As mentioned in a previous post in this series, there are thousands of WordPress plugins to choose from when adding new features and functionality to your website. Wordpress security and backup plugins should be at the top of your list.
The two I'm recommending here are absolutely critical. Both are free, though each offers a paid version. I find the free versions to be extremely capable and I use them on my own site. As your blog grows, particularly if you intend to build a large commerce site, membership site or develop a large following, you'll want to seriously consider a paid version of these plugins or move up to a premium security and backup solution. Premium versions can run $100 annually or more.
If you are a novice and just starting out, these two plugins will serve you for some time to come.
WordPress Security with iThemes Security
If you're a novice blogger, soloprenuer or just looking for simple, do-it-yourself, but comprehensive security solution for your website, iThemes Security is one of the best out there. The best feature of the plugin — it conducts a complete security audit of your site. The plugin will provide you complete audit results of your site, classified by risk level, either high, medium or low. After that the magic begins.
The plugin will then walk you through every vulnerability and tell precisely how to correct it. Many times the only action you may need to take is press an ‘auto-correct' button and iThemes Security takes it from there. There is no reason to have to have an insecure website. This is one of my favorite plugins. It just works. It will take you about 45-minutes to go through the process, but it worth the time and will protect you and your data from malicious hackers.
WordPress Backup with Updraft Plus Backup and Restoration
My second recommendation is for you to install Updraft Plus. Again, like iThemes Security, this plugin has a premium version. After securing your site you want to ensure that you never lose any data.
Updraft is very easy to install and configure. You can set scheduled, auto-backups and have a number of options for storing the backups, including Dropbox. Updraft will backup your entire site, including your theme, plugins, and uploads. It also has a one-click restore feature should you need to restore your site to an earlier version. This plugin has saved me on a number of occasions and worked flawlessly.
Read more articles in the How to Build Your Bulletproof Blog series:
- How to Build Your Blog – Introduction
- How to Select and Buy Your Domain Name
- How to Buy Web Hosting for Your New Blog
- How to Point Your Hover Domain to Your Bluehost Account
- How to Install WordPress
- How to Set Up WordPress User Names
- Configuring WordPress Permalinks
- Configuring WordPress General Settings
- How to Choose a WordPress Theme
- How to Install a WordPress Theme
- How to Install WordPress Plugins
- WordPress Security and Backup
- How to Publish Your First WordPress Post
- How to Create Your First WordPress Page