If you have an eCommerce WordPress Website, it’s crucial to gain trust from your customers. You’ll need to make sure that you’re providing a safe shopping environment and that sensitive information is protected.
Hence, securing your online store should be a high priority, or it’ll be vulnerable to unauthorized access. In this article, I’ll show you what kind of threats you need to be aware of, and how you can prevent them.
Why Is It Important to Secure Your eCommerce WordPress Website?
An eCommerce website is home to many business transactions. Thus, it has the potential to attract cybercriminals – people with motives to steal sensitive information and generate profit from it.
They usually perform security breaches in several ways.
Here are some of the most common ones:
- Phishing – tricking the customers by presenting a fake copy of an official page, and deceiving them into entering their credit card information.
- Spam – posting abundant messages or comments which contain infected links. Clicking them will put customers’ data in danger.
- DDoS attacks – overwhelming the server with plenty of requests until it crashes.
- Brute-force attacks – this method uses a program to guess the password of the website’s admin panel. It’ll try numerous combinations until the login succeeds.
- Malware – it takes a lot of forms, such as Malvertising or Ransomware. In short, it’ll stab your online store through the backend.
Once you experience a security breach, there’s a chance that your brand’s reputation will tarnish and you’ll lose your customers.
Right now, you might be wondering how to protect your store from external threats? Not to worry, there are security measures that you can take.
We’ll be covering them below.
How to Prepare Your eCommerce WordPress Website For a Safe Shopping Experience?
In this list, you will find some of the best ways to protect your site. Take a look and use them all together to ensure maximum security!
Choose a Secure Hosting Provider
There are plenty of web hosting providers ranging from premium hosting services to free web hosting. Choosing the best one is not easy since there are lots to consider – including the server’s security.
A great hosting provider should provide excellent security features, such as built-in anti-DDoS protection, firewalls, or security monitoring. The hosting you choose will also determine the level of security. Also, you should be kept in mind the Black Friday when it is the best time in the year to update your web hosting plan best web hosting deal for the SUPER funny price.
Shared hosting will be a less secure option for an online business since you will share the server with other website owners. On the other hand, dedicated hosting will give a higher level of security because the server is only for you to use.
Above all, pick the most suitable plan based on your needs.
Use HTTPS Protocols
If you want to make sure that your website’s information remains private, you should use an HTTPS protocol.
HTTP connections are less secure since it can make your website visible to intruders. It can be infiltrated through an internet service provider or Wi-Fi networks. HTTPS prevents this from happening by encrypting the connection.
The process is done by a Secure Socket Layer (SSL). In short, HTTPS is an HTTP connection that is encrypted by SSL. That’s why the SSL certificate is one of the essential aspects when building an online store.
So, how do you get an SSL certificate? You can purchase or get it for free from your hosting provider, depending on your hosting plan.
Pick a Secure Payment Gateway
Payment Gateway is a service that sends credit card information from your website to a payment network and vice versa. It’s responsible for managing the transaction within the store.
That’s why choosing a secure payment gateway for your business transaction is important.
Popular services such as PayPal and Stripe makes sure that all data are encrypted. PayPal applies industry-standard security features and has a Seller Protection Policy that protects online businesses. Stripe is even certified as PCI Service Provider Level 1.
To top it off, you can make your business a PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) compliant. It’ll assist you in preventing potential security breaches, especially regarding credit card information protection.
Use Security Plugins
Installing a security plugin is one of the easiest ways to protect your site. Some of them provide features such as Firewalls, Malware Scanning, and Security Monitoring. You can quickly install and activate them through the WordPress admin dashboard.
There’s an abundance of security plugins in the WordPress plugin directory. Let’s take a look at some of the best ones:
- Wordfence Security – provides firewalls, malware scanner, and brute force attack protection. It’s free, but you can upgrade to its premium plans starting for $99 per year to get additional features such as real-time malware signature updates.
- Sucuri Security – the free version offers blacklist monitoring, security activity auditing, and post-hack security actions. For extra hack and malware scan, plans start from $199.99 per year.
- All In One WP Security & Firewall – has plenty of features to ensure security on your user account, database, and file system. You can also set the features based on three categories: basic, intermediate, or advanced. There are no premium plans available.
Before choosing one of the alternatives, you have to consider all the features that are included in the plugin. You’ll need to be sure that it contains what you need.
Backup Your Data
One of the worst things to happen when facing a security breach is losing your data. So, you need to take preventive measures. Performing a backup will allow you to restore your data without any trouble.
There are several ways to do it. First, you can start with your hosting provider. Some providers offer automated backups as one of their features. The schedule can be set to daily or monthly backups based on your hosting plan.
If you’re an advanced user, you might want to try a manual backup. You can do it via cPanel or phpMyAdmin.
Installing a backup plugin can also do the job. Here are some of the best options out there:
- BackupBuddy – allows you to back up your entire site from the WordPress dashboard with no hassle. You can also restore individual WordPress files. The Blogger plan costs $80 per year.
- UpdraftPlus – is one of the most popular backup plugins with over two million installations. You can quickly set up an automatic backup schedule. The free version works just fine, but if you want additional features, premium plans start from $70 per year.
- BackWPUp – it’s free and provides plenty of options, like database and file backup, plus database optimization. You can upgrade it to the Standard plan for $69 per year, which offers features such as complete automatic restore and encrypt backup archives.
Wrapping Up
You have to make sure that your online store isn’t vulnerable to common threats like Phishing, Spam, and Brute force attacks. Having a security breach will harm your brand’s reputation and your customer’s shopping experience.
Here are the best ways to protect your eCommerce WordPress Website:
- Choose a secure hosting provider – it should offer excellent security features, such as firewalls and monitoring.
- Use HTTPS protocols – make sure that an SSL certificate encrypts connection within your site.
- Pick a secure payment – integrate your store with payment gateway systems that have data and seller protection. Don’t forget to make your business a PCI DSS compliant as well.
- Use security plugins – you can install plugins like All In One WP Security & Firewall, and Sucuri Security for extra protection.
- Backup your data regularly – this is to prevent any data loss due to unauthorized access.
Good luck with your online business!