PNC Digital

How to Protect Your WordPress Site?

With WordPress gaining so much popularity, it has become a hot target for hackers.We hear about so many websites getting hacked nowadays, it has become necessary to take preventive measures and tighten the security of your website. Why leave your website vulnerable to hackers when there are so many easy measures you can take to make it secure?

1. Choose a strong password

This is the first and one of the most important steps you have to tick of the list to secure your WordPress website. Did you know around 50,000-180,000 unauthorized login attempts are made every single day on websites you host, and most of these attempts are made by hackers? Now decide whether you have a strong enough password to save your site from wreaking havoc or not. If not, then its time to create a password strong enough to lower the risk of a security breach.

A study shows that 89 percent of American consumers feel comfortable with their current password, yet 1 in 5 has had an online account compromised. Here is what typical passwords are made up of:

And the time it takes hackers to hack these passwords:

Lesson learned: It is best to choose an alphanumeric password with symbolsconsisting at least 8-10 characters to keep your site protected from hackers.

2. Always keep your WordPress updated

Many people think WordPress updates are just for the press, but actually they are not. They can prove to be very useful to patch security holes along with launching new features and releasing the fixed bugs from the previous versions.

One of the biggest issues many face while updating their WordPress is the fear of getting your current theme disrupted or interrupting the functionality of installed plug-ins, but this can easily be overcome by revaluating your theme and plugins strategy and IMO, although it is a bit more work but its still a lesser amount ofwork than cleaning the hacker encrypted code later.

Not sure how to update your WordPress theme correctly? Hereis the process that can help you out:

3. Malware war

To protect your WordPress site from getting hacked it is essential to constantly monitor malware on your site and remove it once it is detected. There are multiple plugins available to help you with server-side scanning, such as Sucurito detect malware. A good thing about Sucuri is that it doesnt just detect the malware but also helps you clean it up, which makes your work really easy.

4. Choose the right web host

It is vital to choose the right kind of web hosting for your site to keep yourself safe. According to research conducted, sites on a shared server are prone to get hacked. But on the other hand, buying a VPS or dedicated hosting can be expensive and may not suit your business needs.

Thus, if you are a small business with a limited budget, ensure the shared host you are using accommodates a small number of sites on a hosting stack with proven protection to safeguard your site.

Not sure which company is hosting your site? Then find out who your domain host is by using online tools such as the website Whoishostingthis.com. They can help you find all the important information about your host, so you can be sure that you are in safe hands.

5. Keep yourself updated

You need to stay on the top of things and be aware of the new security updates, not just because you have to keep your website secure, but also you need to update your website from time by adding more features. Be an active member of the WordPress community in order to keep yourself updated.

83 percent of hacked WordPress websites havent been updated, so why not take a few, easy steps and safeguard your website? Better be safe than sorry,always remember to perform a quick backup so you are secured if anything goes wrong. Hope these tips help you out.