WordPress maintenance + security

Most WordPress sites are set up using the 5-minute install method or with a quick setup tool offered by the hosting company. The majority of these methods populate the first user with the username admin. Hackers know this. So the hackers guess admin when trying to break into a WordPress site. and if you are using admin, or have an account on your site with that username, you are doing half of the work for the hackers trying to get in + do damage to your business. If you aren’t…

With roughly 17 bajillion WordPress themes, it’s hard to narrow it down to one that you like the look of. But picking the wrong theme can also set your security back. Like way back. If you don’t know what to look for, you could pick a theme that hackers can break into in a heartbeat. Don’t panic just yet. I have 4 tips for picking a secure WordPress theme. Plus, you can use them to verify if your current theme passes the test too. Pick a secure WordPress theme built…

Updates are easy enough to ignore unless that little number at the top of your dashboard drives you batty. But ignoring them leaves your site at risk for being hacked. It’s not that I want you obsessively checking for pending updates, because that would be crazy-making. I’d rather have you set up a maintenance schedule to follow once you know the whys + hows first. What do updates do, exactly? Whenever your site has a pending update, that means that the theme creator, plugin developer or team at WordPress have…

The reason it’s not difficult to secure your WordPress login screen is because this page only requires 2 bits of information — your username + your password. If you secure both of these elements, you’re good to go! Your username In newer versions of WordPress, you can log in with your username OR your email address. So why not make them the same thing? For many folks, I recommend using an email address that is not tied to your business or a separate email you set up just for your…

It doesn’t seem to stop no matter how many posts I write or interviews I do. There are always online entrepreneurs posting in Facebook groups that their site was hacked + they have no idea how, or why, or what to do to get their content back. I’m sure you’ve seen those posts yourself + thought “that sucks, but thank goodness it isn’t happening to me.” Or maybe seeing someone else go through that crap motivated you for a day or two, but your security efforts have since fallen flat….

WTF is a backup First things first, let’s talk about what a backup is before we dig into what you need. A backup is a copy of whatever you are backing up at that exact moment in time. For my fellow iPhone users, that means it’s the apps, settings + texts you have on your phone at the moment you run your backup. Any apps you install after that, or texts you send/receive later in the day will not be included in the backup you ran in the morning. For…

As online entrepreneurs, we’re always tweaking, refining, updating, adding to + removing items from our WordPress sites. Whether it’s a new blog post or a refreshed about page, you’re likely making changes weekly. Which means that single backup you did months ago is missing at least 8 updates + it’s time to run multiple backups. Websites are never done. If you lost your site today to a hacker or crappy server circumstance, you’d be protected from losing everything with that old backup (phew!). But you’d still be out a few…

Limit login attempts My favorite bonus recommendation for securing your WordPress login screen is to setup a login limiter. In less nerdy terms, this tool gives users a set number of attempts to login. If a user goes over that number, they are banned from trying again for a set length of time. They may even be blocked from your site entirely if your restrictions are set to do so. Why does this help? The biggest culprit for hacked WordPress sites is brute force attacks — meaning a bot trying…

Outdated plugins leave you vulnerable While there are plugin updates that exist purely to add new features + functionality to a plugin, there are just as many that fix security issues. Which is why plugin updates are crucial to take care of as an online business owner. If your site has a staging version, follow the steps below on that site first. Doing so will ensure that your live site runs flawlessly while you tackle those updates. Once you know everything is good to go, then you can run the…