WordPress has been a go-to for quite a few developers and even considered the holy grail for website design. It makes for a great first POC for potential customers; it is the resume for your business. A compelling and well-articulated website will earn you brownie points in terms of greater engagement. This makes a WordPress web design service the penultimate tool for a lot of business owners out there.
Embedded with built-in SEO tools and various templates, WordPress stands at the pinnacle of website designing. However, a host of factors merit consideration before greenlighting the final website, such as website content, the images, and color scheme. These parameters help determine the objectivity of the website.
The second set of parameters concern the subjectivity of the website. These are the User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX). Both these are crucial and are not everyone’s cup of tea. In all, whatever be the final version of your chosen layout, it is among the most valuable assets in the business arsenal.
However, even WordPress can fall prey to hacking and cyber fraud and is by no measure invincible. Therefore, when using WordPress to create and build your website, make sure to do the following to keep your website safe from hackers.
Using Safe and Reliable Hosts
This marks the first level that ensures that your website stands safe and secure from the hands of unruly predators, that is, hackers. It is the epitome of safety. A good indication of the security and safety of hosting is the frequency of downtimes and low performance.
If your website is subjected to this often, it is a great time to consider changing the host. Among the hosts that rank higher within the SERPs, Siteground holds the top spot with 430 votes and a rating of 8.38. This data, for 2020, stems from a survey spanning over 8900 respondents.
To Prevent Your Business Crown, Set Up a Website Lockdown
The protective measure comes into play after multiple failed login attempts. This feature helps prevent the issue of force attempts. It is similar to the account lock that one experiences when failing to punch in the correct password or pin. The website lockdown feature, in this regard, is akin to the white knight or guardian angel that comes to the rescue during a suspected hacking attempt. When this happens, your website is locked, and you receive an intimation for this unauthorized activity.
To enable this feature, one must avail of reliable and quality plugins. Among the renowned are Wordfence, Backupbuddy, and iThemes Security (formerly known as Better WP Security).
Of these three, the iThemes security plugin is the most preferred among WordPress users. It offers over 30 ways of protection and security to the WordPress site. Like other security applications, iThemes too offers upgraded security measures via the iThemes Security Pro feature.
Setting Two Passwords for WordPress
The WordPress website owner or developer can set two different passwords; this is done by safeguarding the wp-admin directory of the website. The admin directory is the backbone of a WordPress website. A breach in this area can render the entire site damaged or subjected to unauthorized activity such as hacking.
To not let the website be tampered with, one needs to password-protect the wp-admin directory. This WordPress security measure allows the website owner to access the dashboard through two sets of passwords; one password safeguards the login page, and the other the admin area.
Regularly Backup Your WordPress Website for Minimal Attack
A backup serves as an antidote to mishaps and mishandlings of a website. For this very reason, backups make the first line of defense against external attacks. However, having a backup helps reduce the chances of your data falling into ruins. It is an offline option; wherein important data points get stored in a remote location. The remote location is akin to a secret stash and is kept far away from the hosting account.
WordPress website owners and developers can resort to a plethora of Backup plugins, both free and paid. To ensure optimum safety, the operator should conduct full-site backups regularly.
It all comes down to the demand of frequency. Once a day seems too much, and once in three months seems to less. With that said, weekly or monthly backups would suffice.
However, getting to it, among the various backup plugins that are available to WordPress website owners and developers, the top seven of them are BlogVault, UpdraftPlus, Vaultpress, Backupbuddy, BoldGrid Backup, BackWPup, and Duplicator. Of these seven, Vaultpress by Automattic is among the most recommended.
Keeping Tabs on the Audit Logs
The safety measure is vital, especially for a WordPress multisite or a multi-author website, such as blogs or open-source websites. You must keep tabs on the kinds of activities on the website. Some activities can give a real scare and put your website into ruins. Conducting an audit log allows you to ensure that admins and contributors are not engaging in disapproved or suspicious activities.
There are several audit plugins at the user’s disposal, and the WP Security Audit Log is among the most preferred and recommended. It offers full-proof protection through a detailed list of the activities, along with email notifications and analytical reports. It currently has the highest rating for activity logs on popular websites such as GoDaddy, Kinsta, and WPBeginner.
Setting Strong Passwords
All accounts today at least recommend, if not mandate, a strong and relatively unguessable password. A strong password is imperative for safeguarding the website. When creating a password, you must use uppercase and lowercase letters, along with numbers and special characters. Mixing up with these features makes it difficult for encroachers to penetrate the database, making it impregnable. To help create strong passwords, you can use free online tools such as the Secure Password Generator as well.
Final Comments
WordPress is excellent for business owners who intend to create the website on their own. The built-in SEO tools and other templates set the tone. However, like any other website, WordPress is vulnerable to hacking. Hence, to ensure optimum safety, you must install security and audit plugins, verify the hosts, have the website lockdown feature in place, schedule regular backups, and have strong passwords.
