{"id":12156,"date":"2016-05-09T14:32:02","date_gmt":"2016-05-09T14:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/?p=12156"},"modified":"2016-05-09T14:32:02","modified_gmt":"2016-05-09T14:32:02","slug":"ways-protect-wordpress-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/ways-protect-wordpress-site\/","title":{"rendered":"Ways to protect your WordPress site"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As WordPress grows in popularity, it becomes more and more important to protect your WordPress installation.  With more and more people using it to run their websites, hackers view WordPress as a quick and easy way to control servers.<\/p>\n<p><P>Here are our tips for securing your WordPress site. Whether on our shared hosting or using a self-managed VPS or Dedicated Server, these are fast and easy steps you can take to make sure your WordPress is well-protected.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/protectwordpress-update.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of a computer screen with a download bar\" width=\"600\" height=\"150\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12165\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Update everything<\/h3>\n<p>When WordPress tells you there\u2019s an update, no matter how small, update immediately.  Each update fixes existing bugs or security issues.  You can find out what each update does by reading <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\">the WordPress News page<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>There is <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/news\/2016\/05\/wordpress-4-5-2\/\" target=\"_blank\">a major security update to WordPress right now<\/a> \u2013 have you already updated?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/protectwordpress-security.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of a CCTV camera in a hallway\" width=\"600\" height=\"150\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12162\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Get a good security package<\/h3>\n<p>There are plenty of plug-ins for WordPress that provide detailed security features for your site.  <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wordfence\/\" target=\"_blank\">WordFence<\/a> gives you a firewall, two-factor authentication, and scanning, as well as monitoring your site for issues.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/protectwordpress-firewall.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of a chainlink fence\" width=\"600\" height=\"150\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12161\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Build in a firewall<\/h3>\n<p>A good firewall stops malicious requests from even hitting your website.  <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/block-bad-queries\/\" target=\"_blank\">Block Bad Queries<\/a> is a plug-in that checks all incoming traffic and blocks the bad requests that could cause problems. This not only stops hackers from getting in, it also cuts down on the number of requests that you receive, keeping your site load down and responsive for the people you want to view your site.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/protectwordpress-twofactor.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of a door chain\" width=\"600\" height=\"150\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12163\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Set up two-factor authentication<\/h3>\n<p>Two-factor authentication is a fantastic way to keep your site protected. With it, you have an app on your phone that gives you a one-time code to use when logging in.  This keeps your login secure against brute force attacks while also giving you added login security.  <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/google-authenticator\/\" target=\"_blank\">Google Authenticator<\/a> is a common system used, but you can also try <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wpclef\/\" target=\"_blank\">Clef<\/a>, another plug-in.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/protectwordpress-backups.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of a file cabinet\" width=\"600\" height=\"150\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12160\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Maintain good backups<\/h3>\n<p>If anything does happen to your WordPress site, it\u2019s a lot easier to restore from a clean backup than it is to try and clean up a corrupted site.<\/p>\n<p>You can back up your site onto your local computer, or to a cloud storage solution.  Your eXtend Control Panel has a backup feature that saves a ZIP version of your entire site to your desktop.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>These are some basic steps that can protect your site.  What advice do you have?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As WordPress grows in popularity, it becomes more and more important to protect your WordPress installation.  With more and more people using it to run their websites, hackers view WordPress as a quick and easy way to control servers. Here are our tips for securing your WordPress site. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,27,29],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12156","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-web-hosting","8":"category-wordpress","9":"category-your-website"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ways to protect your WordPress site - Heart Internet<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As WordPress grows in popularity, it becomes more important to protect your WordPress installation. Here are our tips for securing your WordPress site.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/ways-protect-wordpress-site\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ways to protect your WordPress site - Heart Internet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As WordPress grows in popularity, it becomes more important to protect your WordPress installation. Here are our tips for securing your WordPress site.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/ways-protect-wordpress-site\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Heart Internet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/heartinternet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-09T14:32:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/protectwordpress-background.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Eliot Chambers-Ostler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@heartinternet\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@heartinternet\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Eliot Chambers-Ostler\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/ways-protect-wordpress-site\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/ways-protect-wordpress-site\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Eliot Chambers-Ostler\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/heartblog.victory.digital\/#\/schema\/person\/58ed7f27cc0f3ab6e69135742a5eee28\"},\"headline\":\"Ways to protect your WordPress site\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-05-09T14:32:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/ways-protect-wordpress-site\/\"},\"wordCount\":394,\"commentCount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/heartblog.victory.digital\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/ways-protect-wordpress-site\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/protectwordpress-background.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Web Hosting\",\"WordPress\",\"Your Website\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/ways-protect-wordpress-site\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/ways-protect-wordpress-site\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/ways-protect-wordpress-site\/\",\"name\":\"Ways to protect your WordPress site - Heart Internet\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/heartblog.victory.digital\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/ways-protect-wordpress-site\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/ways-protect-wordpress-site\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.heartinternet.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/protectwordpress-background.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-05-09T14:32:02+00:00\",\"description\":\"As WordPress grows in popularity, it becomes more important to protect your WordPress installation. 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