Today I’ll be sharing some of my top tips on how to make sure your WordPress website remains secure from those nasty hackers lurking out in cyberspace. How to secure your blog in 5 steps.
Secure your blog step 1
When you install WordPress you get asked to choose a username and password. As we all know choosing a strong password is key. BUT. Choosing a username that’s not obvious is just as important. When hackers start attacking your site the first username they use to try and gain access to your site is ‘Admin’ followed by your company/blog name. So choosing a more complicated username is just as important.
If you’ve made the mistake of choosing either one of these as your password don’t fret! I’ll be doing a blog post on how to change your username next time.
Secure your blog step 2
Update, update, update. I can’t stress this enough. Updating WordPress, your plugins and your themes as soon as updates become available is a must. Old versions sometimes contain vulnerabilities that can make it easier for someone to gain access to your website.
If your blog is linked with Jetpack you can easily set it to auto update your plugins as they become available.
Secure your blog step 3
Install plugins that will help protect your site. Akismet and Wordfence are two layers of security that I highly recommend.
Wordfence is really easy to set up and you can even add settings to auto block people trying to log in with usernames that doesn’t exist on your blog/site
Secure your blog step 4
Use two-step verification, on everything from your email account to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Again if you are linked with Jetpack you can enable two-step verification for your blog on WordPress
Secure your blog step 5
If you’ll be running an online store make sure you invest in an SSL certificate!
This is super important to encrypt your user data. It has other benefits for your site as well like google ranking.
