8 Best Ways to Tighten the WordPress Admin Area

Have you experienced several attacks on your WordPress admin region? If so, you require complete protection from illegal or third-party access by blocking common security threats. Being the hub of your website, WordPress helps you log in to its admin account, access your customer data, let you install brand-new plugins, get in touch with the visitors, amend the site's code, and so on. 

A hacker can get quick access to your dashboard unless you take steps to safeguard it. It would be detrimental if a spiteful and unauthorized manager obtained access to the WordPress admin area! Luckily, innumerable ways are available to protect your WordPress admin against third-party intruders and reinforce WordPress security. 

Today, in this article, we will discuss why protecting your WordPress admin area is vital, and we will also inform you of the eight best tips to boost WordPress security. Let’s get started!

Why is it essential to protect your WordPress admin area?

While users contemplate hacking, they often envision hackers jailbreaking their servers using impeccable tools and spell-working tactics. But in reality, hackers get access just how you enter your website’s dashboard by managing access to your login credentials. 

Password robbing and brute force attacks are the two most ordinary ways malicious hackers obtain access to your website after plugin vulnerabilities that account for 20% of every hacked WordPress website. Before getting started with the WordPress security tips, let’s see the pointers below to know the importance of protecting your WordPress admin area:

WordPress is a renowned content management system platform, so hackers are searching for the latest vulnerabilities to exploit over a wide array of sites.  

Since cybercriminals are well-versed in WordPress, they know when a site gets older and which safety limitations are present in every version.

Cybercriminals don’t always require top-notch coding skills or streamlined development knowledge to obtain access via a login page.

Protecting WordPress login pages is vital for your website’s overall performance and long-term success. By increasing WordPress security at the login page and WordPress dashboard, you may impede such attacks in their tracks. 

Tips to Protect Your WordPress Admin Area 

The default URLs of WordPress websites used to get into the Admin page are widely known domain.tld/wp-admin, anyone can log in to your site and pose a potential threat. But you can prevent this by changing the URL to something creative or safeguarding the whole URL with the guidance of these eight tips below to protect your WordPress admin area. 

Install SSL on the admin area and login pages

Due to the advancement of technology, security attacks are on the rise, too! It has been surveyed that $4.24 million was the average data breach cost in 2021. Therefore, data security plays an important role. Here, we can use safe and budget friendly solution like SSL certificate that can encode online information that is in-transit. An SSL certificate like is hassle-free to install on your website, and you must not skip adding this to reinforce WordPress security. 

If you look at an SSL cert then SSL is a Secure Socket Layer, a standard online data encryption protocol. Technically speaking, it requires employing the HTTPS transfer protocol rather than the HTTP one, but this has little to do with the everyday user. An SSL certificate is advantageous for site owners as it is available at the lowest price if you are worried about SSL certificate cost.

One of the most prominent instances of an information leak is Equifax, a sizable US credit-reporting agency. They declared that hacking, theft and a system breach in September 2017 resulted in the disappearance of 148 million Americans' private data. Later, they revealed that their SSL certificate had expired. Due to this issue, Equifax made a lump sum of $425 million of global settlement to reimburse its customers. 

Cyberattacks nowadays ruin the privacy of innumerable users and deteriorate a business’s reputation, which is why an SSL certificate is necessary!  

Include 2FA in your login screen

Two-factor authentication, or 2FA, is a hassle-free technique incorporating an additional verification factor into your WordPress login page. Including 2FA means sending code through email, text message, or even an application, which a user needs to provide along with their password to access your WordPress website. That’s why you need to use these strategies below to reinforce WordPress security:

It's more protected than using just a password. In every case, cybercriminals need physical access to your smartphone or laptop to get your 2FA code.

Innumerable ways are there to implement. 2FA is highly renowned nowadays, and you may implement it using various tools and strategies. 

Employ a WAF, aka Website Application Firewall

A WAF evaluates your website’s traffic and impedes apprehensive requests from reaching your website. In that case, you may establish using a plugin, for example, Wordfence. Upon installing the Wordfence Web Application Firewall, it’s suggested to leave it in learning mode for a week at least. It allows Wordfence to assess your website and know how to defend it best while enabling authorized visitors. 

You may also optimize the firewall by visiting WordPress > Firewall > Click here to configure. Being a leading part of the optimization process, Wordfence will opt for a suggested server configuration for your site. Nevertheless, you may manually opt for your server configuration if needed.

Alter and hide your WordPress login URL

Another best way to protect your WordPress admin and tighten WordPress security is by protecting it from prying eyes. The default login address for any WordPress-powered website is http://www.yourwebsitename.com/wp-admin, identical to giving a burglar your home information. Doing anything possible to cover up this is a great idea.  

By altering the WordPress login URL, you can put a fence on the hacker’s entrance and make their job more challenging. You may search for a plugin to hide your WordPress login URL. For this, you will require FTP access to your site, and after getting that, you may follow the instructions.

Restrict dashboard access

While your users might need to register to navigate your WordPress website, not every user needs this access to your dashboard. Additionally, the more significant number of customers you have, the greater the likelihood it is that one of them will disregard the rules and utilize a weak or vulnerable password. 

The best solution is to restrict the access to your dashboard to dependable users by role: the super admins, admins, and editors. The indispensable functionality is given, for example, eliminating dashboard access, a user-friendly and free plugin. 

Generate custom login links

It’s evident that to access the WordPress admin panel, everyone has to type in the WordPress website URL with /wp-login.php. Use a similar password on multiple sites, and if the site is compromised, it will be easy for malicious hackers to hack your website. 

Stealth Login's plugin lets you create custom URLs for logging in, logging out, administration, and recording your WordPress blog. Here, you may also allow “Stealth Mode,” which will impede users from accessing wp-login.php directly. Now, it’s time to set your login URL to something more perplexing. 

Although it won’t secure the site entirely, if a spiteful hacker somehow manages to crack the password, it would make it challenging for them to find where to log in. It also restricts the bots utilized for spiteful intentions from accessing wp-login.php files and trying to invade them. 

Keep your WordPress updated

WordPress keeps releasing new software versions with remarkable features, crucial bug fixes, and security modifications. Utilizing an outdated version of WordPress leaves you vulnerable to threats. However, the issue can be resolved using WordPress's most recent edition. 

In line with this, plug-ins for WordPress are frequently revised to incorporate the most recent improvements or address security and other vulnerabilities; all you have to do is install the latest version of the WordPress extensions. 

Include CAPTCHA in the login page

Employing a CAPTCHA in the admin region can lower the hacking endeavors as it impedes streamlined scripts to brute-force assault on your login page. All you need to do is navigate to the dashboard > Plugins > Add New and type “CAPTCHA.” Now, you can see many WordPress plugins available to implement CAPTCHA on your login screen. 

You may use the Captcha plugin by BestWebSoft, which has more than 300,000 active installs and a higher rating. This plugin generates the latest area on your login page, and by activating this, it will build a CAPTCHA image, without which nobody is able to log in by knowing the login credentials. This strategy helps lock the automated scripted brute force assaults. 

Conclusion

Running a website entails a certain amount of accountability for its consumers and content. This is twice the case if you gather data about clients. However, enhancing protection around the login area is an ingenious method for maintaining secure data over the long term, regardless of how you operate your WordPress site. 

The 8 tips offered here should make it easy to master WordPress security upkeep quickly. If you like this article and implement any of the above mentioned strategies, let us know in the comment section below.