WordPress Security is important not only for your own blog but for all the people on your shared server. If one site on a shared hosting gets hacked it makes every other site on that same shared server vulnerable to similar attacks. Basically, your web server is just a great big computer so, when there’s a weakness in one site on that server it can create potential problems for other sites as well.

Here are some of the wordpress security tips you should know about

1.Install Security Related Plugins

There are some very good free plugins that can help you keep your WordPress site safe. While this is not a comprehensive list these are 5 plugins that I recommend.

Secure WordPress

This plugin will add a blank index.html file to plugin directories so that potential hackers can’t see the plugins that you are using and exploit them. It will also remove the WordPress version notification, removes error information from the login page and more.

WP Security Scan

This plugin scans your WordPress installation for any security issues that might enable hackers to gain access to your site. It will also suggest the appropriate fixes for the security weaknesses it finds. The plugin can be run occasionally and doesn’t necessarily have to be running at all times.

WordPress Exploit Scanner

This plugin will scan a user’s files and alert of evidence of hacker attacks. This is another plugin that can be run occasionally and need not be active at all times.

Login Lockdown

If a hacker tries to login to your site by guessing your username and password, Login Lockdown will lock them out after 3 failed attempts. This prevents someone from trying to guess your username and password combination.

You can set the amount of time for lockdown to whatever you want. A record of the IP address and a timestamp of the failed attempts is also made and the IP Address range that attempted the failed logins will be blocked from further attempts.

2.Secure Your WP-CONFIG.PHP File.

WP-CONFIG.PHP is a file in your WordPress installation folder that holds configuration settings for WordPress. Hackers would love to gain access to that file in order to do all kinds of damage to your site.

One of the ways that you can secure your WordPress installation is to setup unique authentication keys to encrypt any information that is stored on your server via cookies.

Once you have your authentication keys, you must then gain access to your installation folder through either an FTP program or through the control panel of your website. You can then edit your WP-CONFIG.PHP file and place the authentication codes at the top of the file before your database information. Make sure to save your file again after pasting in the authentication keys.

3.Take regular backups

My general recommendation is that you should backup your WordPress site everyday and when you backup your WordPress site, you don’t want to just backup your database, you need to backup any of the other files that are on your WordPress site. So, if you get hacked you will be able to restore things easily.

4.Get regular updates

Generally, the upgrades to WordPress and the plug-ins are because they either found security problems with the version of WordPress or there are bugs in it that need to be fixed. Plug-ins can be updated as often as once or twice a week. Versions of WordPress, on the other hand, are generally updated monthly, maybe six weeks if they’ve had a lot of stuff to fix for that release but they generally try to update versions of WordPress monthly.

In Closing

WordPress security is essential to maintain not only the security of your website but the security of your users. The last thing you want for visitors of your website is to be infected with a malware or redirected to a questionable website because you didn’t take the time to secure your site.

If your site is a business site then that site is an extension of your business. It is a marketing tool and reflects on your image. If your visitors are suddenly redirected to a porn site when visiting your website it doesn’t reflect very well on you. Take the time to implement these tips and make sure that your WordPress website is nice and secure.