How to secure your WordPress blog without a Security Plugin

How to secure your WordPress blog without a security plugin. You might find that weird isn’t it? Well in this post, I will show how you can do it. WordPress is one of the best and popular content management systems among bloggers to create a blog.

WordPress

WordPress is no doubt very secure platform but we all have to install and activate a security plugin to make our blog security much better and rock solid. There are plenty of ways you can secure your WordPress blog without a security plugin. Let’s check them out:

#1. Always update your WordPress and its plugins and themes.

It is highly recommended that you use the latest version of WordPress. So, update your WordPress whenever there is an update available. You also have to update your themes and plugins that you are using on your blog.

Outdated themes and plugins are vulnerable to hacking. Since the codes are outdated of your themes and plugins and it’s a major security breach for your blog.

#2. Never used Nulled themes and plugins.

The Internet is full of nulled and pirated software. You can easily get nulled themes and plugins for your blog by searching for it on Google. A nulled theme may contain viruses and spyware which can alter your WordPress settings and files and hackers can easily take the control of your site.

When hackers nulled a theme or plugin, He/She may remove some security options and alter the licensing and update files. This means you may not get the update for that particular themes and plugins. Always use genuine and original WordPress themes.

#3. Don’t use admin as your username.

Most of the newbie bloggers make this mistake. They use admin as their username. It is a soft target for the hackers. Always use the different and unique username for your WordPress site.

#4. Use a Strong Password.

Make sure you are using a strong password for your blog. You can use the combination of both letters and numbers along with special characters and upper and lowercase word. You can also use a third party tool to create a strong password.

Not even your blog, you should apply a password protection for all the things which you use in general, whether it could be web applications, a two-way authentication for your emails and even Password Protect Google sheet allows you to protect the sensitive data easily.

#5. Don’t use WP as your database table prefix.

When you install the WordPress on your blog, It creates a default database table prefix as “WP”. You must have to edit this option when you install the WordPress. You can use any word but don’t use that prefix. Hackers will do some SQL injections and easily hack your database.

#6. Check your database permission.

When we create the database, we usually give all the permission to it. But to make your database more secure you have to remove or uncheck the following options when you give the user permission.

  • Create Temporary files.
  • Index.
  • Local Tables.
  • References.

By unchecking the above options while giving the user access privilege to your database will make your database more secure.

#7. Disable the directory indexing.

If you have your blog directory indexing on then it might be a big security threat for your blog. When your directory browsing is on then hackers can easily look for your “WP content”, “Uploads”, “includes” folder etc.

To disable the directory browsing, You have to insert a few lines in your .htaccess file. Add the following line at the bottom of your .htaccess file:

Options All –Indexes

This will disable the directory browsing for your blog or website.

#8. Buy Quality Web hosting.

This is a big factor and one of the major concern for your blog security. Don’t ever go with Low and cheap web hosting. They are only here for making money and they don’t have anything to do with your site security.

I highly recommend using quality and reliable web hosting provider. You can go with Siteground. They are really one of the best web hosting provider.

#9. Remove all Your WP Meta.

By default, WordPress has put some Meta info in your blog header. This will help hackers to find out which CMS you are using. You should have to remove this info. You can also use Meta and date remover plugin to remove or hide the meta info.

#10. Change the Login URL.

This is a tricky part of WordPress. If you are not an expert guy then I highly recommend you to bypass this step as it can mess up your site if you do it wrong. You can use plugins like WPS Hide Login to change and hide the admin login URL.

#11. Use Jetpack login security.

Jetpack has some great and rock solid security options. Its login security option is a great way to seal and lock your login page. Just go to Jetpack setting option and click on the security tab to enable this feature.

It will seamlessly lock out invalid login names and protect your blog from brute force attacks.

#12. Use a CDN service

Using a CDN service can have additional benefits and give your more security options. I am using Cloudflare for my blog. Cloudflare comes with both free and paid plan. You can start with their free plan. It will protect your site from malicious attacks and hackers. It also protects your blog from the DDOS attack which is now more common.

Conclusion

Most of the security plugins come with both free and paid version. While they charge you for some additional security options. Whilst their free versions come with the basic security which you can easily get by following the above steps.

It also has seen that most security plugins consume too many resources and put a load on your server which negatively affect your blog performance. I hope you will find it helpful. Do share your thoughts and ideas with me by commenting below.


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