WordPress Security
Make your WordPress website harder to break into.
Maybe you’re managing your WordPress website yourself and you’re not sure it’s as secure as it should be.
Maybe nobody has looked at its security in years.
Or maybe you simply want someone who knows WordPress to go through the site, tighten things up and make sure you’re doing the things you should be doing.
We can help with a one-time WordPress security review and hardening.
Or, if you’d rather have someone take care of your website going forward, security is part of our ongoing WordPress Maintenance plans.
WordPress Security
Security is more than installing a plugin.
Security plugins can be useful. We use security tools ourselves.
But installing a plugin and checking a few boxes doesn’t make a WordPress website secure.
Good WordPress security means keeping the software current, controlling who has access, removing things you don’t need, maintaining reliable backups, watching for suspicious activity and protecting the environment around WordPress.
It’s not one thing.
It’s a collection of sensible decisions and layers working together.
Securing WordPress
Start with the website itself.
Every website is different.
If you ask us to review and harden an existing WordPress website, we’ll look at how it’s set up, what’s running on it and where we see unnecessary risk.
Keep WordPress up to date
WordPress itself, plugins and themes need to stay current.
Updates aren’t only about new features. They frequently address bugs and security vulnerabilities that have been discovered since an earlier version was released.
Control who has access
We’ll look at WordPress users and administrator access and make sure people have the level of access they actually need.
Old accounts, unnecessary administrators and weak login practices create risk that doesn’t need to be there.
Remove what you don’t need
Old plugins, unused themes and abandoned software can become liabilities.
If something isn’t needed, there may be no reason to leave another potential door into the website.
Tighten the WordPress setup
We’ll review the way the website is configured and make appropriate security improvements based on the site itself.
There isn’t one identical configuration that’s right for every WordPress website.
Make sure there are reliable backups
Security isn’t only about trying to prevent something from happening.
If a website is damaged, compromised or an update goes badly, having a reliable backup gives us a way to recover.
Look for trouble
We look for signs that something isn’t right, including suspicious files, unexpected changes and other indications that the website may need a closer look.
If we discover that the site is already infected, that’s no longer simply a hardening job. We’ll talk with you about WordPress Malware Recovery and what it will take to clean it properly.
We don't rely on one line of defense.
When we maintain and host a WordPress website, we’re able to protect more than WordPress itself.
There is no such thing as a bulletproof WordPress website.
Anyone can promise perfect security.
We won’t.
Websites change. Software changes. New vulnerabilities are discovered. Bots probe websites looking for weaknesses. People reuse passwords. New plugins get installed. Old software gets forgotten.
Good WordPress security is about reducing the risk.
We close the doors we know about. We keep software current. We limit unnecessary access. We put layers of protection around the website. We maintain backups. We monitor what’s happening.
And if something does get through, we know what to do next.
If your website is already redirecting visitors, displaying unfamiliar content, showing a security warning or otherwise behaving like it has been compromised, visit our WordPress Malware Recovery page.
Why Cider House?
We've spent more than 20 years working with WordPress.
And our core development team has been working together for more than 15 years.
We’ve built WordPress websites. Maintained them. Hosted them. Repaired them. Cleaned hacked sites. Dealt with vulnerable software, failed updates, malware, abusive bots, unusual traffic and problems that didn’t make much sense until we got under the hood.
We understand WordPress security because we work with WordPress every day.
We know how to make a WordPress website as secure as it reasonably can be, and we also know enough not to promise that nothing will ever happen to it.
That’s what experience teaches you.
Need us once? Or want us to stick around?
One-time WordPress security hardening
If you want someone to review an existing WordPress website and make it more secure, we can do that.
We’ll look at the website, identify the security improvements we recommend and address the issues we’re able to resolve.
One-time WordPress work is billed at our standard rate of $125/hour.
When we’re finished, you can continue managing the website yourself.
Ongoing WordPress Maintenance
A security hardening makes your website safer today.
But WordPress doesn’t stop changing when we’re finished.
Plugins release updates. New vulnerabilities are discovered. Websites evolve. New people get access. Hosting environments change. Bots keep knocking on the door.
Our WordPress Maintenance plans make security part of the ongoing care of your website, along with updates, backups, monitoring, support and managed hosting for eligible sites.
We'd rather take care of your website for the long haul.
A one-time security hardening can make your WordPress website safer today.
But some of our client relationships have lasted nearly 20 years.
We’ve worked with businesses and organizations long enough to build three, sometimes even four, generations of their websites as their needs changed and the web changed around them.
That’s what ongoing maintenance can become.
We get to know your website. We know how it works. We’re there when something breaks, when something needs to change and when it’s finally time to start thinking about what comes next.
Security is part of that relationship.
So are all the other things that keep a website working.
Want to make your WordPress website safer?
If you’re concerned about the security of your existing website, tell us what’s worrying you.
Maybe you want a one-time security review and hardening. Maybe you’re trying to decide whether ongoing maintenance makes more sense. Or maybe you aren’t sure what your website needs.
Let’s figure it out.
You can give us a call, send us a message or take a look at our maintenance plans.