5 super-important tips for WordPress Website Security

Website security is something that we often don’t think about until it is too late.

As WordPress grows in popularity, it becomes a bigger target for hackers. The good news is that there are steps we can take to protect ourselves! Here are five things you should start doing today to keep your website safe.

1. Use a strong password and change it regularly

One of the most important things you can do to secure your WordPress website is to use a strong password and change it regularly. A strong password should be at least eight characters long and include a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols. You should also change your password regularly, preferably every three months. There are many plugins available that can help you manage your passwords, such as LastPass.

2. Install a security plugin such as Wordfence

WordPress is a popular target for hackers, so it’s important to install a security plugin such as Wordfence to help protect your website. Wordfence is a free plugin that provides several features to help secure your WordPress website, including:

• firewall protection
• malware scanning
• virus scanning
• real-time traffic monitoring
• password auditing
• and more!

3. Keep your plugins and themes up to date

It’s important to keep your plugins and themes updated, as outdated plugins and themes can be vulnerable to attacks. WordPress provides automatic updates for both plugins and themes, but please use these with caution. At Caffeinated, we always update plugins and themes manually so we can test them. This allows us to ensure there are no conflicts or errors that can cause problems or even take a website down unexpectedly. You don’t want to find out an automatic update broke something on your website weeks after it happened!

4. Restrict access to your wp-admin directory

Restricting access to your wp-admin directory can help prevent unauthorized users from accessing your WordPress dashboard. You can do this by adding a .htaccess file to the wp-admin directory with the following code:

AuthUserFile /path/to/your/.htpasswd

AuthGroupFile /dev/null

AuthName “WordPress Admin Access”

AuthType Basic

Require valid-user

In this code, replace /path/to/your/.htpasswd with the path to your .htpasswd file (this will be different depending on your hosting setup). Be sure to also change AuthName to something more descriptive. This will require anyone trying to access the wp-admin directory to enter a username and password. You can create a .htpasswd file using htpasswd command line tool.

5. Harden your server settings

You can further harden your server settings to help protect your WordPress website from attacks. Some things you can do include:

• Disabling directory browsing
• Disabling PHP execution in certain directories
• Limiting user access
• And more!

Let us do it for you!

If you’re not comfortable securing your WordPress website yourself, you can always let Caffeinated Design Studio do it for you with a SiteCare Protection and Support plan. Our SiteCare plans include malware scanning, virus scanning, real-time traffic monitoring, and more. We also offer 24/7 monitoring and your choice of support levels so you can rest assured that your website is always safe and secure.

Learn more about our SiteCare website packages for WordPress, or schedule a free consultation and let’s talk about it!