WordPress is the most popular open source Content Management System (CMS), It is used by approximately 80 million websites. WordPress is free to install and upgrade. As it is now popular, hackers have taken note to target WordPress websites. If you are a WordPress website developer then keep in mind to make your WordPress website design secure.

Here are some of the important elements you should obey to make your WordPress website secure.

1. Pick a good hosting company

The best way to secure your website is to select a hosting provider who provides multiple layers of security. Most of the owners go with a cheap hosting provider and have a mindset to spend the money somewhere in the organization. However, you may lose your data and your URL could begin redirecting somewhere else. By using a good quality hosting company, you can get additional layers of security which will automatically be attributed to your website and increase the speed.

2. Install WordPress Backup

Install Backups for your WordPress website, these backups will let you recover or restore your WordPress website in case of any loss. There are many free and paid backup plugins you can use. It is important that you must regularly save full-site backups to a remote location (not your hosting account).
You can store your backup on cloud services like Amazon, Dropbox and on private clouds like Stash. You can schedule your backups and make it sure to install them with less period of time.

3. Install a WordPress Security Plugin


Install a security plugin which can take care your site security, scans for malware and monitors your site 24/7 to regularly check what is happening on your site. You can install a free WordPress security plugin like Sucuri for auditing and monitoring your website. This offer you security activity auditing, file integrity monitoring, remote malware scanning, blacklist monitoring, effective security hardening, post-hack security actions, security notifications, and even website firewall.

4. Create a Strong Password

The most common way of WordPress Website Hacking is stealing passwords. So make it sure to create a complex password by using special characters. Passwords are an important part of websites, don’t use a plain password like “12345678“ or alphabets as these are very easy to learn or remember.

5. Install SSL Certificate

SSL is a single socket Layer, it is needed to secure your site for some specific transaction like payment process. SSL certificate will secure the data between the user’s web browser and your web server, without SSL data will deliver as a plain text. Install SSL Certification, it will encrypt the important information before transferring and make your site secure.

6. Limit Login Attempts

WordPress allows users to log-in as many times as they want. This may leave your WordPress website vulnerable to brute force attacks. Hackers try to log-in by using different combinations. You can limit the log-in attempts by using the WordPress login limit attempt plugin. After that, you can set the number of log-in attempts in the settings. By this hacker gets locked out before they can finish their attack.

7. Keep Updating Your Website

WordPress is an open source which must be updated from time to time. It can install minor updates automatically but you can make major updates from the WordPress Dashboard to make your website secure. WordPress comes up with thousands of plugins and themes which are maintained by third-party developers and releases updates from time to time. So, make sure that your WordPress website, plugins, and themes are up to date.

8. Hide wp-config.php and .htaccess files

The best way to secure your website from hackers, hide your websites .htaccess and wp-config.php files. Implement this method from experienced developers because any mistake might make your site inaccessible.

To hide the files,  go to your wp-config.php file and add the following code,
<Files wp-config.php>
<Files wp-config.php>
order allow,deny
deny from all
</Files>

For .htaccess file add the following code
<Files .htaccess>
order allow,deny
deny from all
</Files>