How To Make Your Website Secure in 9 Steps

Is your business website safe from a brute force attack? 

If you’re not sure, then it’s time to take a look at these nine steps that will help make your site secure and protect your business from hackers. 

There are many things that you can do to keep yourself. In this article, we’ll walk you through the essential aspects of successful website security.

Importance of Making Your Website Secure

Truthfully, website security is not only important to protect yourself from getting hacked, but also to protect your customers. 

Hacking is becoming more common these days, and some of the biggest websites have experienced security problems, including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Yahoo. 

Maintaining a secure website will keep your business running smoothly and ensure the safety of all customers.

Why Do You Need to Make Your Website Secure?

You need to make your website secure because it will protect your business from hackers and keep the information on your website protected. 

Not only does this keep your website and business from going down, but it also maintains the trust of employees and customers. In today’s business climate, you must show others that you take privacy and security seriously. 

Losing control of your website can result in identity theft, lost traffic, and stolen customer data. The net effect of this can become devastating to your long-term business results.

How to Make Your Website Secure

Many ways exist that make it possible to keep your website secure. We’ll take you through the various required steps that will help you sleep at night when thinking about your website.

What Steps Can You Take To Ensure Your Website’s Secure?

Use these tips to make sure your website remains secure.

• Run Regular Back-ups
• Don’t Use Weak Usernames and Passwords
• Select a Respected CMS
• Install a Free SSL Certificate
• Limit Admin Access 
• Follow Two-Step Authentication
• Use Spam Filter and CAPTCHA Plug-ins
• Don’t Use Too Many Add-ons and Plugins
• Keep Plugins and Themes Updated

Run Regular Back-ups

Make sure you’re running regular back-ups as well as offsite backups. 

This way, if your site does get hacked and you need to wipe it clean or build a new one from scratch, you can restore the old copy. This can save hours and days (and sometimes weeks) of work.

The website backup process involves taking a copy of your website and storing it in an offsite location. 

Make sure that you’re not only running back-ups but also making them available to people outside the company, such as IT or web designers who also work on the site. It’s essential for everyone involved with your business to know what you’re doing to maintain a secure website.

Don’t Use Weak Usernames and Passwords

One of the most important things to do as a website owner is making sure you’re using strong passwords for all accounts on your website, server, and computer systems. 

Using the same password over and over again or simply making it easy to guess can leave you vulnerable in several ways.

Simple ways to create strong passwords include: 

• Making sure each password is at least 12 characters long
• Mixing up the letters, numbers, and special characters
• Using a password that has some sort of personal significance to you, like your favorite color
• Automatically H=having passwords generated for you

Limit Password Reuse

When you’re creating new passwords, make sure that they aren’t reused for multiple accounts. If one website gets hacked, then all of your other accounts are at risk.

Stay smart in this area and reduce the chances that hackers have access to more than one account with the same password. 

By having unique passwords for each site, you’re cutting down on potential security risks and keeping your personal information safe from exploitation.

Use a Password Manager 

A password manager is a helpful tool you can use to store all of the passwords for each account in one place. It keeps passwords from getting written down somewhere easily accessible by others.

You can keep track of all your passwords in one place with a password manager, which means you don’t have to try and remember them.

Password managers help cut down on the risk of security breaches because they store data encrypted through a “master password.” Even if someone gets access, it’s difficult for hackers to decrypt the data.

Select a Respected CMS

When choosing your website content management system (CMS), make sure you’re selecting a respected one that’s well-known for its security features. 

Use companies like WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal, for instance. These platforms have existed for a long time, and understand how to deal with security issues.

Additionally, it’s important to ensure that you’re using the latest version of your CMS and that it’s fully patched with all current updates.

Install SSL Encryption

To keep your website secure, make sure you are also running an SSL encryption certificate on every page where customers enter sensitive information. 

SSL certificates help encrypt data, which sends passwords and credit card numbers securely. The process prevents sensitive data from getting intercepted by someone trying to steal it.

