Despite being built with powerful security measures, your WooCommerce store can still be susceptible to hackers if you are not careful. In this blog, we’ll talk about the best practices you should follow to secure your WooCommerce site from hackers.
WooCommerce is a free, open-source, and easy to install e-commerce platform customized according to your needs. With WooCommerce development, you can give your online store a new look and increase your revenue. When combined with WordPress, WooCommerce brings a high level of functionality, customizability, and security to your online store.
For any online store owner, security is one of the top priorities because it not only holds the owner’s data and information but is also responsible for customers’ personal information. With over 28% of market share, WooCommerce takes the lead among e-commerce stores around the world.
However, the ever-increasing popularity of the platform makes it a relatively common target for intruders. It is up to you, the online store owner, to prevent the hackers from succeeding. Implementing the right strategies will help you to safeguard your site and also speed up your WooCommerce Store.
Top 9 Proven Tips to Keep WooCommerce Store Safe
Keep Your WooCommerce Store Updated
E-commerce store owners generally neglect the most basic and easy steps involved in keeping the WooCommerce store safe: updating the site regularly. You need to understand the importance of updates and stop ignoring the updates if you want a secure WooCommerce site.
WooCommerce-based stores rely on regular updates from WordPress only. The upgraded versions eliminate the security breaches, thus should be implemented promptly.
Choose a Secure and Reliable Hosting
Choosing a reliable hosting service provider is as important as choosing the right platform. Thus, choosing a reputable and reliable hosting service is crucial for your WooCommerce store as a reputable hosting company offers secure hosting for your WooCommerce site.
While choosing your hosting provider, make sure that the host uses server-level security, provides SSH and SFTP access, and all the communication between you and server is well-encrypted.
Add SSL Certificates
Getting an SSL certificate is a basic step you should take as an online store owner to ensure your WooCommerce store’s security. An SSL certificate encrypts all the sensitive information transferred between a user and your online store, eliminating the possibility of hackers attacking your site.
You can obtain an SSL certificate from your hosting provider for free, or maybe you can add an SSL to your WooCommerce store for an additional cost.
Use Security Plugins
Installing a security plugin is another great way to keep your site safe from intruders. A good plugin can scan your WooCommerce site regularly and thoroughly. It checks for any hacks, malware, or suspicious activity and informs you accordingly.
There are various security plugins available in the market. Still, not all offer the same security level, so you should select and incorporate the security plugins in your WooCommerce store wisely.
Implement Strong Passwords
Weak passwords are among the most common reasons for hacks as they’re easy for intruders to guess. Thus, you need to start using strong passwords, keep it unique, and invest some good time in making it hard-to-crack, to beat hackers, and stay ahead of the game.
To make your passwords strong, you should use a combination of Uppercase, Lowercase, special characters, and numbers in your password. For example – Name@3432.
Change Your Default Username ‘Admin’
While brute-forcing, intruders try to guess the combination of your username and password, thus leaving your username as ‘admin’ can turn into great hospitality for hackers. Create a unique and hard to guess username that will give a hard time to hackers.
You can change your username by log in to your WordPress admin, navigate to User > Add New, create a new account, and assign an administrator. After that, log out and log in with the changed admin account.
Enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)
Enabling two-factor authentication is another security measure you should take to make it harder for hackers to break in. By implementing two-factor authentication, anyone who attempts to log in will need to provide credentials and a password generated in real-time (like a one-time password), eliminating the chances of intruders getting in.
Setup a Firewall
It’s a good thing if your hosting provider is giving you a set up of a firewall, still, setting up another adds a layer of security to your WooCommerce store. You can generally set up a firewall through plugins like Sucuri, Wordfence, All-in-one WP Security & Firewall, and more. Still, if you need customization, it is advisable to seek help from a professional.
Keep Multiple Backups
You must be wondering how the backup feature can fall under the security tips. Well, you will be amazed to know its importance. If you have multiple backups of your WooCommerce site, you can easily restore it if it gets hacked. It’s crucial to stress the importance of backups when you own a WooCommerce store as it contains the sensitive information of customers.
Summing Up!
An e-commerce business that contains sensitive and confidential data of the company and customers can cost you everything if it falls into the wrong hands. Thus, implementing the security measures discussed in this blog post will protect your WooCommerce site from hackers.
