WordPress is currently the most popular content management system (CMS) in the world. As of writing this blog, it powers over 506,39 million websites, which accounts for about 43.4% of the total sites on the internet. It is the most used CMS to date, with over 61.7% of shares. Unfortunately, this popularity makes it one of the prime targets for cyber-attacks.
Due to its popularity, WordPress faces about 90,000 attacks per minute. However, if you take the right security steps, you can prevent 99% of common threats from getting into your WordPress site. This complete guide will teach you practical security measures that will help keep your website safe from new cyber dangers in 2025.
Why Do WordPress Websites Get Hacked?
It might help to know why websites get hacked in the first place before we get into the best ways to keep WordPress safe. Most of the time, hackers go after websites for these reasons:
- To get your data, mailing lists, saved credit cards, and other personal information.
- To make your website install software on your users’ computers (or your own) without your knowledge.
- To use your site to send spam emails.
- Or the hackers might target the server your site is on to affect multiple websites at once, causing problems for your hosting provider.
It is very crucial to know these important practices that will protect your site from the worst-case scenarios.
WordPress Security Practices To Prevent Hacks
These WordPress security practices are intended for people who have never had a website before or who owned a website and used WordPress. We will go into details of each of these practices to make it as simple as possible for you to implement.
1. Updating WordPress Core, Plugins, & Themes
Keeping everything up to date is one of the easier ways to make your site safer. Always make sure that the main files, plugins, and themes for WordPress are up to date. Updates that fix security holes, as well as performance improvements, are regularly released by developers.
Updating WordPress Core: Going to Dashboard > Updates will let you update the WordPress core. After that, you should see the most recent version:
- Updating Themes: To change themes, go to Appearance > Themes and click Update.
- Updating Plugins: For a detailed guide on updating plugins, you can refer to one of our posts called “How to Install and Update WordPress Plugins – Easy Guide for Beginners”.
Disclaimer: We strongly advise you to make a Backup and roll the updates on a testing environment first.
2. Use Strong Passwords
People with access to your login ID and password have full freedom to do whatever they want on your WordPress site. They have all of the access that you, as an admin, have. Having a strong password is your first line of defense, so you should always be certain that they are hard to guess or crack. It is true that weak passwords make it easy for people who shouldn’t be there to get in. The most effective approach is to develop a password strategy.
You can set a certain guideline for a strong password for all users. This will ensure that the passwords are strong and not easy to crack. The guidelines could be something like.
- Minimum Length: 12 characters
- Use at least 1 Uppercase letter A – Z
- Use at least 1 lowercase letter a – z
- Use at least 1 number from 0 – 9
- Restriction on using old passwords
3. SSL/TLS Certificate
Getting an SSL certificate is necessary to protect the information that your site and its viewers send and receive. This keeps private data like login information and payment information safe. Make sure that the web host you choose works with SSL/TLS certificates. You could also use a managed WordPress hosting service like Hostinger, which usually comes with SSL certificates already installed.
4. Use of Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
Adding one or two more pieces of information to prove who you are only takes a minute more of a user’s time but makes a huge difference in keeping hackers out. Alex Weinert, who is in charge of Microsoft’s Identity Security Division, says that their study shows that MFA makes it 99.9% less likely that someone will get into your account. This is one of those small changes that will have a big effect and should be made. Attackers would need to be able to physically access your phone in order to use multi-factor authentication. This makes it one of the safest security features that can be used.
5. Having Backup Solutions
Most likely, the most important thing you can do to keep your info safe is to back it up often. A full backup of a website can be a lifesaver if there is a security breach or something goes wrong with it. If someone hacks into your site or it stops working right, restoring a recent backup might be the easiest way to fix the issue. It is less possible that you will lose important data if the backup is more recent.
You can take the necessary steps to resolve the problem once you’ve recovered your site through backup.
WordPress gives you a lot of ways to back up your site. If you have a controlled service, some web hosts will back up your site automatically as part of your plan. But you shouldn’t depend on these files alone. If there is a mistake in the code, a host problem, or a hack on your server, the backups can also be lost.
6. Change Default WordPress Database Prefix
This next time is connected to the WordPress Database. It’s pretty easy because all you have to do is change the prefix of your database file. A lot of people know that WordPress SQL tables begin with wp_ and are often left alone by users. If you change it, you can stop anyone from attacking your site’s information.
The best way to do it is to add the prefix when you set up WordPress. In the step where you are asked to choose the database data, locate the Table Prefix box and change the default value to any value you like (followed by an underscore), for instance:
Or you can also use a plugin for easily renaming your database, like Brozzme DB Prefix & Tools Addons
7. Using Web Application Firewall (WAF)
WAF is a type of firewall that checks and filters all of the data going to and out from your website. It can block already known malicious IPS and use specific rules to filter out certain kinds of traffic.
Some common types of hacks that WAFs are meant to stop are SQL injections, cross-site scripting (XSS), and cross-site request forgeries (CSRF). They are able to do this because their rules are very complicated. The firewall works better when its rules cover a lot of scenarios. There are a few plugins that claim to have set a certain number of rules from years of experience, such as WordFence and Jetpack
8. Disable File Editing
A very important security step is to stop editing files through the WordPress dashboard. By default, WordPress lets users with the administrator role change theme and plugin files straight in the dashboard. This trait makes security risks more likely.
In your wp-config.php file, add the code define (‘DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT’, true); to turn this feature off.
9. Hiding Your WordPress Version Number
It is possible for WordPress to add its version number to your theme without your knowledge, which can be harmful as it lets bad users know exactly how to attack your site. Hackers will find it harder to get into your site if you hide your WordPress version number. It makes things even less clear, which makes it harder for enemies to find possible holes.
You can hide the version number in your site’s source code by following these steps. In the functions.php file of your theme, add this code:
Or you can use plugins such as Hide My WP or WP Hide & Security Enhancer to hide your version number as well.
10. Regularly Audit and Monitor Your Website
In order to keep the security of your website tight and ensure your site is performing optimally, carry out regular audits. Some of the strategies that you can opt for are:
- Your site should incorporate an effective security plugin that can routinely check for malware, loopholes, and other fraud indicators within the site. For ex, Sucuri, Malcare
- Routinely examine your logs to catch any irregularities or unauthorized access.
- A website needs periodic security reviews to assess its security and offer improvements. This could include monitoring user privileges, upgrading systems, and adding security.
Conclusion
Protecting your website is equivalent to protecting your brand image, your reputation, and ultimately your business. By following the above practices, you can significantly lower your chances of being a target of a successful cyber-attack.
It can be hard to keep a WordPress site safe. You’ll have to back up your site often, make changes, check for malware, and do other things. To avoid all this hassle you can just let the experts handle it. We at LDninjas will ensure that your website is secure, up-to-date, and performing at its best.
Contact Us and let us take care of everything. We offer services that will give you peace of mind that your website is in good hands so that you can focus on growth
