How to Protect WordPress Site

There has been a precipitous increase in rates of cybercrime over the last few years. Attacks against both individuals and businesses are becoming increasingly frequent and sophisticated. Personal websites and blogs are no exception to this trend. No matter what platform or hosting service you use, there are always risks and confusion to protect WordPress site. WordPress is one of the most popular blogging and website building platforms out there, but it is not immune to security threats. Fortunately, there are simple ways of keeping our WordPress site safe.

Install Only Trustworthy Plugins

There are numerous plugins available for WordPress websites, and it is these plugins that give WordPress its impressive range of capabilities. Through plugins, it is possible to expand the scope of your WordPress site greatly, and often one of the first things the owner of a new blog or website will do is to look through the available plugins.

You will notice that there are a range of free and paid plugins, as well as freemium plugins which allow you to try their features for free with the option of upgrading to a paid version to access more features.

Regardless of the kind of plugin you are looking for, you should only download trusted plugins. Be sure to find out as much as possible about it before obtaining an implementing it on your WordPress site and keep in mind that it is easy for a malicious actor to create a plugin which subverts the security of your site.

Enable Automatic Updates

This is an important security tip for anything tech-related. Periodically, WordPress and the plugin developers will release updates to their products. These updates address security vulnerabilities, bugs, and other issues which have emerged since the previous version was launched.

By enabling automatic updates, you can ensure that your site as a whole, as well as the individual plugins that make it so feature-rich, are as secure and efficient as they can be.

Use Strong Passwords

This is another key security tip, not only for your WordPress website but your use of technology in general. Strong passwords should be difficult to guess, and ideally, they should contain a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. It is also advisable to use a different password for every different service you use.

The easiest way of finding a secure password is to devise a formula for them. For example, you could use the name of the service, plus a name that has significance to you, and then a sequence of numbers and their corresponding keyboard symbols (the symbols you type by holding shift and pressing those keys).

So something like WordPressAlexa2468”$^*. This password will be all but impossible to brute force, and it is improbable that anyone will guess it.

Enable 2-Factor Authentication

2-factor authentication (2-FA) is another simple yet highly effective means of adding a layer of security to your site. With 2-FA, whenever you log in to your website, you will need to not only enter your password, but also confirm the login using a one-time code which is generated and sent to an email address, or to your mobile device via SMS.

This means that, even if someone can crack your password, they will need physical access to another device or account to log in.

Use a VPN

With a VPN installed, your IP address will be masked, meaning that you cannot be traced while online. A VPN will also encrypt your internet traffic, which is essential if you regularly use public Wi-Fi. Public Wi-Fi hotspots are incredibly insecure, and an easy target for man-in-the-middle attacks.

If you log in to your WordPress site on a public Wi-Fi network, an attacker could intercept your login information. With encrypted traffic, this isn’t a concern.

Make Regular Backups

Backing up your website regularly will ensure that if something does go wrong, you can restore your site to its previous healthy state. You should either aim to back up your data according to a regular schedule or set up automatic scheduled backups to automatically back up your site every day or week. However, you decide on your schedule, you should aim to stick to it. This way you can time major updates and upgrades around your backups, ensuring that if they go wrong you will minimize your losses.

Conclusion on to protect WordPress site

Keeping your WordPress site secure should always be a priority for any website owner. Doing so is much simpler than many people realize. While WordPress offers some great inbuilt security, this can be further enhanced with some simple steps on the part of the website owner.