All about WordPress security plugins in this latest episode of WP-Tonic. WordPress is no more or less secure than many open source CMSs (content management systems).
However, because of its overwhelming popularity and its continually growing market share WordPress is becoming one of leading targets for the online hacker community.
We are going look at number of key areas that will make your WordPress website much more secure. We are not suggesting you become a WordPress security expert.
However, there are some things that you clearly do need to understand about WordPress security especially if you are going to manage your website by yourself. We are going to be looking at a number of ideas, plugins and services that can help you make your WordPress website much more secure.
If you are looking for even more information regarding making your WordPress website more secure go and read this page “WordPress The Hardening Process” on the WP-Tonic website.
Passwords
You need strong passwords not only for your WordPress Admin Account but also for your email and social media accounts. Here’s a couple of great app/services what we recommend to all our own clients:
Hosting
Good quality WordPress hosting is really important when it comes to security. Obviously, Digital Ocean is going to be on any list of hosting providers which we personally like. However, we are not saying that its the right solution for everybody. All the companies we have listed below offer good quality solutions to people at different levels of need connected to performance and security.
WordPress Housekeeping
If you want to keep your WordPress powered website secure you’ve got to do some basic weekly, monthly and quarterly housekeeping. Here’s a quick list of the thing you need to do:
1 – Keep the core of WordPress up to date.
2 – Keep all your plugins and themes up to date.
3 – If you not using a plugin or theme on your website remove it.
4 – Have a test site where you try new plugins or themes out: don’t use your live website for this.
WordPress “Swiss Army Knives of Security” Plugins
We start with general WordPress security plugins that offer a lot of power but also can be a bit complicated to set-up in the best possible way to protect your website. Here’s a video (below) that shows you how to set-up two of the most popular plugins which we use on client’s websites: iTheme Security* and Sucuri. A lot of people also use Wordfence Security.
*on our client’s websites we place a copy of iTheme Security Pro
Additional Plugins