• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Fixmysite.com

Fix Your WordPress Website Right Away for $39

  • Services
    • Small Tasks
    • Repair
    • Migration
    • Speed Optimization
    • Malware Removal
    • Redesign
  • My Account
    • My support tickets
    • My billing area
  • Support
  • WordPress Maintenance Plans

WordFence Tutorial: How to Enhance your Website’s Security

Last updated on: November 18, 2019
Written by William Leave a Comment

Tweet Share Network
WordFence Logo

In the brick and mortar world, most businesses take security very seriously. I know that my local gym has CCTV cameras, an alarm system, fire, and theft insurance and employs a security company to check the premises at night. But back in the digital world, we tend to overlook our website’s security.

I understand that WordPress security is a bit of a sensitive topic. The stakes are high, information on the issue is sparse and pretty generic, and it’s also a highly technical – which scares off just about everybody except hardcore developers!

But, don’t worry! In this tutorial, I will show you how you can enhance your website’s security by installing and configuring the WordFence Security and Firewall plugin. The whole ordeal shouldn’t take you longer than 15 minutes. Trust me! It’s time well spent.

At Fixmysite.com, we install WordFence as a security optimization measure as part of our malware removal service. As of 2019, we installed the software on hundreds of websites and counting! It’s also featured as our top malware scanner for WordPress (has been since 2017)!

Before diving into the tutorial, I also want to touch base on why you should install a security plugin and why and how hackers compromise websites.

Your Website is more Valuable than you Think!

So you are probably wondering why on earth would a hacker be interested in my awesome pet manicure store? Well, let me evaluate!

Most hacks occur randomly. There are zillions of bots in the vast expanse of the internet crawling and searching for vulnerable systems. So if you are ever left holding the shorthand of the straw, try not to take it personally. Here are just some of the reasons why a hacker might be interested in your website.

  1. Redirect your traffic. We all know how difficult it is to get eyeballs on to our websites. Imagine if you’re in the pornography or gambling business, that’s twice as hard considering you can’t advertise on most platforms.
  2. Good old SEO. Yep, it’s pretty common for an intruder to drop a few discreet links leveraging your website’s authority.
  3. Phishing (not Fishing) for information. In a phishing attack, the malicious agent will attempt to acquire sensitive information like your users’ login details and credit card information by duping unsuspecting visitors onto a similar-looking site like yours (could be a similar checkout page for instance).

Makes sense, right? So the next question is how do they break in? Without getting into the details, hackers can take advantage of your website by:

  1. Taking advantage of weak passwords. It’s the oldest trick in the book. “1234”, “admin”, “starwars”, “newyork”, “honey”, “mylove” are all examples of horrible passwords.
  2. Exploiting vulnerable code. A WordPress website consists of the WordPress core, plugins and theme. If a vulnerability is discovered, it may be exploited.
  3. Hacking your hosting company. Yep, that’s also possible. Rather than go after individual websites. Hackers can target an entire network of sites by compromising a hosting company (not much you can do in this case).

WordFence to the Rescue!

WordFence is a stunning success! It’s by far the most popular WordPress security plugin. As a matter of fact, with +3 million active installations, it’s one of the most popular WordPress plugins. It’s also FREE!

Here is how WordFence can help improve your website’s security:

  1. Firewall. A web application firewall identifies and blocks malicious traffic.
  2. Malware scanner. The malware scanner checks core files, themes, and plugins for malware, bad URLs, backdoors, SEO spam, malicious redirects and code injections.
  3. Login security. Two-factor authentication (2FA) adds an extra layer of security to the login page.
  4. Other security tools. Other features include real-time traffic monitoring, IP blocking and more goodies!

I hope the brief overview was helpful, now let’s get on with the tutorial and install WordFence!

Install WordFence

Just like with most WordPress plugins, the installation is pretty straight forward.

Open the WP-Admin area, head over to Plugin and Add New. Seach for WordFence and press the Install Now button.

