Are security concerns keeping you from enjoying the flexibility and power of WordPress? If you’ve bought into the hype that WordPress is inherently not secure, then you’re missing out on all the great things WordPress has to offer, for no good reason.

The fact is, while WordPress sites do get hacked, they are no more dangerous than other php-based websites. The problem is that WordPress is open source, which means that anyone can read the code—even people who spend all their time looking for vulnerabilities they can exploit. Couple that with the enormous popularity of WordPress, and it’s easy to see why you hear about hacks on a regular basis.

But that doesn’t mean WordPress is unsafe. By implementing just a few security best practices, you can greatly reduce your risk of being hacked.

This is by far the biggest risk when it comes to security. New vulnerabilities are discovered in WordPress and its plugins and themes on a regular basis, and if your site is out of date, it is at risk. Hackers actively search for outdated websites they can attack, so make it a point to keep your site up to date. That includes plugins, themes, and the WordPress software itself.

Second only to out-of-date installations when it comes to inviting hackers, weak passwords are regularly exploited with a technique called a “brute force” attack. Simply put, a hacker sets a computer program to repeatedly attempt to log into your site using thousands of the most commonly used passwords and what are known as “dictionary” words.

This type of vulnerability can be easily avoided simply by choosing good passwords. Ideally, your passwords should:

Here’s the problem. This type of shared hosting is inexpensive only because they overload their servers with thousands of websites. Just as close proximity in crowded classrooms allows human viruses to quickly spread, close proximity of websites on a shared server means one infected site is a risk to all the others.

Rather than looking for the least expensive (and riskiest) hosting option, choose a host that allows you to isolate each site on its own cPanel. Doing so will greatly improve the security of your website.

WordPress has a vast array of security plugins that can help reduce the risk of your website being hacked. These security plugins offer several features to make your WordPress blog secure from known vulnerabilities.

If you are serious about your growing the visibility of your website, then you need to pay attention to the WordPress security best practices. Think about it this way: if you had a bricks and mortar store, chances are good that you have some kind of security system protecting your business assets. An online business is no different. Your biggest assets when we're talking about an online business is your reputation and your revenue. A hacked WordPress site can cause serious damage both your ​online revenue and your reputation. ​Not only that, but Google blacklists ​websites for malware and ​for phishing each week. ​

​Everyone knows the main threats to an offline business but not many are aware of the need to protect your online presence by​ setting up an auditing and monitoring system that keeps track of everything that happens on your website: ​file integrity monitoring, failed login attempts, malware scanning, etc.

​Whew! Sounds like a lot for one plugin to manage. Thankfully, ​these features are all available in ​the best free WordPress security plugin, Sucuri.

In the end, the safety and security of your site and its data is entirely up to you. Keep your software up to date, use good passwords, and choose a secure hosting environment, and you’ll be well ahead of the curve on this.