How To Ensure Security With Your Agency’s WordPress Hosting

Security in website hosting isn’t a nice-to-have; it’s a must-have. Your WordPress agency is buzzing along. You started freelancing but quickly hired a VA, a designer, and a part-time developer, oh yeah and Becky is doing your accounting. How can you ensure security with your agency’s WordPress hosting?

TL;DR: Choose a website host who prioritizes security and protects your clients out of the box without any special configurations needed on your end.

“In fact, 43% of online attacks now are aimed at small businesses, and only 14% of those businesses are prepared to defend themselves.”

CNBC

Doesn’t WordPress Have Built-In Security?

Yes, WordPress continues to be built with security in mind. But that doesn’t mean it’s safe from all attacks. Weak passwords by users, outdated PHP versions, and out-of-date plugins and themes are all security risks. That’s not WordPress’ fault; that’s on you – and your client. (This is why we are huge advocates for agency maintenance plans.)

Think about it like a luxury apartment. The outside gates are closed at night, you have a gated courtyard, and, of course, your front door has a lock and a deadbolt. With that said, you still have to lock the doors at night.

“Since its inception in 2003, WordPress has undergone continual hardening so its core software can address and mitigate common security threats, including the Top 10 list identified by The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) as common security vulnerabilities, which are discussed in this document.”

WordPress.org

How Do I Check My WordPress Site’s Security?

You can check your WordPress site security with a third-party security scan like WordFence, Defender, or Bulletproof Security. Be sure you already have backups. If you’re hosted on a Managed WordPress host, be sure that they allow third-party scanning outside of their native tech stack.

How Do I Secure My WordPress Site Without Plugins?

If you’d like to secure your WordPress website without additional plugins, then it comes down to a few best practices. 

1. Always use a strong password. This goes for admins and authors or other users of the site. Change passwords on an ongoing and frequent basis.
2. Limit your use of nulled or duped WordPress plugins to zero. A no-tolerance policy is better than saving a few dollars.
3. Host your website on a reliable WordPress host that has several layers of security including a proactive defense, free SSL certificates, a WAF firewall, real-time malware scanning, automatic updates, and WordPress activity logging.
4. Backup, backup, backup. Did we say backup your site? If you don’t have regular backups, then you could be in real trouble. Have backups from months and years ago. Ideally, have a backup of the original site. If you didn’t pay attention to your site and now it has 3,000 nefarious blog posts dating back to 2021, last month’s backup won’t help.

Yes, it really is that simple. When you manage 25+ WordPress sites, self-hosting or managing your own Digital Ocean box just doesn’t scale. Unless, of course, you’re prepared to wake up at 3:00 AM and come back early from vacation, all while fielding calls from customers who think you are responsible for their website being down. Well, you are kind of on the hook.

Not to brag, but Rocket.net’s enterprise-level security has blocked 161.84 million attacks, blocked 14.9 million login attempts, challenged 14.35 million bots, and blocked 6.85 million spammers – all in just three years. Your portfolio is safe on our platform. You can go back to sleep now. 🙂

Secure Agency WordPress Hosting Is A Must!

The Rocket.net platform was built so that you can do what you do best, close deals and build websites. Regardless of the plan you choose, we even painlessly migrate your website for free as part of our white glove service. Need to migrate several sites? We got you.