Why should you pay attention to this wordpress security checklist?

Just like every other system, wordpress has its own flaws when it comes to security.

WordPress is an open-source software. If you don’t know what it means by being an open-source system just relax I will explain to you.

Open-source software is just a computer software that is released under a copyright license. Where the holder will grant the users rights to use, change and distribute the source code to anyone for any reason.

Do you now see why this software is not secured? The developers have given so many people access to this software to be used, manipulated anyhow they want and by so doing, a lot of vulnerabilities and loopholes/backdoors are being created on a daily basis.

It may also interest you to know that about 37,000 websites are hacked everyday on the average.

I’m also a graduate of that school of thought that says Safety First.

Even as a human being, you must be alive to enjoy the fruit of your labor. Therefore, you need to prioritise the security of your wordpress website by working with this wordpress security checklist below.

Like I said earlier that wordpress is not a secured software due to the rights given to the users to use it any how they feel or like.

There are lots of loopholes created in the system because of programming/coding errors caused by human/programmers hereby giving cyber attackers opportunity to launch an attack on your website.

What is this wordpress security checklist?

It’s a set of security guides that will help you protect your WordPress website from these black hat hackers.

Here are wordpress security checklist, we are going to discuss them one after the other in details.

Delete Plugins and Themes You Don’t Need

This is one of the items in our wordpress security checklist, and you need to take it serious to avoid creating loopholes in your wordpress website.

By default wordpress will install some plugins and themes after installation of wordpress in your cpanel, most times this themes and plugins may not be the ones you required for your type of website.

The reason why you should delete those unwanted software is to avoid hackers from exploiting the programming errors in those themes and plugins, in most cases some those idle software are not regularly updated.

It’s advised for security reasons to always allow only one theme installed on your website, always make sure that you do same with plugins.

Update software regularly

The reason for the software regular updates is to enable you fix all the loopholes that may have been discovered by the hackers with the new version of the software.

When we say software, we are simply referring to the wordpress version of your website, the wordpress theme, php version, and the wordpress plugins.

The developers of this software normally release these updated version from time to time after fixing the vulnerabilities discovered in the old version.

The Default admin Username Should be changed

By default wordpress will use “Admin” for your username during the wordpress installation, if by omission or commission you used the default username try as much as possible to change it to something different.

hacker wants to try some funny tricks on your website, he will just type your url followed by wp-admin like this www.yoursitename.com/wp-admin and automatically he will be presented with your login page with Admin as the username.

The hacker will apply social engineering attacks to get your password. However, if you have used the default username change it or create another admin and delete the old admin with the default username to protect your website.

Export Your Content Regularly

This is a way of backing up your wordpress website files. As one of WordPress security checklist, exporting your website content is very easy to do.

The essence of doing this content export is to have an xml copy of your content in your computer incase if something goes wrong on your website.

From your wordpress dashboard, hover over the tools and select export, from the result page check all the necessary items to be exported, like posts, pages etc.

Once you are done selecting, click on the Download Export File. If you do it correctly, then xml file will be downloaded into your computer.

You can also import the xml file back to your website through the same process but instead of selecting export you choose import to upload back your content with ease.

Backup Your Database Regularly

Regular backup of your wordpress website cannot be over emphasized, as a matter of fact running backup will save you from allot of troubles.

These hackers are not sleeping, therefore you need to be ahead of them by keeping your files safe from them.

Your effort of so many years will disappear within few seconds of cyber attack but the good thing is that we have a free wordpress plugin that will do the work without any stress.

I have written a post on how to backup your wordpress website with free wordpress plugins, read and find out more about this.

The benefits of using is that you can backup all your files starting from posts, pages, database, plugins and themes with this plugin in a single action.

Always Have Active SSL Certificate

Make sure that at all time your wordpress website have active SSL Certificate installed. secure sockets layer (SSL) is the security protocol that is responsible for the encryption of data transfer from your website server to the users.

Apart from securing your website from hackers. You should also protect your business’s integrity because google frowns at any website without active ssl certificate installed and this will affect the organic traffic of your website.

Strong Password for Top-level Users

For your website to be managed by multiple administrators you need to generate password strength according to their roles on your website.

Maybe because you are too occupied by other activities for your business and decided to bring onboard some guys to help you in maintaining the site.

Some of them maybe registered as Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor, Subscriber, SEO Manager or SEO Editor.

Assign a very strong password to the Top-level Users like Admin, Editor, Author and Contributor because they will be doing major changes to your website.

Conclusion

Follow our wordpress security checklist as stated in our post, your wordpress website would be highly secured from the cybercriminals. Makawp will continue to provide useful information regarding wordpress.

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This is a good write-up.. I'm new to this and just built a website for a client (my first though). They don't want to pay much for me to aquire a good SSL certificate.. all they want are free tools. Each time they enter the site, google reminds you that the site isn't secure..

vastolord4 I really appreciate your comment. for the ssl certificate check if your host is offering a free ssl (Let's encrypt), it will do the work perfectly

Makawp:
vastolord4 I really appreciate your comment. for the ssl certificate check if your host is offering a free ssl (Let's encrypt), it will do the work perfectly

Do you offer sponsored posts on your blog and do you review WordPress plugins. Have 3 plugins that would be launching next month.

Makawp:
vastolord4 I really appreciate your comment. for the ssl certificate check if your host is offering a free ssl (Let's encrypt), it will do the work perfectly

Yes they do.. got the free one but still the warning messages popsup when a new user logs on

404Dev:

Do you offer sponsored posts on your blog and do you review WordPress plugins. Have 3 plugins that would be launching next month.

No, the client specifically doesn't want that.. I also have messaged for sponsored posts on the blog but I haven't approved them