Every single day, almost 30,000 websites are hacked in the world. However, you do not have to be a tech geek to ensure your website is safe. Using the best WordPress hosting UK, you can do a lot to save yourself as a website administrator. Regular updates & backups, secure passwords, a wise hosting provider selection, and choosing practical themes and plugins can keep hackers away from you.
7 Easy Steps to Achieve Better WordPress Security
Let us see how you can achieve the best WordPress security in seven easy steps. They are inspired by the best WordPress security practices that all experts recommend to WordPress users.
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Pick Up The Best Website Hosting
All web hosting providers are unique and come with pros and cons. However, in many cases, inefficient hosting is the reason behind compromised WordPress websites.
The biggest mistake you can make is to purchase the cheapest hosting available blindly. Take your time for research. But it is critical to find a reputable hosting company with an impressive number of five-star reviews and positive customer testimonials. Even paying some extra would not be a big deal. Reputable and professional providers like The Email Shop will always follow industry security standards to make you safe.
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Update Regularly
Not updating is one of the most unprofessional behaviors that lead to data breaches and compromises. Downloading and installing every update is critical since they come with solutions to the latest problems.
Every update comes with patches and fixes that resolve the latest vulnerabilities discovered. You will be more exposed to vulnerabilities if you do not update to the latest WordPress version.
Check your notifications regularly so you do not miss the updates. Never ignore the messages that say, please update. The hackers even deliberately target the websites using outdated WordPress versions.
The updating formula should be equally applied to themes and plugins. Please switch to the latest visions as soon as they are released. Also, try your best to avoid free WordPress themes.
Be more careful when there is no reputable developer behind the production of the theme. There always is an excellent chance of free themes having malicious codes that cause problems in the future.
If you cannot avoid using free themes, pick the ones provided by trusted theme companies. You may also consult the official WordPress.org theme repository. The same is true for plugins.
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Follow The Best Password and Username Practices
Weak passwords are also a common loophole people leave for hackers, and they easily break into the website. Do you have a password as typical as ‘abc123’ or just ‘password’? Change it as soon as possible, and try to make the most unpredictable combination of capital and small letters, numbers, and special characters.
Various online tools can assist you in creating strong passwords. Many of them will even help you remember the passwords.
Similarly, you should follow the best username practices. For example, never use the word ‘admin’ as your username. You will get hacked very soon if your username is admin and your password is some easy and common word.
After the installation, WordPress versions older than 3.0 automatically created a user with admin as username. Version 3.0 changed things. Though you have the authority to choose the username you like, still many people prefer to use admin as a username.
It has become a pretty standard, and also, it is easy to remember. But keep in mind that it also opens the doors for hackers.
Sometimes, web hosts use auto-install scripts. These scripts, by default, set up admin as the username. The way out is to create a new administrator account and have a different username. Hereafter, log in with that new account and delete the old one.
Do you have the posts published by the old user account? If yes, make sure that you assign all the posts to a new account and then delete the old one. Otherwise, you will lose all of the posts.
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Your Username Should Be Hidden From Author Archive URL
The author archive pages on your website can also give hackers the clue of your username. And we know that when they see a username, there are chances that they can break in.
But WordPress does so by default. It shows the username in the URL of the author archive pages. Let us say your username is Alex. Then the URL of your author archive page will be something like this:
https://www.yoursite.com/author/AlexBloggs
Hide this to save your username from hackers. You may consult your hosting support or Google to find out the method. Change the user_nicename entry in your database.
You Might Also Like to Read: Website Security Checklist: Secure Website From Malware and Spam
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Login Attempts Should Be Limited
A single IP address should allow a limited number of login attempts. This tip is good when a hacker or a bot tries a brute-force attack method to crack your password.
So use the limit login attempt technique. You have the authority to allow a particular number of attempts. When the limit is hit, it would be impossible to attempt login from the same IP. Though some hackers use many IPs, it is still a helpful method.
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Use Dashboard To Disable File Editing
If hackers get inside your systems, they may reach your admin panel and start editing your files. They would be able to make any modifications they like in the code and execute it as well. If that editing is disabled, you will be safe to some extent even after the compromise.
You can click Appearance and then Editor to find your theme files in the default WordPress installation. Locate the wp-config.php file. Add the following line to it.
define( ‘DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT’, true );
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Take Backups & Download Security Plugins
Taking backup is an essential yet overlooked security measure. There always is a probability of things going wrong, no matter how many security measures you have taken.
Also, download good security plugins made by reputable providers. They are all-in-one security solutions.
The Final Verdict
WordPress is a great platform to host your website in many cases. However, only proper management will let you make the most of it. If you do not have good WordPress knowledge, hire experts to keep your website up and safe. Another way would be to opt for managed WordPress hosting. Hence, you can be sure to generate a good income from it.
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