When you’re ready to install the SSL certificate on your website, make sure that it’s installed correctly and completely. An incomplete installation will lead to an invalid certificate which means hackers can attack right through it without any trouble. An incomplete installation may also cause your website to display incorrectly.

There are a number of SSL certificate providers out there. Choose one that is reputable and offers exceptional customer service. Many offer discounts on multiple-year purchases rather than just single certificates for each domain name. As well, most website hosts provide a free SSL certificate.

Limit Admin Access 

It’s important not to give too many people access to the backend of your website. Doing so can leave you open to attacks on multiple fronts.

By limiting the number of people with admin access, you’re cutting down on potential security risks. 

Consider using a third-party service like ManageWP or InfiniteWP to manage multiple websites from one account instead of giving out passwords for individual sites. This will help reduce the risk of passwords getting compromised because you’ll hand them out to fewer people.

Limit What Users Can Do Behind The Scenes

You don’t need to give everyone full admin control to your website. Instead, you can limit what they get to do behind the scenes.

To limit how much people can do from within the backend, you can set up user roles. Instead of giving someone full access when they sign in to the backend through an admin account, it will only allow them to do certain things. For example, they might simply add or edit the content on your site.

Limiting user access is an excellent method to keep people from accessing areas and features they don’t need access to. The result is greater WordPress security and less stress for you as the website owner.

Follow Two-Step Authentication

Two-step authentication is a simple way to add an extra level of security in order to keep your website secure from a DDoS attack. 

The two-step process means that when you sign into the backend, you’re not only asked for your username and password. Instead, it adds a second layer of protection against security threats. The process typically sends you a code via text message or email so a hacker can’t get access to the site, even if they somehow gained access to your password.

Two-step authentication is an easy way to add extra security. You can set it up from within the backend of your CMS. There isn’t any need to install special software or programs which could potentially open up a new set of security risks.

Use Spam Filter and CAPTCHA Plugins

A spam filter and CAPTCHA plugin help block spam from getting into your website by flagging messages that seem suspicious.

Both types of plugins add a step when someone wants to post something onto the site. They must enter additional information before anything goes live on the website. An extra layer of security like this helps filter out spam comments and other suspicious content before it can cause problems on the site.

The CAPTCHA plug-in works by having a pop-up appear when a user wants to post something. It asks them to type in characters from an image. The process helps filter out bots and ensures only humans can leave their thoughts as a comment or response. 

Spam filters work by checking incoming comments or messages against a database of spam words. Filters help block out any unwanted content.

Using both plugins together is an effective way to keep bots and spammers away from your website. Add them to your website immediately before a hacker uses an automated bot system to gain access to your backend systems.

Don’t Use Too Many Add-ons and Plugins

Adding plugins and add-ons to a website is a great way to extend its functionality. 

However, each plugin that you install on your backend will increase the number of ways for hackers to get into your website.  Don’t go overboard with the number of add-ons that you use. When adding plugins, it’s important to choose ones that are well supported and updated regularly. Check the ratings and reviews for each plugin, so you know it’s a reputable add-on.

Keep Plugins and Themes Updated

Keeping everything updated is a simple way to add an extra layer of security to your website. Updating all website functionality helps remove potential vulnerabilities that hackers might try to exploit. 

Updating plugins, themes, and the CMS will make sure all software in use on the site is up to date. It will ensure there aren’t any security holes that someone can take advantage of.

Updating WordPress, for example, will help keep all core files patched, which means hackers who find a vulnerability with the software can’t break into your website.

Look at all the plugins on your website. See if updates exist that you forgot to employ. Do the same for your theme. You need to stay on top of these issues to avoid security threats.

Conclusion

Do you now feel better prepared to make your website secure? As your first action step, select the first item from the above list that you need to fix. Get it set up and updated. Then, do the same for each item until you know your website is secure and safe from vulnerabilities.