We love designing great websites for our clients. But even more than that, we love being able to reassure our clients that we’ve done everything we can to make sure their new websites are safe, secure, and backed up before we hand them over. Frequently, they ask us how we go about adding security and protection to our webdesigns. In fact, we have had to answer this question so often we figured we’d just post about for everyone to see.

We’ve put together a list of our five favourite WordPress plugins designed to give you peace of mind when it comes to protecting your website against vulnerabilities.

We know that around 20% of websites are powered and designed using WordPress. That’s a huge number of websites and much of WordPress’s popularity is due to the sheer simplicity of the platform and its user friendly interface. Being largely a plug and play content management system that’s versatile and intuitive makes it much more accessible to non-developers and technophobes than any other system.

But like every other system out there WordPress is also vulnerable to attacks. So how do you improve security and protection on your WordPress website?

If you’re a code-nerd then it’s easy. Code-nerds know how to, and where to, add script so that they are less open to attack. But for those who have limited or no knowledge of code, or awareness of the default settings on their WordPress site, security threats are a very real concern.

WordPress take their security very seriously and they work hard to protect their platform as much as possible. Their frequent software updates are designed to give your site the most up to date protection available. So the first thing you should always do on your own website is ensure your installation and plugins are always up to date.

But it’s also worth going the extra mile to protect yourself against accidents and more aggressive attacks that know how to worm their way into your site’s source code. Check out our favourite security and protection plugins for giving your WordPress website some added armour to fight off evil bot invasions.

1. Wordfence Security

Once you install the Wordfence Plugin it will begin by checking all your source code to make sure you don’t already have an infection. Wordfence performs a whole host of security measures that include scanning your theme, your source files, and your posts and pages. As a free plugin it is well worth installing but if you do decide to become a premium member you’ll get oodles of extra support. Oh, a super added bonus is that Wordfence’s cache dumper can make your site up to 50 times faster!

2. iThemes Security

iThemes offer over 30 ways of making your site more secure and it’s packed with good features like hiding WordPress vulnerabilities from prying bot-eyes, reporting changes to your files and database as well as changing default URLs. It even regularly backs up your site just in case you ever crash and burn.

3. BulletProof Security

This bad boy is all about protecting your core files. Bulletproof Security prevents hackers and other nasties from ever reaching your data or your log files. But don’t worry they have made it all achievable through your WordPress admin panel so you won’t have to go rooting around in code filled folders.

4. Backup Buddy (Subscription required)

Now this is the plugin of plugins. If you don’t have Backup Buddy already installed on your WordPress site then you’re asking for trouble. Hackers, bad links, ugly errors, and even mistakes can crash your website. Without some kind of backup you’re left with the torment of having to rebuild. With Backup Buddy safely installed you won’t have to worry. All your data will be tucked away waiting to save the day. Even if nothing ever happens to your website, Backup Buddy is mighty handy because it makes things like moving your site to a new hosting provider so much                                                          easier.

5. Vaultpress (Subscription Required)

Vaultpress is another good backup plugin that offers real-time backup, automated security scanning, and support. This plugin offers to back up every post, comment, media file, revision and dashboard setting on their servers. That way you’ll never have to worry about the consequences of crashes or invasions.

So there it is, our favourite stay-safe WordPress Plugins. Don’t say we didn’t warn you!