Eight Insanely Simple Ways to Secure Your WordPress Website
Do you know this is a connection between your Google ranking and the security of your WordPress website?
We all want to increase the performance of our digital products such as blogs, websites, affiliate platforms, portals, e-commerce stores, and web apps. Google has provided us guidelines about how to do that and one of the most crucial ways of doing that is by improving site security.
According to experts, secure WordPress websites have a 90 per cent chance of ranking higher in search engines. If you are missing out on that traffic, and have tried all the ways available, then it is your website security that may be the hurdle. So, let’s learn some of the best ways to make your WordPress site secure.
8 Highly Simple Ways to Make Your WordPress Website Secure
Go through each WordPress security tip and implement it on your WordPress site. Consider this as your security checklist.
Do You Have SSL Installed?
Over 80% of websites on the internet are now SSL compliant. If your website is still SSL secure, you will get a RED PADLOCK on the browser with the status ‘Not Secure’ written over it. This will show up for every visitor that visits your website.
Think about it. A visitor visits your website and they see the ‘Not Secure’ status. What are they going to think? Personally speaking, I would not waste a minute on such a website.
On the brighter side, if your website has SSL security, it is more likely to get conversions. Moreover, it will rank even higher in search engines – something we all want!
Does Your Website Have a CDN?
Content Delivery Networks (CDN) are the best way to improve your site performance because it allows you to spread your site’s content on servers across the globe. However, CDN doesn’t only improve site performance.
If your website is having a CDN, it can easily dodge Bruteforce and DDoS attacks. CDNs can sense suspicious activities on websites, and they will disable it if they see a lot of bot traffic coming to it. This will save the server from getting all the hits. A good free CDN to start with is Cloudflare. You can install it on WordPress with just a few clicks.
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Do You Have 2FA Enabled?
Two Factor Authentication (2FA) security allows users to improve the admin security of their website. Imagine having a website with no security at all. If someone guesses the passwords, they can gain entry. What will happen in that situation? Hackers will use brute force to crack open your WordPress account.
The 2FA security prevents that from happening. It adds a second layer of defence. When a user enters user credentials, they have to add a security code sent on their mobile or email address to gain entry. 2FA is one of the most secure ways to keep accounts secure online and all banks and financial institutions have this security already enabled.
Do You Have Any Manual Actions in GSC?
Manual actions in Google Search Console (GSC) are also a security threat. No, they don’t mean that your website is hacked. But they do mean that if you don’t take any manual action to resolve the issue on the site, it will decrease in rankings. You surely don’t want that to happen right?
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Are There Any Server Errors On-Site?
Many sites have server errors that can lead to backdoor entries and even SQL injections. If your website shows server errors (starting with 5xx), it means that your site is not secure. You can check the error codes of these errors by visiting the Google search console.
Is Your WordPress Version Up to Date?
WordPress’s official community constantly updates the Content Management System (CMS) on a regular basis. The reason is that hackers are always trying to find backdoor entries into the WordPress CMS. By updating the versions, they add new patches that secure these backdoors.
On average, WordPress offers 40+ updates every year. Moreover, it rolls out new versions twice every year. To check if your WordPress version is up-to-date, simply go to the WordPress dashboard and click on ‘Updates’.
Are You Using Any Cracked Plugins Or Themes?
Cracked WordPress themes and plugins are a threat to your website security. Most of these cracked versions have malware and backdoor trojan viruses in them.
Most of the time, they create numerous pages on your website with backlinks going to another website. In a way, they are using your website for illegal purposes. So, make sure that you are not using any cracked plugins on your website. If you are, uninstall them and add a security plugin like Sucuri. More on this later.
Are You Using The Latest PHP Version?
PHP offers new version updates with security and performance improvements every year. If you are not using the latest version of PHP for a WordPress website, your site is not properly patched and can have many security issues.
To ensure that your website is properly secure, simply start using the latest PHP version. If you are not sure how that can be done, simply ask the hosting provider to do that.
Limit Login Attempts On-Site
Limiting login attempts will disallow Bruteforce and rat attacks on your website. Login limiters keep the login attempts to four to five attempts at max.
Since Bruteforce requires around 1000+ attempts to gain entry to a website (it uses a combination of passwords), limit login attempts plugins don’t let that happen.
You can get a decent login limiter for free from the WordPress plugin directory.
Use WordPress Security Plugins
The best way to keep your WordPress website completely secure is by using a security plugin like Sucuri or WordFence. Both of these plugins offer comprehensive WordPress website security. These plugins come with a firewall, malware scan, login security features, and a lot more. You can use the basic versions of both the security plugins absolutely free.
What’s Next?
Security is crucial for your WordPress success. If you want to add ironclad security to your WordPress website, make sure to implement all the tips we have mentioned above. It is better to consult a WordPress expert to double down on security issues. To do so, get help from our WordPress security experts.
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