Installing WordFence - Step 1
Installing WordFence – Step 1

Wait for it to install. Once installed, you will be asked to enter your email address. Since WordFence will be sending security reports and updates, I suggest you enter an email address that you use! Agree to their terms and click continue.

Installing WordFence - Step 2
Installing WordFence – Step 2

In the next screen, WordFence will ask you to enter an API key. If you purchased a premium account (more info here), enter it here. But since we’re using the free version in this tutorial, go ahead and click no thank you.

Installing WordFence - Step 3
Installing WordFence – Step 3

Voila! You just installed WordFence, and your site already better off! But now it’s time to get into the nitty-gritty.

Configuring the Firewall

Now things start getting interesting! I’m going to show you how to configure WordFence’s firewall.

By default, the firewall is active. However, WordFence will load as a regular plugin after WordPress has been loaded, and while it can block many malicious requests, some vulnerable plugins or WordPress itself may run vulnerable code.

We want to ensure that WordFence runs before WordPress or any other PHP script is loaded. To do so, we’ll enable “Extended Protection”.

Head over to WordFence > Firewall > All Firewall Options. In the Protection Level box, click the big Optimize the WordFence Firewall button.

Configuring the WordFence firewall - Step 1
Configuring the WordFence firewall – Step 1

A pop-up wizard will appear, download your .htaccess file and click continue. If the installation is a success, the wizard will notify you accordingly.

Configuring the WordFence firewall - Step 2
Configuring the WordFence firewall – Step 2
Configuring the WordFence firewall - Step 3
Configuring the WordFence firewall – Step 3
Extended Protection Enabled
Extended Protection Enabled

Granted, it’s not always soo easy! Sometimes you will have to do a little more work. If you run into trouble, see this article on troubleshooting the WordFence firewall or open a support ticket with us!

For example, in the screenshot below, WordFence is unable to write to the .htaccess file. Changing the file permissions of the .htaccess file to 644 will address the issue.

WordFence - Installation Failed
Installation Failed

Brute Force Protection

Still with me!

Scroll down the page, to the Brute Force Protection tab. Brute Force Protection protects your login page by limiting failed login attempts. In other words, let’s say a bot is trying to figure out your password by trying thousands of passwords, WordFence block will block the IP after a defined number of failed login attempts.

I like to limit the number of attempts to 5 over 4 hours.

You can also immediately lock out invalid usernames (use with caution) and force admins to use strong passwords.

WordFence - Brute Force Protection
WordFence – Brute Force Protection

Rate Limiting

In a similar manner to brute force protection, rate limiting limits, throttles, and blocks excess requests made to your to website.

So if a bot is crawling your website looking for a vulnerable exploit, WordFence can block it after a defined number of requests.

Adjust the settings to match your users’ activity. I like to throttle human activity to roughly 30 pages per minute and I certainly don’t want bots poking around 404 error pages – so I’m stricter with those settings.

WordFence - Rate Limiting
WordFence – Rate Limiting

Now press the Save Changes button in the top right-hand corner of the page, and you’re all set!

Running your First Scan

Straight out the box, the malware scanner rocks! WordFence will check core files, themes, and plugins for malware, bad URLs, backdoors, SEO spam, malicious redirects, and code injections.

To scan your website, visit WordFence > Scan > and press the start new scan button.

WordFence Scan
WordFence Scan

Grab a cup coffee, listen to a song on YouTube, and then get back to the scan page. The results of the scan will be listed below together with their severity.

WordFence Scan Results
WordFence Scan Results

If you believe that your website is hacked, click on the Scan Options and Scheduling icon. By default, the scanner is set to Standard, but you can increase the thoroughness of the scan by setting it to High Sensitivity. Be aware the results may include false positives.

High Sensitivity Scan
High Sensitivity Scan

Help! I just scanned my website and it tells me I have been hacked!

First of all, take it easy! Check out this guide on how to remove malware from WordPress. You can also hire WordFence or a service like ours to fix it for you.

Notification Settings

Handy tip! WordFence loves sending emails. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like security emails (unless it’s important).

To change the notification settings, go to WordFence > All Options > Email Alert Preferences. Adjust the settings according to your preference.

