How Important is it to Have a Secure WordPress Website and How to Make it Safe?

Aug 30, 2023

Refreshing WordPress security best practices is not a bad idea. Overall, WordPress is a secure content management system, but because of its open-source nature, it has a few serious security flaws. Fortunately, by taking the appropriate precautions, you can safeguard your WordPress website. 

Why You Require WordPress Security?  

There is no telling what an attacker might do with stolen information if they manage to obtain personal information about you or the users of your website. A security breach puts you at risk for identity theft, ransomware, server failures, and a long list of other things. Any of these activities, as you can understand, would be a waste of time, effort, and money and would not be good for the reputation of your company. 

Visitors Anticipate it 

Simply put: Your visitors anticipate a secure website. If you can't offer this basic service right away, you'll damage your customers' faith in you. You can make sure that your customers have a good experience with your company and will come back by gaining their trust. 

Whether it's their contact information, payment information (which necessitates PCI compliance), or even a simple survey response, it's critical that your consumers have faith that their information is utilised and stored properly. The problem is that if your security procedures are effective, your customers won't ever need to know. The majority won't return if they ever hear unfavourable news regarding the security of your website. 

Google Appreciates Safe Websites 

On the search engine results pages (SERPs), everyone aspires to have a higher position. More visibility results in more visibility, which results in more visits. Making your site secure is fortunately one of the methods to increase the likelihood that Google will like it. 

A safe website is a searchable one. An insecure WordPress website directly faces difficulties in getting visibility from a search on Google (and other search engines). Security is one of the easiest ways to boost your search rank.  

Clearly, protecting your online properties should be your number one concern. Your website must guarantee that users are safe while using it. 

Best Practises for Securing WordPress 

• Secure Login Procedure is a Must 

This is the first step because it is so crucial to maintaining the security of your website. Keeping your accounts safe from fraudulent login attempts is the first and most important step in securing your website. 

• Ensure WordPress Web Hosting is Secure 

Let's move on to the topic of WordPress security and the part your web hosting company plays in it. There are numerous things to consider when selecting the hosting company that will host your website, but security should come first. Do your homework to find out more about the precautions the company takes to safeguard your information and quickly recover in the event of an attack. You can also try out WordPress hosting for a more optimized hosting performance. 

• Enable HTTPS and SSL 

You can ensure that no unauthorized parties are able to access the data passed between your website and your visitors' computers by using SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), which encrypts connections between your website and their web browsers. 

You must enable SSL on your WordPress website. If you utilize CMS Hub, SSL is already included in the system and is free, so you're good to go. Using a dedicated SSL plugin or doing it manually depends on your use case if you're using WordPress. It will boost SEO, but it will also directly affect how website visitors view your page. Google Chrome will even notify users when a website doesn't use the SSL protocol, directly decreasing website traffic. 

To see if your WordPress site complies with the SSL standard, go to the homepage. Your connection is encrypted using SSL if the homepage URL starts with "https://" (the "s" stands for "secure"). If the URL of your website begins with "http://," you must obtain an SSL certificate. 

• Install A Firewall 

An automatic firewall keeps unauthorized traffic from accessing your network or system from the outside by placing itself between the web hosting service provider for your WordPress site and all other networks. By removing a direct link between your network and other networks, they try to block harmful activity. 

To secure your WordPress website, we advise adding a Web Application Firewall (WAF) plugin. Your website will have WAF built into the platform when using the CMS Hub. 

• Update the WordPress Version on your System 

An enormous target is outdated WordPress software. To prevent this issue, be sure to regularly check for WordPress updates and install them as soon as they become available to fix vulnerabilities. 

Make a backup of your website and make sure your plugins are compatible with the most recent version of WordPress before updating WordPress. Your plugins might need to be updated as well. For instructions on how to update your WordPress plugins, refer to our guide. 

• Update PHP to the most recent version 

Upgrade to the most recent PHP version as it is one of the most crucial things you can do to boost WordPress security. WordPress alerts you on your dashboard when an upgrade is ready, so keep an eye out. You will then be instructed to access your hosting account and upgrade to the most recent PHP version. Contact your web developer to upgrade if you are unable to log into your hosting account.