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No smoke and mirrors. No jargon. Just honest marketing that works. We believe the best work happens when we collaborate.
If you have a WordPress website, it’s important for it to be secure. WordPress is a great platform to use for your website but it can be prone to “attacks”; sounds extreme, but having your site hacked is not want you need! These attacks are often due to plugins (widely used on WordPress) being outdated (or not updated), and also because the platform is open-source. Open-source means that anyone can develop or write plugins for the platform.
Potential attacks aside, WordPress has so many advantages; which is why we use it! It has constant updates and new features almost every day. The number one thing we feel makes WordPress a great platform, is usability. WordPress can be pretty easy to use; which enables us to empower our clients and allow them to maintain their own website. There is nothing more frustrating than wanting to make a small update to a site, and having to go through multiple contacts, or channels, to get what you need.
*Cool Fact – Did you know 75 million websites run on WordPress worldwide.
In our blog, you’ll find out how to keep your WordPress website secure in 2021.
One of the simplest (but super important) things you can do to keep your WordPress website secure, is to update the WordPress “Theme”, and the “plugins” that you’re using on your website.
Plugin and Theme developers (the guys who created these) will regularly update them if people are spotting bugs, or problems with their plugin/theme.
By regularly updating your plugins and theme, you’re keeping one-step-ahead of the hackers and making your WordPress website more secure. Just to note though, if you have been making tweaks and changes to your WordPress theme or any plugins (such as CSS), when you make an update, all these changes you’ve made will disappear.
You can get around this though, and we recommend keeping a note of these changes, or have backups of the files.
Having a secure Username and Password is very important for website security. We often find that this is overlooked.
With your password make sure you are using a complex word with letters, numbers & symbols. If you are stuck for ideas, there are plenty of password generators out there that can generate a strong password for you.
https://passwordsgenerator.net
https://www.lastpass.com/password-generator
https://www.random.org/passwords/
You will have noticed by now that most websites are using a SSL (Single Socket Layer); but some people are still avoiding it. By avoiding having an SSL certificate, when you type in any sensitive information (such as a password) this will be in plain text; meaning it could be visible to anyone hacking your website.
SSL’s are effectively a protocol that sits on your website and will encrypt your data for you. They also give users re-assurance as well. When users are visiting and viewing your website, there will be a padlock on your website/URL; signaling security.
When it comes to getting an SSL there are a few options. If your website has very sensitive information (such as transactions), we would highly recommend purchasing one for your domain. They can range between £30-£250. If you are running a small website and don’t have transactions, there are other options available, such as “Lets Encrypt”, which is a non-profit organisation that can give you a free SSL. Also, “Zero SSL” is great for SSL’s. Feel free to follow our guide on how to get a Free SSL certificate for your website.
Just to note, when it comes to having an SSL certificate on your website, this will benefit your website from a security perspective and also improve your SEO! Win-win.
Installing a WordPress backup plugin is something we highly recommend! In reality, it acts as your first defense. If worst comes to worst and your website does get hacked, at least you have a backup on your website that you can import and get you back on track.
We have worked with some clients in the past who have been hacked, and because they didn’t backup their site, lost their whole website. Having to rebuild their website was not only frustrating but also costly for them; losing customers in the interim.
Thankfully there are a lot of WordPress backup plugins out there such as Updraft, BackupBuddy & Duplicator; which is also great for website migrations.
In recent years, Two-Factor Authentication has grown; especially when logging into any sensitive or secure content. We highly recommend installing and using Two-Factor Authentication on your WordPress website.
Two-Factor Authentication is what it says on the tin – it requires two points of entry; not just a password.
Having Two-Factor Authentication on your website adds an extra layer of security to your WordPress website. By having Two-Factor Authentication on your website they won’t be able to login to your website as they will need authentication from another source (this can be another email address or mobile number) which is usually a 6 pin code.
Here are some Two-Factor Authentication plugins that WordPress recommends:
Last but not least, having a security plugin on your WordPress will help improve your website. It pretty much does as it says, and provides more security.
Having a security plugin on your website can be very beneficial and will protect you from Brute-force attacks. Brute-force attacks are where a hacker will try and use every password possible that they can think of to gain entry to your site and the data.
Security plugins will be able to work out who is trying a Brute-force attack on your website through their plugin algorithm; essentially blocking them from logging into your website.
WordPress Security plugins have many advantages. For example, for our clients, we use WordFence which does many things for you such as:
We hope you found this blog helpful, and you can take some of our tips on board! If you would like help improving your WordPress security, please feel free to use the form below or you can contact us at info@bluecheesedigital.com , for more help and advice