Tips to Improve the Security of your Wordpress Blog

 

Blogging is trending in the online market and it has become the source of income and this has become possible because of CMS’s that allow people to enter into the blogging sector easily. Similarly, WordPress is the popular CMS that gives the opportunity to the bloggers to explore their writing skills by taking it online. Being a most popular CMS, there are the chances that it will get hacked and you need to protect your blog from the hackers.

If you are an owner of a WordPress blog, you have to take a serious call on security purpose to protect your blog, data and visitor’s data. This article will help you to know some best practices for securing your WordPress blog.

Update Your WordPress Website and Plugin:

If you are running a WordPress blog, it is assumed that you are keeping yourself up to date, right? You must be wondering why I am asking this because maintaining the blog is one of the toughest jobs. Therefore, it is equally important to update your internal WordPress files and plugins. However, the new WordPress and plugin version comprises of upgraded security patches.

Secure Your WordPress Admin Area:

Being a blog owner, it is important to set a limit in the admin area of your WordPress blog. Give access to responsible people only and make sure that you are aware of those people to whom you have given the access of admin area. Additionally, avoid using features like registration or front-end content creation, visitors should not get access to the ‘/wp-admin/’ folder or the ‘wp-login.php’ file of your blog. Get your home IP address and add the below mention code in ‘htaccess’ file available in your WordPress admin folder and replace ‘xx.xxx.xxx.xxx’ with your IP address

<Files wp-login.php>

Order deny, allow

Deny from all

Allow from xx.xxx.xxx.xxx

</Files>

If you want to access your blog from various computers like your home PC, office PC, Laptop, etc. Then you have to include another allow command – ‘Allow from xx.xxx.xxx.xxx’ on a new line.

Moreover, if you are going to operate your WordPress website’s admin area from several IP addresses, there is no need to restrict to your admin area to a single IP address or to some few IPs. In such situations, it is suggested to set a limit on login attempts to your blog. By doing this, you will protect your website from the brute – force attacks and hackers who will try to break the blog’s password. Install a plugin called “WP Limit” for setting login attempts.

Avoid using the “Admin” username

Most of the newbies forgot to change their admin username and keep “admin” as their username. This gives the opportunity to the hackers and web attackers to hack their account because they know newbies usually forgot to change the admin username and using the same for the longer period. Hackers can block multiple web attacks and brute-force attacks by modifying the admin username. In case, if you are setting up a new WordPress website, you will get notified for changing the admin username during the installation.

Use strong passwords:

Being a newbie, you might use passwords like the word “password”, “123456” and your BOD, etc. If you are doing the same, you can assume that you are at the top of the dictionary attack list. Therefore, it is suggested to use the strong and complicated password. You can use the tool like password generator which is available online or you can decide yourself. In short, you need to make sure that your password should not get hack or it can’t be guessed easily. It is suggested to change the password at a regular interval.

Make sure that your computer is free from Viruses and Malware:

If your computer is influenced by viruses, malware or any other malicious software, it is the easiest way for the hackers to hack your account. You are giving a direct invitation to them to access your login credentials and hack the account. It is suggested to have the best anti-virus program installed on your computer and maintain the security for the longer period of time.