Security and performance are the two main important issues faced by WordPress website owners. We often see news headlines detailing the website hacking attempts. When a website is hacked successfully by professional cyberthugs, its reputation, ranking on the web, and business opportunities- all are damaged greatly.
WordPress website performance issue also gives sleepless nights to companies that use WordPress for website creation and operation. Many individuals say that WordPress websites start to load low after 100 pages. When a WordPress website becomes old, performance issues start to keep mounting sharply. So, what are the security hacks for WordPress website development? How can you grow the online business website powered by WordPress? Let’s find out.
1. Keep Everything Updated
You should update the WordPress CMS, plugins, and themes to protect your website or its content. An updated plugin, theme or WordPress version is considered safe. Hackers find no security flaws in the plugin, theme, or CMS that act as a backdoor to the website. So, your website remains safe.
A safe website wins trust from search engines and Internet users. There are many website owners who ignore updates sent by WordPress. When your website is run with the older version of the CMS, theme, or plugins, obsolete codes may not work and may cause incorrect queries on your system. This results in higher resource consumption. Hackers can use vulnerabilities in non-working theme or plugin to hack the website easily.
2. Use Security Plugins
Website security is a great issue for the majority of entrepreneurs. Just a single loophole is sufficient for hackers to break into your website and take full control over it. Website owners take numerous measures to protect their sites.
But, they are humans. They can’t work 24*7/365 days to protect websites. That is why they should use WordPress Security Plugins to automate the site protection work. After successful installation and activation, plugins protect your website from different types of online security threats. They track all suspicious activities around websites and notify you about the same. Take note of those updates & fix the trouble immediately to keep your website safe.
3. Use Strong Passwords
All those individuals who have multiple E-accounts have a very bad habit. They use the same easy and simple password for several E-accounts. This is a very dangerous and fatal habit. If hackers somehow manage to hack one of their e-account, they can easily compromise other E-accounts also. When you run a WordPress website, be serious about the privacy of its login ID. Use a random and difficult login id for your website. Keep changing its password from time-to-time.
4. Use a Different Username Than “Admin”
A popular & successful website is run by a team of different people. Many entrepreneurs give full access to the site to all team members. This is dangerous if you are serious about website security. Any team member, following some misunderstanding, can turn out to be a foe and take control of the site. So, based on their roles, restrict their roles on the website. Don’t give full access to the site.
5. Protect the wp-config.php file
You must know that the “wp-config.php” file holds important configuration information for your WordPress site. It is important to protect it from intruders. To protect this file, at first, you need to generate a new set of secret keys.
You can do this by going to the secret key generator on the WordPress website. Go to the URL and renew it. A whole new set of keys will be generated for you. Copy and paste the old keys directly into your wp-config.php file. Now, move the wp-config file.
By default, it is located in the root folder of your website. WordPress allows you to take this wp-config file and move it one step up, outside your public folder. If you're working offline, just drag and drop this file.
Nevertheless, in an online setup, you can use the move tool in your file manager. Select your wp-config file, press the move tool, and then change the directory where you want the file to be placed. If this doesn't work the first time, you need to talk to the hosting company and make sure your server is set up to allow it. Now add a .htaccess file to the same directory to prevent anyone from accessing the wp-config.php file.
6. Hide Author URL
Always remember that a link tag is a tag that makes clickable links to other HTML pages or Internet resources. When you place link tags on your business's Web pages to create a link, users can click on those links and navigate to the URLs associated with the links. You may probably want to these anchors to appear all the time because it's part of your website. If one of the sites pointed to by an anchor URL goes down, hide the anchor and URL to protect your website. You can do it easily without deleting it from your web page.
7. Use a Secure Hosting
Most website owners opt for cheap hosting services in a bid to save some bucks. I bet Choose a bad hosting and you will hate yourself later. You'll have to worry about losing sales or traffic in a few days. If you want to make your website safe and faster, choose a fast, reliable and secure hosting service company. It will give unbeatable speed and scalability to your website. Always remember that a web host can make or break the success of your website. Fast and secure hosting service company offers free data backup, super fast upload servers, excellent uptime, etc, and keep your website live at all times.
8. Add SSL Certificates
Secure Sockets Layer ( SSL ) is a security protocol that uses a modern encryption method to protect sensitive information over the website. It works by creating a secure channel between a user's browser and website server. Any information passing through this channel is encrypted at one end and decrypted when received by individuals at the other end. Even if someone seizes this information, it will be of no use because the information is encrypted. So, add an SSL certificate to your website. Such websites are defined by HTTPS instead of simple HTTP. It will encrypt critical data and make businesses stand out among their competitors.
9. Always Keep Multiple Backups
Rapid access and secure storage of information are important for the normal operation of any business. Technical problems, errors of updates, cyber attacks and, other force makers often lead to data loss, financial losses or up to the complete collapse of the company. In the event of a crash, a backup copy of all data that allows you to have full online access to all information on your website.
Generally, different methods of backup and storage are used to copy information from digital media. Data backup & redundancy allows you to recover files immediately after a failure. So, if you lose access to a file, it is replaced with its copy. This helps to avoid website downtime. To backup website files, you can contact the hosting company or use backup plugins. Manual backup of website files is also helpful.
10. Use Two-factor Authentication
In today’s highly digitalized world, password alone is insufficient to protect an E-account. If someone gets access to login id. Two-factor authentication adds an additional layer of security to your website. So, activate two-step verification for your website. After this, you will need to verify your identity whenever you try to access your website on a new computer. You will be asked to enter an OTP to confirm your identity and log in the site. This makes your website super safe. If attackers manage to acquire a login and a permanent password, the inability to enter a temporary password can prevent unauthorized access to the account.
11. Limit Login Attempts
By default, websites allow an unlimited number of password entry attempts at the login page. This setting allows attackers to pick up your password (if it is not complicated) by going through all the most likely alternatives. If you are worried that someone is trying to guess your password when logging into the website, you can temporarily block attempts to log in after a certain number of failed password sets.
Always keep in mind that creating an account lockout policy will protect your website from being hacked by limiting attempts to enter a password for a certain time. It will become more difficult for an attacker to guess your password.
Your website will be automatically blocked for the time you specified after the number of incorrectly entered passwords. After a specified interval, the website is automatically unlocked and the system will allow you to enter a password. This offers additional protection for your account against the targeted search of all password options.
Final Words
A safe and high-performing website is the foundation of resurgent online business. Use these security hacks in WordPress Website Development and keep your site safe. Users love to hang out safe websites and buy the advertised products and services. Never hesitate to join hands with a Custom WordPress Developer to take care of website security. Best of Luck!
Top comments (1)
Thanks Emily,
This is a really useful list. 👍