As an eCommerce owner, the security of your business should be one of your fundamental priorities. Yes, you are responsible for your online business, and you do not want your data to be accessible by malicious parties. If you are using WooCommerce, then you are a lucrative target by hackers. It is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms globally, accounting for a third of the market share. That is why you will need to observe strict WooCommerce security best practices to protect your business. Here are proven tips to stay safe from common breaches.
Choose a good host for your business
Your site’s security starts with your host; so, you need to do extensive research to determine where to host your business website for starters. To ensure that your eCommerce is safe, you should lookout for a host that can offer the following features:
A firewall: this places a virtual wall between your server and the internet traffic. It protects your content published on your business website and your system from attacks.
Regular and automatic backups: Your host should guarantee the backup of your entire site. This is necessary to retrieve your data in case anything happens.
Malware scanning and protection: The hosting plan should include virus detection and protection to ensure that you can quickly react to any problems and prevent any unauthorized access to your systems or destruction of your business website.
Top tier support: you should consider approaching a host with an excellent technical support team to help you address malware, hacks, and other potential security threats.
You will find different hosts, and each will list the security features that they offer. It would help if you asked about their services and plans. Do your due diligence and find the best host that will guarantee your online shop is secure.
Use an SSL Certificate
A secure socket layer (SSL) certificate is crucial in protecting the data traffic from your business website by encrypting the data. For example, an SSL will ensure critical data like the customer’s purchase history, email, password, or even credit card numbers remain private and inaccessible by unauthorized people like hackers. Safeguarding the data on your website lowers the likelihood of data breaches. This is even more crucial from a legal perspective to reduce the risk of being sued for breaches. Having an SSL certificate installed on your website also helps boost its visibility on Google search engine-it is a ranking signal used in the Google algorithm. It also motivates people to use your store and browse with that peace of mind. Remember, trust and good SEO rankings are equal to conversions!
Tip: Find the best type of SSL certificate for your WooCommerce store. You can check out the low cost SSL provider like SSL2BUY website to find the best certificate for your shop where you can find single domain, wildcard SSL certificate, multi domain SSL certificate and many more that could suit your requirement.
Use quality plugins
Plugins and extensions are great ways of expanding store functionality. However, it is crucial to note that not all of them are created equal. For example, a poorly coded plugin makes it easier for hackers to access your business site. Hence, it is recommendable for you to use reputable and vetted sources with great positive reviews. You should not take a shortcut and download free versions of premium plugins from third parties. The reason is that free versions of plugins from third parties are often modified to include malicious code. It is also essential to ensure that your plugins are regularly updated and can work efficiently with the latest versions of both WordPress and WooCommerce. You can also check the WooCommerce extension library, which offers numerous free and premium extensions. Most top plugins are secure and will help with everything from functionality and design to marketing and store management.
Enforce the use of strong passwords
A weak password can undermine even the most secure setup. Quite often, hackers use bots to execute brute force attacks. They seek to check different combinations of letters, numbers, and symbols to create a password for accessing your business site. The major challenge is that these brute force attacks are usually automated; hence they may keep trying until they access your password.
You should ensure that you and anyone accessing your business website use a strong password that is harder for hackers to crack. To create a strong password, you can follow these tips:
- Ensure an eight characters long password
- Curate a hard to guess combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, symbols, and numbers.
- Avoid using common and predictable words.
- Avoid accessing multiple accounts with similar or same passwords.
Keep your website regularly updated
It is also good to keep your apps and tools updated. Updating the WooCommerce system, WordPress, and Plugins is good in fixing bugs. It does not just add new and upgraded features, it will also patch up security flaws that may be there in your current version of the software. This makes software updates necessary and almost unavoidable if you wish to keep your systems secure.
Limit the number of login attempts
A hacker can try to access your website as many times as possible to try and gain access. It is appropriate to note that a WooCommerce site is seldom run single-handedly. This means that you will inevitably add other users, probably your workers, to the wp-admin dashboard with various roles to execute. While this is necessary, having many users accessing the dashboard increases hackers’ chances of accessing your website admin panel.
You can thwart any attempts to access your data without your express permission by limiting the number of logins attempts into your WordPress dashboard and backend. For example, you may allow authorized users up to three attempts to key in the correct password and username. If they fail to get that right, you may provide an option for resetting the password, and hence, you can manage to authenticate the user.
Tip: You can use a multifactor authentication approach to add a layer of security to your WooCommerce.
Wrap up
Running an online store has become increasingly easy with the evolution of technology. However, it has also posed a great security challenge, as there are many malicious people making attempts to access your business website. Well, take steps to protect your store to avoid attacks that can put you out of business.
