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Security is of utmost importance when selecting a web hosting plan. However, there is no single feature that ensures secure hosting. Rather, you should take into account a range of features that will maximize your overall web hosting security. Though most managed web hosting companies adhere to standard security practices, there are certain things to look for. Below we’ll take a look at the do’s and don’ts of secure WordPress hosting, as well as best practices.
Do These Do’s
Firstly, a managed web hosting company is responsible for ensuring your website is up to date, optimized and secure. An unmanaged web hosting company will simply provide space on a server for you to upload your site. The responsibility for optimization and security is up to you, which will take away time that could be spent managing your business or focusing on content creation or marketing.
A reputable managed hosting company will ensure the following security features:
- Firewalls: A firewall is a software that filters request activity before it reaches the web server by blocking blacklist IP-addresses. Since firewalls are often shared by a number of customers, requests blocked from accessing your system will also be blocked from accessing other sites.
- DDoS Protection: DDoS, or Distributed Denial of Service, is an attack where thousands of requests are sent to a site at the same time, overwhelming the site’s capacity to process the requests, which will shut the site down. DDoS protection will flag DDoS activity and block it while allowing legitimate traffic to access the site.
- Virus Protection: Viruses can compromise your personal data and your site’s functionality. A secure web hosting platform must include a strong anti-virus system that is regularly updated and monitored. The security system should protect the datacenter where your site is hosted as well as your site’s back-end.
- Security Protection: There is no foolproof web hosting plan since no system is completely immune from attack. However, it is important that your managed WordPress hosting provide live security monitoring that continually monitors traffic and activity and reports any anomalies in real time.
- Spam Filter: Though email spam is not a significant security threat, massive amounts of email can have the same effect as a DDoS attack. Email spam filtering minimizes the risk and reduces email storage costs.
- SSL Security Certificate: An SSL Security Certificate, which allows your site to function in HTTPS mode, is essential If you need users to enter sensitive information or if you need to show sensitive information to users. HTTPS provides a secure, encrypted channel between a user and a site that safeguards form data like credit card and Social Security numbers.
- Domain Name Privacy: Unless you have domain name privacy, your domain name, your name, address, and other contact information will be public. Ensure your web host protects your private information.
In addition, you will want to make sure that your web hosting company offers advanced features like scripting support, shopping cart processing infrastructure, and guaranteed uptime. Also, a WordPress hosting server is exclusively intended and optimized to serve WordPress sites, which are used by bloggers, journalists, and other content creators.
Avoid These Don’ts
A dependable managed hosting company will avoid the following security pitfalls:
- Hosting outages: Low-cost hosting services may not have secondary servers that can take over if your server fails, which can limit your ability to operate and have devastating effects on your business. A hosting outage can result in loss of revenue, loss of customers and damage to your reputation
- Slow performance: A reputable WordPress hosting service should have the capacity to provide fast processing speeds. A web host that uses outdated or subpar hardware, or has several websites and applications running on shared servers cannot ensure performance if there is a spike in traffic. Slow performance can result in loss of productivity and lower the perceived value of your site or service.
- Hacking: Oftentimes, hosting companies compromise on security to offer cheaper service. Yet skimping on security can have fatal results. A trustworthy web hosting provider will ensure they keep the operating systems updated, apply security products, isolate user accounts, retain server logs, and back up content. Loss/breach of data can result in significant financial losses.
Secure web hosting is not only important, but it is also the cornerstone of professional web hosting. Once you have invested time and money into a successful website, the last thing you want is for outages, slow performance or hacking to disable your site. A reliable managed WordPress hosting provider will guarantee your site is protected from cyber-attacks, spam, and viruses, as well as ensure your privacy, data and your user’s data is protected.
BionicWP is a curated web directory of WordPress hosting websites and services that guarantee security, quality and success. To learn more about how BionicWP can help you stay secure, visit us!
