If you have a WordPress blog, then you have probably thought about securing and protecting your blog. I have read about many instances where someone has lost their blog because it was hacked. In some of the cases, the owner of the blog had to start over because they didn’t have a backup. Protecting your blog is just as important as protecting your computer.
For the past few months I have been learning about securing a WordPress blog, and have implemented many changes into Technically Easy to help keep it secure. At the same time I have also began using plugins that will help protect it from potential deadly visitors, as well as ensure that if something does happen, I won’t lose everything. In this post I will look at a few plugins that I use to protect my WordPress blog.
Protective WordPress Plugins
While there are many changes that can be made outside your WordPress blog, there are also a few plugins that you can use to help make things easier for you. When it comes to securing your blog, it can become very technical at times, however, with the plugins listed below, you don’t need to be too technical to protect your blog.
- Akismet
- This plugin is probably the most popular plugin used to prevent comment spam. It is included with the WordPress package, so it is available without downloading. It does require a WordPress.com API key, which you can get for free by signing up with WordPress.com. It isn’t perfect, but I have found it to be very good. I do, however, check my comment spam to ensure there are no false positives, but overall I get very little comment spam.
- Bad Behavior
- This plugin is not as well known as Akismet, but it is very powerful for stopping link spam by acting as a gatekeeper for your blog. It does this by doing more than just analyzing the content of the spam. Bad Behavior analyzes the delivery method and software being used by the spammer. All potential spammers are then logged, including their IP address, so you can see more information about who is potentially trying to spam your site. I have had one issue with this plugin, however, where it blocked my work from accessing my blog, or have had a few people being blocked. Overall, I have found this plugin to be very useful.
- WP-DBManager
- I have written about the WP-DBManager plugin in the past, and am still using it with great success. Backing up your WordPress database is a must if you want to protect your blog. This plugin will allow you to automatically schedule the backup and then e-mail you the backup file. This plugin backs up and optimizes my WordPress database each morning, and then sends it to my e-mail account. The e-mail account is not associated with Technically Easy, just in case something were to happen to my domain.
- WP Security Scan
- I haven’t used this plugin for very long, but decided to give it a try since I have heard good things about it. It basically analyzes your WordPress blog and informs you of any possible security issues. It also includes the ability of changing the prefix of your WordPress tables for even more security.
The above plugins help me manage, secure, and protect my WordPress blog. There are probably many other plugins that can be used to secure your blog, and I’ll be interested in hearing what you use to secure your blog.
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