How to Keep Your WordPress Site Safe from Hackers

WordPress is well known as one of the most popular blogging platforms on the internet, but unfortunately, it is also equally notorious for falling prey to hackers.

These hackers are out to capture everything, including your personal information and the information of your clients and readers. Any kind of security compromise poses a huge threat to your readership, traffic, and business through your WordPress page. So, it is vitally important to make sure that your site is always as safe as possible: it’s literally

So, it is vitally important to make sure that your site is always as safe as possible: it’s literally matter of success or failure!

In this article, we’ll look at a few different ways to strengthen the security of your WordPress so that you can make sure that hackers won’t get to your information or the valuable information of your clients and readers.

How Do Hackers Do It?

When it comes to WordPress sites, hackers have taken to a method that uses “botnets.” Botnets are systems of connected computers whose security has already been compromised has been hacked already. So, every time a hacker successfully overtakes a WordPress site, and thereby the computer, the computer joins the army of botnets that continues to try to take more and more computers.

This might sound a bit like something from a science fiction film, but it actually serves a purpose for the hackers. The hackers are after valuable information from your computer, and if you are a successful WordPress blogger, this could also include the personal identifiable information of your clients and readers, as well. These methods for staying safe will help protect against botnets and other general hacking tricks.

Update Constantly

One of the easiest ways to make life hard for hackers who are trying to compromise the security of your WordPress site is to make sure that your software and plugins are always up to date. This means that you should run every update as soon as it is available since this will help to keep the hackers out. Software and plugins are updated for the specific purpose of fighting against the new antics of hackers as their new methods are exposed. Plus, aside from the obvious benefit to your security situation, you’ll also find that the software updates help your platform to run more smoothly and efficiently, which is also a benefit!

Use Strong Passwords

Think about the measures that you take to protect the most valuable things in your home: you put the best locks on the doors, you install a security alarm system that lets you know when things are not as they should be, and you may even keep things in a safe or other extra secure spot inside the house. But, what if everyone had the ability to make a copy of the key to your front door? Even if you had other safeguards in place throughout the house, the entire security of the house would be compromised as soon as a stranger walked through the front door.

Having a strong password is like having a good lock on the front door. If you have a strong password, then hackers won’t be able to even get close to the valuable information associated with your blog. Furthermore, they won’t be able to hassle or harass your readers and clients. It is also helpful to change and update the password often, so that botnets, which are always working out ways to crack passwords on WordPress sites, won’t be able to easily guess or work out your password. This is like changing the locks on your front door often: it might not the most convenient option, but it does guarantee that anyone who may have somehow gotten a copy of your key can still be kept out!

Use a VPN

Using a VPN, or a Virtual Private Network, is one of the easiest and most effective way to keep your WordPress site out of hackers’ reach. A VPN works by encrypting all of the information that you submit on or through the Internet and then bouncing it around different servers so that your location and IP address are hidden. This makes it difficult for hackers to pinpoint your computer. A good analogy is that using a VPN is kind of like making the hackers shoot at a moving target: it will be much harder for the hackers to have an effective means of taking down your WordPress site.

Avoid Free Themes

As appealing as all of the free themes available on WordPress can be, you run the risk of opening up your site to a hacker every time that you download one. While this might not be a fun bit of advice to hear, it is definitely a good one to know and adhere to! Free themes on WordPress aren’t always properly scanned for malware, viruses, or other software from hackers. Plus, when you apply these malicious themes to your site, you’re basically throwing the door wide open for anyone who wants access to your valuable information and the information of your readers and clients.

“Disallow File Editing”

Another way to keep hackers at bay is to enable the “Disallow File Editing” option from your WordPress dashboard. This will make it so that only those with the highest permissions are able to edit and make changes to the files associated with your site. This is one way to close off points of entry where hackers would otherwise come in, change or edit your files to work in their favor, and grant themselves access to all that your site has to offer.

Think of it like this: even if you have a strong door with a strong lock, it’s no good to you if you leave all of the windows open. Enabling the “Disallow File Editing” option is like closing and bolting all of the windows on your WordPress site after you’ve secured the front door with a strong password.

With all of these helpful tips and tricks, keeping your WordPress site safe is easy and effective! What experiences do you have with WordPress security? What measures do you take to make sure that your site stays safe? Feel free to leave us a comment in the comments section below!