WordPress is basically an open and free source blogging and content managing system. It is based in MySQL and PHP which runs on a web hosting service. WordPress features are inclusive of a plugin architecture and also a template system. It is used by Alexa Internet’s over 14.7% of top 1 million web sites. And it also manages 22% of all the web sites. WordPress was released first in May 2003 by the founders Mike Little and Matt Mullenweg.
WordPress has various themes, plugins, widgets, note features etc. so that the users find it easy to customize their blogs.
Blogging is very important for business web sites. It is all about sharing information and content with audience to make them gain interest. A good content is easy to understand, is clear and precise and it is also very important to ensure that the content is unique and appealing.
But now a days there are instances when content from websites is copied and used by hackers as their own content. This needs to be checked upon and thus there are certain methods and ways that can be used to secure your WordPress blog.
WordPress Security Plugins – The security plugins in WordPress play a vital role in order to secure your WordPress blog. These plugins are designed with advance features and thus they help provide security to WordPress blogs.
Top Ways To Secure Your WordPress Blog
Admin Username Changer WordPress Plugin
Many times the WordPress user name is set to Admin which is basically the default user name. Thus it makes you an easy victim to the hackers. So, in order to keep safe this Admin Username Changer plugin comes to your aid. With this you can change your user name. This way it gets difficult for hackers to get into your website dashboard.
Strong Password
Always use a strong password. A password that is difficult to guess and less obvious. This way you ensure that no one can make simple and petty guesses to crack open your account.
Limit Login Attempts WordPress Plugin
Limiting the login attempts helps secure your WordPress blog. This way multiple trial and error methods used by the hacker proves to be just a futile attempt since there is a limit set to make multiple login attempts.This plugin basically blocks the Internet address (IP) for logging in multiple times after crossing a specified limit. So, you get to fix the Lockout limit and the cookie for a login attempt. As a result of which the passage is automatically blocked when the desired limit is exceeded.
Choosing The Right WordPress Plugins
You must always make sure that the plug-ins that you add are completely legitimate and trust worthy. With suspicious plugins you actually allow the hackers to get to your files and wreak havoc on your web site data. So, it is very important that you check your plugins from the WordPress Plugin Directory, to ensure maximum safety and security.
This you can do by checking the plugin rating. Next it is important for you to check the number of downloads for that particular plugin. You can see thus, how reliable a plugin is since more downloads indicate a good reliability and less downloads often indicate a bad one.
Also with the help of Code Canyon Directory, you can check the legitimacy of a plugin. Make sure to check the last update date of plugin.
Enable Hotlink Protection
If a website finds some interesting images or files in a given blog, then it makes direct links to the images and files on the website. Thus it generates additional load for hosting which leads to the degradation of performance.
Enabling hotlink protection helps in fighting this problem. This way no other website can use your bandwidth anymore.
This can be done by using the Hotlink Protection plugin for WordPress. All you need to do is to add .htaccess file in the root directory of your WordPress blog, which thus stops external folders from linking to your files directly.
Update Your Blog
Updating your blog helps in enhancing the security of your website. So, it is recommended that you update your blog whenever the updates are available. This way your blog is not left vulnerable to the hackers.
Delete Fake Accounts
It is important for you to get rid of the fake accounts that are registered on your blog because these act as potential risk and threat to the security of your blog. So, it is essential that you delete the accounts that look suspicious in order to keep the security uptight.
Copyscape
Copyscape tool that helps in the detection of online plagiarism. With this it is easy for you to identify websites that have copied your content without the necessary permission.
Using Copyscape.com is really easy and all you need to do is to enter your blog URL and you find out that where your content has been copied. This way you actually enhance your blog’s security and ensure that your web page is not plagiarised. So, acting against the stealers and duplicate content is not a tough task anymore.
As a blogger it is important for you to keep these things in mind and stay cautious while on the internet. These are some methods that help you go for the valid and the legitimate, so that you are not fooled by the malicious plugins and hackers on the internet.
A little vigilance is the need of the hour in order to stay safe and secure on the internet. It is a difficult thing to do indeed. With the cyber world being highly susceptible to crime and harm, it is difficult to have a completely fool-proof arrangement on your blog. But being one tough cookie is the real deal that will definitely keep your blog dashboard secure from the hackers.
Using the safety measures enlisted here will make you the smart one out there and help you to secure your WordPress blog.
