How to Secure Your WordPress Site (16 Tips to Try)

Securing your WordPress site is crucial to protect it against hackers and malware. An unsecured WordPress site can easily get hacked, defaced, or infected with malware. This can lead to loss of data, downtime, and damage to your site’s reputation.

Fortunately, securing a WordPress site does not have to be complicated if you follow security best practices. In this comprehensive guide, we will cover various methods and tools to lock down the security of your WordPress site.

Keep WordPress and Plugins Updated

One of the most important things you can do is keep your WordPress core, themes, and plugins updated to the latest versions.

• WordPress releases security patches for vulnerabilities found in older versions. By updating WordPress, you ensure you have the latest security fixes.
• The same applies to themes and plugins – always keep them updated to avoid vulnerabilities from outdated code.
• Consider enabling automatic background updates in your WordPress admin dashboard to keep your site automatically updated.

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Use Strong Passwords

Using strong, unique passwords is vital for securing admin login and hosting account credentials.

• Use passwords with at least 12 characters combining upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.
• Avoid common words or phrases as passwords.
• Use a unique password for every account.
• Consider using a password manager to generate and store passwords securely.

Limit Login Attempts

Brute force login attacks are very common on WordPress sites. Use login limiting to thwart such attacks:

• Install the free Limit Login Attempts plugin.
• It will block IP addresses after a specified number of failed login attempts.
• You can whitelist your own IP to avoid getting locked out.

Use Trusted Themes and Plugins

Research and only use well-known commercial themes and plugins from reputable developers.

• They have better code quality and security than most free options.
• Their developers quickly roll out fixes if any vulnerability is found.
• Avoid nulled/pirated themes and plugins as they often contain backdoors.

Install a Security Plugin

Installing a dedicated WordPress security plugin adds layers of protection:

• Wordfence and Sucuri Security are two popular free options.
• They offer features like malware scanning, blocking suspicious requests, login protections, file integrity monitoring and more.
• For business-critical sites, invest in premium security plugins for added features.

Enable SSL Certificate

Install an SSL certificate to enable HTTPS and access your WordPress admin and site over a secure connection.

• This encrypts all traffic and prevents snooping on insecure HTTP connections.
• Most web hosts make it easy to install SSL certificates with just a few clicks these days.

Regular Backups

Take regular automated backups of your WordPress site to enable quick restores after an incident.

• Use a backup plugin like UpdraftPlus which enables backups to remote cloud storage.
• Test restoring from backups to ensure your backup strategy works when needed.

Use a Web Application Firewall (WAF)

A WAF inspects all traffic to your site and blocks malicious requests.

• Cloudflare and Wordfence offer free WAF functionality.
• For business sites, invest in a paid WAF product like Sucuri or Cloudflare for advanced protection.

Educate Your Users

If your site has multiple users, educate them about security best practices:

• Guide them to use strong passwords and reset them regularly.
• Inform them about risks of using public Wi-Fi and computers.
• Ask them to watch out for and report phishing attempts.

Monitor for Suspicious Activity

Actively monitor your WordPress site to detect suspicious activity early.

• Check files for unauthorized changes.
• Monitor admin login attempts and locked out IPs.
• Review server logs regularly for signs of attacks.
• Receive email alerts about suspicious logins and file changes.

Schedule Security Scans

Schedule regular scans to detect malware, vulnerabilities, and suspicious code.

• WordPress security plugins like Wordfence offer scheduled scans.
• You can also use external site scanners such as Sucuri SiteCheck for independent audits.

Disable File Editing

Hackers often try to insert backdoors or malicious code by editing theme/plugin PHP files.

• Disable file editing by adding the following to wp-config.php:

define( 'DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true );

Hide Error Messages

Detailed error messages can reveal vulnerabilities to attackers.

• Add the following to wp-config.php to hide error messages:

ini_set('display_errors', 0);

Avoid Using “Admin” Username

Using ‘admin’ as the admin username makes it easy to guess.

• Create a new super admin user with a complex username.
• Delete the default admin user account.

Leverage Additional Security Headers

Security headers enhance protection against common attacks like cross-site scripting (XSS), clickjacking etc.

• Use a plugin like Secure Headers to leverage important security headers easily.

Conclusion

Securing WordPress boils down to following standard security best practices like keeping software updated, using strong passwords, regular backups and leveraging security tools.

Invest in a web application firewall, security plugin, backups and monitoring to take your WordPress security to an advanced level.

Stay vigilant about new threats, apply security patches promptly and follow the tips outlined here to lock down your WordPress site.