everyone who wants to construct a secure WordPress blog. Most individuals never alter the default “admin” username, making it vulnerable to brute-force attacks.

When installing WordPress, make sure to choose a specific username rather than “admin”.

You can create a new user with “Administrator” powers and provide him or her a nickname that will be displayed publicly if he or she posts. Now, log out and then log back into the newly established admin account, deleting the previous “admin” user.

Make sure to assign all usernames and links to the new account you’ve created.

13. Hide the plugin directory.

The plugins folder /wp-content/plugins/ should not display a list of folders and files inside it.

Try going to your plugins folder (replace domain.com with your domain name):

• domain.com/wp-content/plugins/

If you see a list of folders and files, hide them.

To hide these folders, build a new. htaccess file and place it in the plugins directory.

# BEGIN WordPress
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]# Prevents directory listing
IndexIgnore *
# END WordPress

If you already have a well-written.htaccess file in your root directory, adding a separate.htaccess to a specific folder will not cause any problems.

14. Turn off database errors.

In previous versions of WordPress, if there were any issues in the MySQL database, the precise error would be shown in the browser, providing the hacker with important information about your database.

To avoid this, you must update your WordPress to the newest version, so that it will just provide a broad error message like “Database connection error” instead of showing exactly what’s wrong.

Log into your WordPress dashboard and update the core files.

So, I hope this post helped you understand the importance of WordPress security and how to improve it.

Again, it’s beneficial to establish automatic backups of your WordPress blog at regular intervals to ensure that you can always restore your blog to a healthy state.

Please let us know if you have any more security recommendations for fellow bloggers to help them keep their WordPress blogs secure. Please share your tips in the comments section below!

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