Adesanmi adedotun says
I’m still confused why wordpress is more vulnerable to hacking than blogger platform. I solely believe in these article if the protection of our blog from are hackers is one of our goals as a blogger. Thanks for sharing this post.
Bashir Ahmed says
WordPress is popular and Free Open source software that’s why its more vulnerable. So keep the things up to date and secure your blog.
Thanks for your comment!
Adrian Lucernas says
Blogger are difficult to hack its because google has the owner, and its free hosting by google..so if we are using to blogger no worries about the hacker. wordpress are easy to hack due to lots of reasons,ex: nulled themes, nulled plugins,weak password..so all i can say is prevention is better the cure.. :).
Bashir Ahmed says
I agree with you bloggers blog are very difficult to hack because of Google security. But you’ve very limited features on blogger, that’s why WordPress is more popular than Blogger. Just take some extra security steps and secure your blog.
Thanks for your comment.
Efoghor Joseph Ezie says
Thanks Ahmed for a thorough job. Hacking has actually become a major concern on the internet. We all need to read this post to know the exact steps to take to safeguard our blogs from intruders.
Using strong password that has a combination of Upper and lower cases words, special characters and word count of at least 8 is advised, to make it difficult for the supposed hacker to easily guess your password at an attempt.
Using a plugin that limits the number of attempts one should make while trying to login to your site is important to make it fairly difficult for the hacker to have his day. Once he makes the few allowed attempts and fails, the plugin locks him out.
WordPress always has some lapses which are discovered from time to time, hence it is necessary to update to the latest version each time to help keep your security settings up to date as well.
Using the right plugins? Hmmmmm! I never knew that using the wrong plugins could also expose us to some security threats. Thanks for this eye opener. At least I will always make sure I check the necessary information about a plugin before installing it on my site; though I have always checked popularity, rating and downloads.
I would add that using SABRE plugin could also help to reduce fake accounts created with bots on your site, which could be a source of threat.
Besides, the use of Bullet proof Security (BPS) plugin could really go a lot way in helping to fight against hacking of your blog. It comes with a lot of security guards that would minimize unauthorized entry to your files.
Thanks once again for this great post. Do have a productive week and blessed new month.
Bashir Ahmed says
Well said Joe,
Using strng password is must thing and always keep your blog up to date, like WordPress version, Themes, Plugins. One more thing that is very important don’t use pirated themes downloaded from other sources. Always download and use the Themes and plugins from the orignal author site.
Bullet Proof Security plugin is good and other one is Better WP Security I found both are very highly used and good plugins.
Thanks for your valuable comment – I appreciate it!
Harleena Singh (@harleenas) says
Hi Bashir,
Yes indeed, it’s very important to secure your blog from hackers and spammers, and we all have to find the right way of doing it.
I liked all that you mentioned, and they do work. I guess with CommentLuv that I’d installed, along with Askimet and GASP, it does take care of spammers, but they have their unique ways of coming in, for which you need to moderate comments and check them out personally. I do that with each comment by visiting the commenters blog and checking out if it’s their blog, if not, it’s trashed. If you are not careful regarding these things you are bound to get spam comments.
Even your blog you need to check for any lose ends, like you mentioned, using the correct combination in your passwords – even Joseph suggested that, and in the same way the login attempts, if made from the same IP can be blacklisted right away. I agree about using the plugins suggested by WordPress and those with a good star rating, rather than the other ones we come across – because they are at least authentic.
Overall, if your blog is not updated regularly, or you don’t maintain it and clean up even the broken links etc. your chances of security decrease a great deal.
Thanks for sharing. Have a nice week ahead 🙂
Bashir Ahmed says
Hi Harleena,
Glad to see you back here. Yes its very important to secure our blogs from hackers and spammers. You’ve mentioned Askimet and GASP for comment spam. But I don’t use them. I’ve installed JetPack and this plugins is doing good job.
On my other blogs I had installed Comment with GASP but I got lot of spam comments and found broken links that’s why I’ve had removed them from my blogs.
Thanks for adding the value in my post – Much appreciated it.
Orjiakor says
This is very helpful for many bloggers like me. I learned many things by reading this post.
Thanks for sharing all these valuable information.
Bashir Ahmed says
Hi Orjiakor,
Glad you found the post helpful for bloggers and you learned many things. Hope to see you around here.
Thanks for leaving your comment.