How to Keep Your WordPress Website Safe

June 5th, 2018 Tags: content marketing, Dexter Montgomery, Pamela Montgomery, WordPress Plugins
Posted in Getting Started On Line

How to Keep Your WordPress Website Safe

How to Keep Your WordPress Website Safe

Would you like to know how to help you keep your WordPress website safe? If so, then you are in the right place. I am focusing on WordPress websites, because currently they are the most popular Content Marketing System (CMS). However, popular does not mean safest. Today, I will share with you a few tips that you, the beginning entrepreneur, can use to keep your WordPress websites safe.

Anyone who follows the news knows that not a day goes by when the issue of computer security breaches is not mentioned in the media.  As an online marketer and entrepreneur, you must stay on guard against hackers and others who may want to hijack your website for malicious or criminal purposes. By implementing a few security updates, you can limit the chances of your WordPress website being hacked.

1.    Keep Your WordPress Website Up to Date

The first key step to keep your WordPress website safe from hackers is to keep it up to date. Yes, that means when you receive notice that plug-ins, themes, and the WordPress software need to be updated, you need to act.

WordPress has wonderful plug-ins and themes that you can use to personalize your website. I have written in the past about the top plugins that I use on my site. But, the wonderful plug-ins can be a source of vulnerability. Your first line of defense is to keep your WordPress plugins and themes up-to- date.  Many of these updates are security patches.

So, whether you have one site or 200 websites, you need to keep your WordPress websites safe from the cyber-criminals who want to hack your site, by up-dating your WordPress plugins, themes, and the WordPress software itself.

2.    Use Complex Passwords

The second key step to make to keep your WordPress website safe from hackers is to use complex passwords. I understand that you want to use a password that is easy to remember. A complex password does not rule out a password that is easy to remember.

 I recently read an article Digital Security: Keeping Your Website Safe in which the author gave a very good example of a complex yet easy to remember complex password. According to the author,  

[For example, I will use, “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done…” because I can always remember the last line of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, but you can use whatever phrase you like.  Take that phrase, and abbreviate it with the first letter of each word: iiaffbttidtihed]

He then recommends that you capitalize a few initials then add a few numbers and symbols that are meaningful to you.

I just love it.  It is cleaver, memorable, and complex.

Here are a few other tips for creating a complex password:

·       Be longer than 12 characters

·       Contain upper and lower-case letters, numbers and symbols

·       Never be used for more than one site

·       Never be stored in plain text on your computer

·       Never be sent by email

 3.    Be Smart About Your Hosting Company

The third key to keeping your website safe from hackers is to be smart about your hosting company. You may see advertising for unlimited domains, or unlimited space, or unlimited bandwidth for a super low price. That may be a problem.

But, not necessarily. Just because this type of shared hosting is inexpensive, it does not mean that it is unsafe. Check out the reputation of the company and evaluate the service that you have received.

In the beginning you do not necessarily need the most expensive option. As your business grows and becomes more complex you may want to upgrade to an option that allows you to isolate each of your websites on its own cPanel (a web hosting control panel). Making that upgrade will greatly improve the security of your website.

I have used Blue Host for my websites for a several years. I have found the services reliable and safe. They offer several packages to suit the needs of your business.

For more information on how to keep your WordPress website safe from hackers, check out A Beginner’s Guide to WordPress Website Security.

Conclusion

By following a few time-proven steps you can keep your WordPress website safe from hackers. In the end, the safety and security of your site and its data is entirely up to you. Keep your plugins, themes, and software up to date, use good complex passwords, and choose a secure hosting environment. These steps will keep you well ahead of the curve on website security.

 At My Biz Dream Team, we show you how to develop an internet lifestyle business that can help you reach your money goals. Check out The Podcasting Power Playbook, to help you increase your visibility, credibility, and authority status. Let us show you how to reach your goal of creating a lifestyle and a business that you love! Act today.

Pamela Montgomery

I am Pamela Montgomery, attorney, author, entrepreneur, and speaker, providing you results-oriented strategies that help you achieve uncommon results in your business and in your life!

Also published on Medium.