How to Secure Your WordPress E-Commerce Website

The road to a secure WordPress ecommerce website does not have to be a long or complicated one. Anyone – regardless of technical skill – can start, manage, own, and protect a successful ecommerce website. A multi-layered security approach helps you minimize risk and ensure that your data and your customers data is safe. 

At Web Pro Geeks, we believe that anyone can secure their site. If you’re not a developer, but own or manage a WordPress ecommerce website, there’s a lot you can do to reduce, and even eliminate, risk. We highly recommend you review our essential guide to cyber security along with this information!

Why use WordPress for Ecommerce?

Because WordPress is so user friendly for beginners and non-developers, it’s an ideal choice for ecommerce sites. Why?

• It’s more cost effective to launch a WordPress site than hiring a developer to build a site from scratch. Hosting and a domain name are your only required up front costs.
• You own and control your WordPress experience – from the code to the front end design.
• WordPress comes with inherent SEO power, as well as incredible SEO tools that help get your store in front of more eyes. 
• WordPress sites are scalable; your store will grow as you do.
• You can integrate nearly any tool you use for your store with WordPress. This includes a wide variety of payment gateways, marketing services, analytics, and more. 

WordPress is the most popular website builder in the world. Its scalability, customization power, and rich community make it a go-to for businesses and creatives all over the world. 

Because of its popularity, it can often be targeted for attacks. WordPress in and of itself is neither secure nor insecure. It’s a tool that is only as secure as you make it. As a result, WordPress companies all over the world have spent over a decade developing trustworthy security tools and methods. However, by implementing some of the tried and true tools and best practices, your WordPress site can be nearly impenetrable. 

Why Ecommerce Security is Important

A site’s risk is only as large as what could be lost if there is a breach. If you have a site that doesn’t take in a lot of data or isn’t used by many people, security probably isn’t a big deal. But if you have a store that processes the money that keeps your business running and takes in personal information about customers, the risk is potentially enormous. 

Your site needs to be secure in order to keep customer data out of the hands of hackers and bots. Not just credit card data, but names, addresses, and emails can be leaked if your site isn’t secure. You need to place a premium on maintaining customer trust if you’re asking them to hand over sensitive data. 

Regardless of where you are in the world, you need to be aware of the protection and privacy laws and regulations that affect your store. Many countries and regions have their own unique ecommerce regulations. Strong security habits will help you comply and avoid legal action.

If your site is breached, it could severely damage your business reputation and dissuade people from buying from you in the future. These days, shoppers are very particular about where they do and don’t shop online. Online buying is more popular than ever. People want to know they’re using a secure platform and not walking into a scam.  

Simply put, a site at risk loses you money, directly or indirectly. If you plan to launch an ecommerce store, security needs to be paramount. 

Best Practices for a Secure WordPress Ecommerce Website

Time to dive into what you can do in order to secure your WordPress ecommerce website. Website security can be broken into two main tasks: one-time tasks and on-going tasks. We’ll start with the former. 

Choose a Secure Website Hosting Provider

The environment in which your website files live has a significant impact on their security. Web hosting is one of those “you get what you pay for” situations. Research hosting thoroughly before buying. It’s worth it to allocate a portion of your budget to secure optimum hosting from the beginning. 

Implement SSL Encryption on all Pages 

An SSL encryption ensures a high degree of privacy by encrypting data that is sent over the web. It helps make sure that a website is secure on a page-by-page basis. In many instances, it is impossible to accept payments through a site that isn’t using an SSL certificate. So set one up before you begin building your store.

Create Secure User Accounts 

Think of user accounts like copies of keys to your house. It’s okay to hand out a few. But you don’t want them laying around all over the place. Create one administrator account using a very secure password. If anyone else on your team needs access to the website, create an account for them that uses another role. Admins have full access and control over the site. If you minimize the amount of access your key-holders have, it’s less likely that a breach can occur.

Learn About Ecommerce Website Compliance 

When you comply with data privacy regulations, you do your part to protect sensitive information and prevent breaches. Here are some of the key areas of ecommerce compliance you should be aware of:

• GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
• CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act)
• Cancellation Rights
• ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act)
• Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS)
• Cookie Compliance 

If you’re using a 3rd party payment processor like Stripe or PayPal, and if you are utilizing a web privacy service like Termageddon, there aren’t many steps you’ll need to take in order to be compliant. But you need to be aware of the ways in which you could open yourself up to breaches and potential lawsuits.

Only Use Safe Payment Gateways

When using WordPress for ecommerce, it’s very likely you’ll use a tool like WooCommerce. This plugin gives you the tools you need to build a site, manage inventory and customers, and create reports. But it does not actually process payments. It connects with a payment gateway to accomplish that. Popular payment gateways in the U.S. include Stripe and PayPal. There are others that are popular in other parts of the world. Make sure you’re using a reputable payment gateway that has a history of being well-rated and secure. 

Set up Firewalls and Security Monitoring 

There are dozens of tools you can use with WordPress to create free or low cost security firewalls, as well as security scans and monitors. Our favorite is WordFence. You can use it for free, or upgrade to a paid version. Firewalls block attacks and give you updates when a threat is detected. 

Once your site is set up and launched, here are a few things you can do to ensure that your hard work remains safe and secure.

Update Your WordPress Software 

Once a week or once a month, log in to your WordPress website and look for updates. On a regular basis, new versions of plugins, themes, and WordPress core will become available. They can potentially include security patches. Even if they don’t, an out of date piece of software can sometimes act as a hole in your site. They create vulnerabilities that are havens for hackers, bots, and other threats. 

Backup Your Data Regularly 

Taking a backup of your site files and database should be a regular habit. Some ecommerce sites take backups dynamically after each and every sale. That way you never lose any data if something goes wrong. However if you’re just starting out and not getting thousands of sales a day, taking weekly backups is just fine.

Check Your Monitoring Tools 

If you’re using WordFence or another malware tool, check it regularly. You want to ensure that it’s working properly, but also observe any potential spikes or attempted attacks. Think of it like checking the security cameras around your home. Being even passively aware of any potential threats helps you evaluate the success of your security tools.

Change Your User Account Passwords

Every 6 months, change the passwords for all of your accounts. This doesn’t just go for your WordPress login account. Change the passwords for your hosting account, your payment gateway, and any other account tied to your ecommerce store.

Educate Yourself and Your Team

Make yourself an expert. It won’t happen overnight. But, make it a habit to review blogs and announcements from companies like WordFence and Patchstack. Make sure you’re aware when a new WordPress version is coming out. Being aware of big vulnerabilities or upcoming shifts in software can mean getting ahead of the game. 

In Summary: Have a Plan

No one wants to have to stop what they’re doing to react to a site breach, hack, or crash. If your site has ever been compromised, you know how stressful it can be. The repercussions can be detrimental to your ecommerce business. 

The primary way to prevent this is to be proactive rather than reactive. Develop a regular plan that gives you time to focus on site security. This means taking a day out of the month to review your updates, backups, firewall, malware scans, user accounts, etc. Read up on the latest big vulnerabilities and changes in the WordPress world. It’s much less stressful to prevent a hack then try to fix one. 
Take things one step further and partner with an experienced team who can take care of securing your WordPress ecommerce website for you.  If your ecommerce website isn’t actively being monitored and protected, get in touch with us to see how we can take that stressor off your plate.