WordFence - Email Alert Preferences
WordFence – Email Alert Preferences

On the same page, I also opt for a monthly report rather than a weekly report.

WordFence - Activity Report
WordFence – Activity Report

Setting up Two-Factor Authentication

Setting up two-factor authentication is super simple!

The only prerequisite is an authenticator app. I use Authy!

In WordFence visit the Login Security page. Scan the QR code with the app, download the recovery code (put them somewhere safe) and press activate. That’s it!

WordFence - Two-factor authentication
WordFence – Two-factor authentication
Two-factor authentication on the WP login page
Two-factor authentication on the WP login page

Two-factor authentication will add an extra verification step should an employee, colleague or thief get a hold of your passwords.

Upgrading to WordFence Premium?

Installing WordFence is free but for $99 per year, you can unlock their premium features.

Is it worth? Well, it certainly doesn’t harm! You can also read more about it on their website.

The main difference between the free and premium versions is that WordFence premium offers real-time protection, while malware signatures and firewall rules in the free version have a 30-day delay.

The premium version offers:

  1. Real-time IP blacklist (Monitors and blocks incoming traffic from blacklisted IPs but also checks if your domain or IP address is blacklisted – more about that topic here)
  2. Real-time firewall rule updates
  3. Real-time malware signature updates

Correctly configured, the free version unquestionably enhances your website’s security. It’s a lot better than having nothing installed. However, if you are looking for support and advanced features (popular with our clients is country blocking), then upgrading is probably the right thing for your business!

The End of a Long Tutorial!

Fixmysite.com MascotYou made it! Congrats on making it to the end. Now that WordFence is installed, your website will be thanking you for taking care of it!

I do want to clarify that a website can still get hacked, even with a perfectly configured firewall. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as 100% secure.

Updating WordPress, your plugins and your theme is just as important! Besides, whenever WordFence discovers an issue it will email you with the details (you’ll want to investigate those).

So that’s it, folks!

If you have any questions about the plugin or WordPress security, please don’t hesitate to ask them in the comment section below.

Tweet Share Network

About William

Hi, I'm William! I'm a website mechanic that specializes in fixing WordPress websites. Whenever I can, I write a D.I.Y. guide to share my research and processes. I hope the articles help, and thanks for reading and comment if you have questions!

Having Trouble ?

WordPress Services

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Search

WordPress Checklists

WordPress PDF Checklist

Curious to find out if everything is working correctly on your website?

Sign up to our newsletter, download our free Performance, Security, and SEO checklists and audit your website!

Recent Guides

Launching our WordPress Care Plan

WordFence Logo

WordFence Tutorial: How to Enhance your Website’s Security

Push Notifications

Top 10 WordPress Push Notification Plugins to Engage with your Audience!

WordPress Migration

11 Best WordPress Migration Plugins

Database Error

Fix the “Error Establishing a Database Connection” in WordPress

Stay Tuned !

Having Trouble ?

WordPress Support

Footer

How Can We Help?

For a free assessment of your website, simply press the big orange button below!

Support

Latest DIY Guides

Launching our WordPress Care Plan

WordFence Tutorial: How to Enhance your Website’s Security

Top 10 WordPress Push Notification Plugins to Engage with your Audience!

11 Best WordPress Migration Plugins

Featured Services

  • Small Tasks
  • Repair
  • Migration
  • Speed Optimization
  • Malware Removal
  • Redesign
  • WordPress Maintenance Plans

Support Hours EST

Mo. to Fri. 8:00 am - 12:00 am
Sat. & Sun. closed

Leave a Message

WhatsApp

Pay with:

PayPal

Click for the BBB Business Review of this Website Maintenance in St Catherines ON

Preferred Support Partner

PayPal
  • Blog
  • Affiliates
  • Join the Team
  • Contact
  • Terms
  • Privacy
  • Cookies

© 2023 Fixmysite.com

Reg. 310643622

Small support agent

Can we send you 3 performance checklists (SEO, Speed, Security) to your inbox? ✅🚀🔒

Yes Please!
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.Ok