Making Sure Your WordPress is Securely Installed

The next thing you need to do is take care of security issues on your site. WordPress has a plugin called Better WP Security that lets you change certain WordPress features to make it more difficult for the hackers to gain access. Be sure to take advantage of this tool to give you the best chance at a secure WordPress site.

Better WP Security will let you:

* Change the default ‘Admin’ username to something different
* Lock entrance to the admin at specific time periods 
* Change your admin user ID from 1 to something different
* Ban users based on the IP addresses
* Automatically email your database backups to yourself
* Change the URL you use to login from wp-login to something different
* Change your WordPress directory files from wp-content to something different
* Change your database prefix from wp_ to something different
* Check the number of hits on 404 pages and lock the user out if they are excessive
* Track any file changes 
* Limit the number of times you can login attempts with the wrong password 

And there’s more.

One of the easiest ways to get through a site’s security is with their password.  Many don’t take the time to create solid passwords because they claim they take too much time, but compared to the time it will take you to attempt to rebuild your site, it seems like such a small price.

When you are creating a password:

Every password should be at least 15 characters 
Every site should be different
Is strongest if it is not an actual word
Is strongest if it is a mix of special characters, lowercase letters, capital letters and numbers.

Regular Backups 
The last thing you need to do is make sure you are taking regular backups of your site files and database(s). That way should the unthinkable happen, you will at least have a backup safely stored away, which will certainly reduce your stress. 

One of the most popular plugins for doing this is called ‘WordPress Backup to Dropbox.’ This will create a backup and then upload that backup to Dropbox for safe keeping.  You can also email that backup to yourself. That’s because the Dropbox plugin keeps only one backup, so sending to yourself allows you to keep many versions. 

Get busy, add your plugin(s), change your passwords, make your backups and make your site as secure as possible.

