Strong username and password for your WordPress website
The first and foremost thing that you need to do to ensure the security of your WordPress website is to have a unique username and a strong password. Don’t use ‘admin’ as your username, nor any other predictable word. Also while setting a password, make sure that it consists of both lowercase and uppercase letters and also one or more digits. That way your password will become super strong and nobody will be able to break it easily.
Strong username and password makes sure that your WordPress website is not vulnerable to hacking. No matter what sort of content your website might contain, somebody may always try to break your security systems and thus take over your WordPress website from you.
Keep everything updated on your WordPress website
There are plugins and themes on your WordPress website. Always keep them updated. Also make sure that you use the latest version of WordPress available. Websites that don’t update their plugins, themes and WordPress version regularly, are more prone to be hacked. When you attempt to update your WordPress version, you might be prompt to backup your website, be sure to do that. It’s necessary to make sure that you don’t lose any data on your site while updating. ‘updraftplus’ is a good plugin to backup your website data.
If you’re having a number of themes installed on your WordPress website, but use only one, then be sure to remove/uninstall any unnecessary themes that you don’t want to update regularly. Although it’s a good practice to have one extra theme on your site, even if you don’t have intentions to switch to it.
Take measures to minimize spam comments
There are certain measures that you can take to minimize spam comments on your WordPress website. Go to ‘Settings’ and then to ‘Discussion’ tab of your WordPress dashboard. Check the box that reads’ Before a comment appears, comments must be manually approved’. Also you can type certain words and phrases in ‘Comment Moderation’ and ‘Comment Blacklist’ boxes that need to be taken care of when someone’s comments contain them.
Words and phrases listed in ‘Comment Moderation’ box make sure that comments get automatically held for moderation when they contain any of those. Also words and phrases listed in ‘Comment Blacklist’ box make sure that comments get automatically marked as spam when they contain any of those. To minimize spam comments you can even check the box that reads ‘Users must be registered and logged in to comment’. After making these changes be sure to press the ‘Save changes’ button below, or all your hard-work will go in vain.
Install ‘Sucuri’ plugin on your WordPress website
You need to install the following ‘Sucuri’ plugin which has 300,000+ active installs at this moment.
Although it has a paid version, but the free version itself is capable of performing phenomenal tasks for your WordPress website. When you have installed this, you can run a scan on your site to see if it has been hacked already. To use this plugin fully you may need to ‘Generate API key’, although its free of cost.
Use a good hosting service
What hosting service you’re using plays an important role in securing your site. You may prefer to use a cheap hosting service, but remember that such one comes with its own problems and hazards. So try to use a reliable hosting service even if it might cost you a little bit extra.
Use SSL plugin on your site
SSL stands for ‘Security socket layer’. It may stands for even something else to some people. Whatever, you know what it is. You just need to use a good plugin of SSL on your WordPress website. It encrypts all the information that is being exchanged on your website and thus the hacker has never had a clue to what those information are. Also Google prefers websites that use SSL. The paid version is better to use. If money is not a issue for you to invest in your site, then you can use a good paid version of SSL plugin that costs you $50-$80 a year.
Be sure to backup your WordPress website
There are some good hosting services out there who offer backup services free of cost, thus they ensure that you never lose any data or information of your WordPress website. They even remind you a couple of times everyday to backup your website data. If your hosting service doesn’t offer you these, then you can use a free plugin to backup your website data. Its name is ‘updraftplus’.
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