Suppose you’re running a full-fledged eCommerce store and you’re making billions from it. One fine morning you wake up, log into the site, and find out it's hacked. You start panicking and trying to find out what’s happening and suddenly you realize you forgot to activate two-factor authentication and an ex-employee of yours knew your password.

If you’re one of them who doesn’t take WordPress website security seriously, you might be in deep trouble. If you don’t want to lose your eCommerce conversion and keep your store safe from hackers you are in the right place.

In this post, we’ll be exploring those 00 modern techniques that you can use to secure your WordPress website, but before doing that we’ll be first discussing the fundamentals so let’s get started

WordPress and security

Undoubtedly, WordPress is one of the most popular, stable, and secured CMS platforms. Currently it powers over 26% of websites on the internet. It’s commonly used because it’s easy to use and highly customizable but that’s not it.

It's not just popular among users but hackers and malware practitioners too. With hackers and malware practitioners more empowered now, it’s impossible to keep your website safe until and unless you take the right precautionary measures.

Starting an eCommerce store isn’t everything, you need to do plenty of things to keep it functional, maintaining its security is one of them.

Fortunately, there are preventive measures you can take to keep your WordPress website safe from hackers. Remember you also have to be well-equipped to deal with malware artists, phishing experts, and identify thieves.

So now let’s learn about those preventive measures you need to take to secure your website.

Improving the security of your WordPress website

Choosing quality hosting service

Without a quality hosting service, it’s impossible to keep your website safe. It’s the first and most fundamental preventive measure you should take at the very beginning. You need to make sure your chosen hosting server is safe and secured.

A quality hosting service provider will also look after your site’s security very well. It will provide multiple layers of security to safeguard your website from backend threats that are capable of erasing your data completely.

Fortunately, there are plenty of quality web hosting service providers in the market. If you hire any one of them, you’ll be safe from this site.

If you’re looking for a web hosting provider or planning to migrate to a new one, we highly recommend WP Engine and Liquid Web.

Using a strong password

You must have heard people saying that you must never compromise on your login credentials like your passwords. You heard it right, passwords are very important when it comes to the security of your site.

You need to set a strong and unique password that cannot be guessed easily. If you are confused about it just look for any password generator, just make sure to note down your password somewhere safe.

Use complex passwords. Make use of uppercase and lowercase alphabets, digits, and special characters in your password.

Enabling security scans

Security scans are performed by specialist software/plugins that check your entire website for anything suspect. If something is discovered, it is promptly deleted. These scanners function similarly to anti-virus software.

You can utilize the aforementioned Jetpack plugin for a quick and low-cost solution. Aside from backup functions, it also includes daily virus and threat scans with manual resolution (this plan costs $9 per month). You may also use CodeGuard or Sucuri SiteCheck as alternatives.

Activating two-factor authentication

Activating two-factor authentication is certainly one of the most effective ways to keep a WordPress website secured. This not only acts as an additional security layer but ensures that users who have access to two-factor authentication can access your website.

It’s a fundamental and most convenient security method you could implement on your site to keep it secured from malware practitioners.

Unfortunately, it’s a bit of an elongated process so if you’re in a hurry you’ll have to wait until you get the access.

Creating your website backup

With each new update, WordPress, like other software platforms, includes a slew of security updates. It is your responsibility as a WordPress user to stay on top of such updates and install them as soon as they become available.

You can increase the security of your WordPress website by keeping your software system up to date.

Update WordPress, plugins, and themes

WordPress is upgraded and its security is improved with each new edition. Every time a new version is released, a large number of issues and vulnerabilities are corrected. Furthermore, if a particularly harmful problem is uncovered, the WordPress core team will address it immediately and impose a new safe version. You will be at risk if you do not upgrade.

To update WordPress, first, navigate to your dashboard. Every time a new version is released, an announcement will appear at the top of the website. Then, click the blue "Update Now" button to update. It simply takes a couple of seconds.

The same may be said for plugins and themes. You should update your existing theme as well as any plugins that you have installed on your site. This assists you in avoiding vulnerabilities, flaws, and potential security breaches.

Certain plugins, like other software products, maybe compromised or have security flaws identified in them from time to time.

Aside from upgrading every plugin and theme, remember to delete any plugins and themes that you are no longer using. Those are merely extra pounds. Consider this an added bonus to the list of WordPress security tips.

Installing a WordPress security plugin

If you've completed all of the procedures outlined in this essay but still want a cutting-edge monitoring solution, look at WordFence and Sucuri.

Both of these effective security plugins provide your shop a competitive advantage by monitoring all security activity on your website. One of these plugins is required on your WordPress website to ensure security.

Conclusion

The strategies listed below are intended to improve the security of your WordPress website. We understand how difficult it is to maintain and safeguard a website. However, if you get a handle on things and maintain standards, maintaining security will become much easier.