How to Log into Your WordPress Site Safely

After you have finished installing WordPress, you can access your dashboard. The "WordPress Dashboard," or admin section of WordPress, is where you will start building your WordPress site. Please keep in mind that unless you set them up as the same, your login credentials are not the same as your cPanel username and password.

This post includes:

• Secure Your WordPress Login Page
• Choose a Good Administrator Username
• Use a Strong Password
• Implement a reCaptcha
• Use Two-factor Authentication (2FA)
• Change your Login URL
• Limit the Number of Login Attempts
• Automatically Log Out Idle Users in WordPress
• Steps to Login to WordPress
• Conclusion

Secure Your WordPress Login Page

There is no single technique for protecting your login page, but there are steps you can take and free security plugins you can install to make any attacks far less likely to succeed.

Your website's login page is undoubtedly one of the most vulnerable pages on your site, so let's get started on making your WordPress site login page a little more secure.

Choose a Good Administrator Username

Make use of unusual usernames. Previously, you had to start with a default admin username with WordPress, but that is no longer the case. Nonetheless, most new web administrators use the default username and must change it. To change your admin username, use Admin Renamer Extended.

One of the most common types of web attacks on your website is brute forcing login pages. If you use an easy-to-guess password or username, your website will almost certainly become a victim rather than just a target. Most site hacking attempts, in our experience, attempt to log in using one of three different usernames. The first two are always 'admin' or 'administrator,' and the third is usually determined by your domain name.

For example, if your website is funkymonkey33.com, the hacker may attempt to log in using the username 'funkymonkey33.'

Use a Strong Password

You'd think that by now, people would know to use strong, complex passwords to protect their accounts, but many still think 'password' is a good one.

A strong password will contain a combination of:

• Upper and Lower capitalized characters
• Be alphanumeric (A-Z and a-z)
• Include a special character (!,@,#,$, etc)
• At least 8 characters in length

The more unpredictable your password, the more secure it will be. If you're having trouble coming up with a password, try this random password generator.

Implement a reCaptcha

reCaptcha was created to prevent automated tools from accessing a website. Of course, given the complexity of today's hacking tools, these can be easily circumvented, but at least there is that extra layer of security.

You can use a number of reCaptcha plugins with your installation that will work almost immediately.

Use Two-factor Authentication (2FA)

2FA is an authentication method that requires you to verify your login. For example, after you've logged in with your username and password, the system may send you an SMS or email with a code you must enter to verify your identity.

This authentication method provides adequate security and is used by many banks and financial institutions today. Again, a 2FA plugin can easily meet this requirement.

Change your Login URL

The majority of hackers will try to log in via the default WordPress login page, which is usually something like example.com/wp-admin.

To add another layer of security, use a tool like WPS Hide Login to quickly and easily change the login page URL.

Limit the Number of Login Attempts

This is one incredibly simple technique to stop brute force attacks on your login page right in its tracks. A brute force attack works by attempting to get your username and password right by trying multiple combinations over and over.

If the particular IP which is perpetrating the attack is tracked, then you can block out the repeated brute forcing attempts and keep your site secure. This is also why global DDOS attacks occur with multiple IP addresses with different origins of the attack, to throw hosting services and website security off guard.

Login LockDown offers great solutions to protect your website's login pages. It tracks IP addresses and limits the number of login attempts to protect your website.

Automatically Log Out Idle Users in WordPress

Logged-in users may occasionally wander away from the screen, posing a security risk. Someone else can take over their session, change their passwords, or make changes to their account.

This is why many banking and financial websites log out inactive users. You can add similar functionality to your WordPress site.

You will need to install and activate the Inactive Logout plugin. Upon activation, visit Settings → Inactive Logout page to configure plugin settings.

Simply set the time duration and add a logout message. Don’t forget to click on the save changes button to store your settings.

Steps to Login to WordPress

To access the WordPress dashboard, simply add /wp-admin to the end of the URL where WordPress was installed. As an example:

example.com/wp-admin

Enter the username and password you used to install WordPress. Please keep in mind that your WordPress login is distinct from your cPanel login.

Once you log in, you will see the WordPress dashboard.

If you installed WordPress on a new domain or a domain that has not yet been pointed to your Hosting account, you would be unable to access the dashboard until you point the domain to our servers or the DNS changes take effect. Until then, you can still Access the WordPress Installation With a Temporary URL.

Can't access your WordPress admin? There are several possible causes for errors when attempting to access your WordPress dashboard. We'll go over a few of the most common.

This error occurs because there have been too many failed logins on your dashboard. To prevent your site from being compromised by WordPress brute force attacks, our automated systems have disabled your WordPress admin. We recommend that you increase the security measures on your WordPress site to resolve this issue.

Furthermore, users frequently forget their passwords, necessitating a password reset.

Conclusion

We hope this post was informative and provided the information you were looking for. Logging into the site may appear to be simple at first glance, but it can also be a WordPress site's weakest link. When it comes to your online WordPress website, you can never be too safe.

Related articles

---

• How to Clean Your WordPress Site after Getting Hacked
• How to Manage WordPress Widgets
• How to Get Image URLs in WordPress
• How to Fix Image Upload Issue in WordPress
• How to Make Sticky Posts in WordPress