Securing your WordPress site: how to protect your website?

In this article, we'll look at the various steps you can take to strengthen the security of your WordPress site, including choosing the right hosting, securing access, making regular backups, using security plugins and opting for official modules.

Securing your WordPress site right from the hosting stage

The hosting of your WordPress site plays a crucial role in the overall security of your website. Here are a few tips on how to choose reliable, WordPress-friendly hosting:

1. Choose a hosting provider that specializes in WordPress: Opt for a hosting provider that knows the specifics of WordPress and offers hosting solutions optimized for this platform. Specialized hosting providers often offer WordPress-specific security features, such as firewalls and regular security scans.
2. Check the security features offered: Make sure the hosting provider offers robust security features, such as protection against DDoS attacks, free SSL certificates , automatic backups and responsive technical support in the event of security problems.
3. Choose hosts with a solid reputation: Find out about other users' experiences and consult online reviews to ensure that the host you choose has a good reputation for security and reliability.
4. Automatic server updates: A good hosting provider will regularly and automatically update server software, including the operating system and other server components, to correct known security vulnerabilities.
5. Isolated environment: Choose hosting providers that offer an isolated environment for each website hosted on their servers. This means that if another site hosted on the same server is compromised, it won't affect the security of your WordPress site.
6. Proactive monitoring: Choose a hosting provider that actively monitors its servers and network to quickly detect and resolve security issues. Proactive monitoring can help prevent intrusions and minimize downtime in the event of a problem.
7. Support for advanced security protocols : Make sure your hosting provider supports advanced security protocols such as HTTP/2 and TLS 1.3, which offer enhanced security for communications between your site and your visitors.
8. Secure server access : Check that the hosting provider offers secure server access options, such as two-factor authentication (2FA) and SSH login, to protect sensitive information when connecting to the server.

By taking these factors into account when choosing hosting for your WordPress site, you considerably strengthen the security of your site right from the start, allowing you to concentrate on developing your content and growing your audience with complete peace of mind.

Securing access to your WordPress site 

In order to guarantee the security of your WordPress site, it's crucial to put in place additional safeguards for login information and access to sensitive parts of your site, and ensuring strict control of each user 'sauthentication is an important step in preventing hackers from gaining access to your site.

• Create strong, unique pass words for all administrator accounts, combining upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters.
• Limit the number of authorized connection attempts and restrict access to the back-office part of your site to a limited number of IP addresses.
• Set up two-factor authentication (2FA ) for administrator accounts to reinforce connection security.
• Disable WordPress' built-in file editor to prevent malicious people from modifying your site's source code.
• Add secret security keys to your wp-config.php file to reinforce cookie security and further protect login information.

WordPress security and backup 

Ensuring the security of your WordPress site also requires a solid and reliable backup strategy:

• Schedule regular backups of your entire site, including files and database, both on local media and on secure remote storage.
• Use well-known backup plugins, such as UpdraftPlus or BackWPup, to automate the backup process and guarantee optimum protection.
• Regularly test your backups by restoring them to a test environment to make sure they work properly when needed.
• Keep several versions of your backups, so you can go back to an earlier point in the event of a problem or attack on your site.

By implementing these measures, you strengthen the security of your WordPress site and ensure optimum protection against potential threats.

Security plugins for WordPress

Security plugins are an important element in strengthening your WordPress site's protection against attacks, viruses and other threats. Here are a few examples of popular and effective plugins:

1. iThemes Security : This extension offers numerous features to secure your site, including protection against brute-force attacks, file verification and blocking of suspicious IP addresses.
2. Wordfence Security: Wordfence is another powerful security plugin that includes a firewall, malware scanner and tools to block brute-force attacks and vulnerability exploitation attempts.
3. Sucuri Security : This plugin offers a complete security suite, including a firewall, malware scanner, protection against brute-force attacks and file monitoring to detect any suspicious modifications.
4. All In One WP Security & Firewall: This versatile plugin provides a wide range of features to enhance the security of your WordPress site, including protection against brute-force attacks, user account security, and a firewall.

Install official plugins to keep your WordPress site secure

To guarantee the security and stability of your WordPress site, it's essential toinstall only official extensions and themes from reliable sources. By choosing official plugins, you benefit from the following advantages:

1. Regular updates: Extensions and official themes are often updated to fix bugs, close security loopholes and provide functional improvements. This keeps your site secure and up-to-date.
2. Support from the WordPress community: The WordPress community is very active in providing technical support for users of official modules. If you have a problem, you can count on the community to help you find solutions and advice.
3. Best compatibility: Official plug-ins are designed to be compatible with different versions of WordPress and to work properly with other official themes and extensions. This guarantees a smooth, trouble-free user experience on your site.
4. Malware protection: By using modules from reliable sources, you minimize the risk of introducing malware and other threats to your site.

By avoiding modules from unknown or unverified sources, you significantly reduce the risk of compromising the security and stability of your WordPress site.

The security of your WordPress site should be a top priority to ensure the protection of your data, your users and your online reputation. By implementing security measures such as choosing a reliable hosting provider, performing regular backups, installing proven security plugins and using official modules, you can strengthen your site's security and minimize the risk of attacks and technical problems. Don't forget that your site's security is an ongoing process that requires constant attention and regular updating to deal with new threats and vulnerabilities. Stay vigilant and involved in maintaining the security of your WordPress site, and you'll be able to enjoy a secure and successful online presence.