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Security is important on all websites, but it’s especially vital for sites that handle sensitive customer information. If you’re running an affiliate site, for example, you’ll need to make sure it has up-to-date protection at all times. This will help prevent successful attacks on your business.
Fortunately, WordPress is an inherently secure platform. However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t make it even stronger. There are plenty of security plugins available that you can use to improve your site’s defenses, and to keep you and your customers safe.
In this article, we’ll discuss the importance of security and explore how it affects your affiliate marketing program. We’ll also outline a few of the top security plugins at your disposal, and discuss their key features. Let’s get started!
Why You Need to Secure Your Affiliate Website
A major reason why WordPress is such a popular and trusted platform is its inherent security. If you keep your site updated with the latest features, you can stay safe from most attacks and threats. However, that doesn't mean that you can't strengthen your site even more.
If you're running an affiliate website that handles personal data and contact details, it's even more important that you do everything you can to make sure it's safe. Otherwise, you're at risk for becoming the victim of automated brute force attacks, which can cause your site to go down for long periods of time. Even worse, you may lose your users' data, or inadvertently infect them with malware.
It goes without saying that this could be a huge personal and financial disaster for your site. Therefore, you'll want to do everything you can to avoid these scenarios. Fortunately, there are plenty of plugins available that can help you make your affiliate site more secure.
3 WordPress Security Plugins for Your Affiliate Website
Now that we've covered the importance of website security, let's look at some of the best options available for making your site more resistant to the majority of malicious hackers and bots.
1. Sucuri Security
The Sucuri Security plugin is an excellent, free option that hardens your WordPress site in a number of ways. It enables you to check the integrity of your site and its files, track all security-related activity, and scan your site for malware. Sucuri also provides excellent activity monitoring, helping you quickly track and prevent suspicious behavior. If the plugin discovers a security issue with your site, it will use notifications to inform you.
Key Features:
- Inspects your WordPress installation to locate issues in your files and directories.
- Offers security activity monitoring.
- Scans your site for malware.
- Provides notifications about security issues.
Pricing: The base plugin is free. Sucuri also offers several premium plans with additional features, starting at $9.99 per month.
2. Wordfence
Wordfence is the most popular WordPress security plugin available, with over two million current installations. It's not hard to see why, as it's a complete security solution for your site. Most importantly, Wordfence contains a Web Application Firewall (WAF), which is one of the most important security features for any affiliate website. It blocks malicious traffic, protects against brute force attacks, and scans your site for malware. Wordfence also enables you to track any hacking attempts made on your site, so you can spot potential weaknesses and address them quickly.
Key Features:
- Includes a Web Application Firewall (WAF).
- Scans your site for malware, back doors, and so on.
- Checks your site's core files for integrity issues and security vulnerabilities.
- Enables you to block users.
Pricing: The Wordfence plugin is free, but it also offers a premium license with extended functionality that starts at $99 per year.
3. All In One WP Security & Firewall
All In One WP Security & Firewall provides a comprehensive security solution for your website that's easy to use. It's also completely free, which means you don't need a premium license to unlock all of its features. This plugin includes many options that are especially useful to affiliate website owners, such as improved user account security. It can also help you locate and delete suspicious user accounts, in order to stop hackers from gaining entry to your back end.
Key Features:
- Includes advanced user account and registration security features.
- Adds firewall protection to your site.
- Enables you to automatically create database backups.
- Provides email notifications when a potential security issue occurs.
Pricing: The All In One WP Security & Firewall plugin is 100% free, with no additional licenses or premium plans.
Conclusion
For the owner of an affiliate site, security needs to be a top priority. Since you're handling sensitive information about your users, you need to make sure they can trust you. If not, they won’t remain your users for long. Fortunately, WordPress offers plenty of opportunities to create a strong, secure affiliate website.
In this post, we’ve discussed how you can enhance your affiliate site’s security with some of the best WordPress plugins available. These include:
- Sucuri Security: A solid security solution that scans your site for vulnerabilities and enables you to track suspicious activity.
- Wordfence: The most popular WordPress security plugin, with a strong firewall and comprehensive security features.
- All In One WP Security & Firewall: An excellent free alternative that helps you secure user accounts and the registration process.
Do you have any questions about increasing security on your affiliate website? Let us know in the comments section below!
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Wonderful job! Thank you very much for this article. I also want to suggest you to try User Activity Log. This plugin helps to monitor all users activity in your website. Also you can get notified if any selected user logged in at the admin area. For more info visit: https://goo.gl/bMzqd3