We made Hide My WP Ghost compatible with Godaddy and with some minor settings your website is secure.
First, make sure you don’t use the Godaddy CDN service to avoid any style loading issue. We recommend you to use external CDN services if you need CDN for your website.
To switch off the Godaddy CDN service, go to Godaddy > Managed WordPress > Overview
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Update! Since Hide My WP Ghost 5 we added the IP filter in XML-RPC to let apps like Zapier and Aliexpress to access the website xml-rpx.php and block the hackers.
Everybody knows that Zapier is a great tool when you need to create automated tasks on your WordPress site or to trigger an action when you create new posts or pages
We recently tested Zapier to create new posts in WordPress while Hide My WP Ghost plugin is activated.
We noticed that Zapier needs the xml-rpc.php file access to work properly and we switched off the option Hide My WP > Change Paths > API Security > Disable XML-RPC access. With this option off we were able to create and promote our posts on Social Media.
Having this option OFF it’s not safe for your website. Many brute force attacks are made through this URL. Sometimes you need to make compromises in order to prevent functionality issues.
The Advanced Access Manager is a great plugin which lets you customize the users rights when it comes to access the backend of your website.
It’s also a good security plugin which protects your personal information when you want to limit the access to developers who sometimes have to work on your live website.
We tested Hide My WP Ghost together with AAM plugin and we noticed that with small adjustments, the two plugins are working beautifully together.
(more…)Are you looking to move WordPress from HTTP to HTTPS and install an SSL certificate on your website? We have been getting a lot of requests on this topic because Google announced that Chrome browser will start marking all websites without SSL as insecure starting July 2018. In this article, we will show you how to properly move WordPress from HTTP to HTTPs by adding a SSL certificate.
Don’t worry, if you have no idea what SSL or HTTPS is. We’re going to explain that as well.
HTTPS or Secure HTTP is an encryption method that secures the connection between users’ browser and your server. This makes it harder for hackers to eavesdrop on the connection.
Every day we share our personal information with different websites whether it’s making a purchase or simply logging in.
In order to protect the data transfer, a secure connection needs to be created.
That’s when SSL and HTTPS come in.
Each site is issued a unique SSL certificate for identification purposes. If a server is pretending to be on HTTPS, and its certificate doesn’t match, then most modern browsers will warn the user from connecting to the website.
Now you are probably wondering, why do I need to move my WordPress site from HTTP to HTTPS especially if it’s a simple blog or small business website that doesn’t collect any payments.
Last year Google announced a plan to improve overall web security by encouraging website owners to make the switch from HTTP to HTTPS. As part of this plan, their popular Chrome web browser would mark all websites without an SSL certificate as “Not Secure” starting July 2018.
As part of the announcement, Google also said that websites with SSL will also see SEO benefits and higher rankings. Since last year, a large number of websites have switched from HTTP to HTTPS.
Google has been slowly rolling out the “Not Secure” warning in Chrome. For example, if someone visits a HTTP website using the incognito window, it will be marked as Not Secure. If someone visits a HTTP website on regular mode and tries to fill out a contact form or another form, then the website will be marked as insecure.
When your readers and customers see this notice, it gives them a bad impression for your business.
This is why all websites need to move form HTTP to HTTPS and install SSL immediately.
Not to mention, if you want to accept payments online on your eCommerce website, then you need SSL.
Most payment companies like Stripe, PayPal Pro, Authorize.net, etc will require you to have a secure connection before accepting payments.
We use SSL for our websites including WPBeginner, OptinMonster, WPForms, and MonsterInsights.
The requirements for using SSL in WordPress is not very high. All you need to do is purchase an SSL certificate, and you might already have it for free.
The best WordPress hosting companies are offering free SSL certificates for all their users:
For more details, see our guide on how to get a free SSL certificate for your WordPress website.
If your hosting company does not offer a free SSL certificate, then you’ll need to purchase an SSL certificate.
We recommend using Domain.com because they offer the best SSL deal for both regular and wildcard SSL certificates.
By purchasing a SSL certificate from them, you also get a TrustLogo site seal for your website, and each SSL certificate comes with a minimum of $10,000 security warranty.
Once you have purchased an SSL certificate, you will need to ask your hosting provider to install it for you.
After you have enabled SSL certificate on your domain name, you will need to set up WordPress to use SSL and HTTPs protocols on your website.
We will show you two methods to do that, and you can choose one that best fits your need.
This method is easier and is recommended for beginners.
First, you need to install and activate the Really Simple SSL plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you need to visit Settings » SSL page. The plugin will automatically detect your SSL certificate, and it will set up your WordPress site to use HTTPs.
The plugin will take care of everything including the mixed content errors. Here’s what the plugin does behind the scenes:
Note: The plugin attempts to fix mixed content errors by using output buffering technique. It can have a negative performance impact because it’s replacing content on the site as the page is being loaded. This impact is only seen on first-page load, and it should be minimal if you are using a caching plugin.
While the plugin says you can keep SSL and safely deactivate the plugin, it’s not 100% true. You will have to leave the plugin active at all times because deactivating the plugin will bring back mixed content errors.
This method requires you to troubleshoot issues manually and edit WordPress files. However this is a permanent and more performance optimized solution. This is what we’re using on WPBeginner.
If you find this method difficult, then you can hire a WordPress developer or use the first method instead.
As part of this method, you may need to edit WordPress theme and code files. If you haven’t done this before, then see our guide on how to copy and paste code snippets in WordPress.
First, you need to visit Settings » General page. From here you need to update your WordPress and site URL address fields by replacing http with https.
Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save changes’ button to store your settings.
Once the settings are saved, WordPress will log you out, and you will be asked to re-login.
Next, you need to set up WordPress redirects from HTTP to HTTPS by adding the following code to your .htaccess file.
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>RewriteEngine OnRewriteCond %{HTTPS} offRewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]</IfModule> |
If you are on nginx servers (most users are not), then you would need to add the following code to redirect from HTTP to HTTPS in your configuration file:
server {listen 80;server_name example.com www.example.com;return 301 https://example.com$request_uri;} |
Don’t forget to replace example.com with your own domain name.
By following these steps, you will avoid the WordPress HTTPS not working error because WordPress will now load your entire website using https.
If you want to force SSL and HTTPS on your WordPress admin area or login pages, then you need to configure SSL in the wp-config.php file.
Simply add the following code above the “That’s all, stop editing!” line in your wp-config.php file:
define('FORCE_SSL_ADMIN', true); |
This line allows WordPress to force SSL / HTTPs in WordPress admin area. It also works on WordPress multisite networks.
Once you do this, your website is now fully setup to use SSL / HTTPS, but you will still encounter mixed content errors.
These errors are caused by sources (images, scripts, or stylesheets) that are still loading using the insecure HTTP protocol in the URLs. If that is the case, then you will not be able to see a secure padlock icon in your website’s address bar.
Many modern browsers will automatically block unsafe scripts and resources. You may see a padlock icon but with a notification about it in your browser’s address bar.
You can find out which content is served through insecure protocol by using the Inspect tool. The mixed content error will be displayed as a warning in the console with details for each mixed content item.
You will notice that most URLs are images, iframes, and image galleries while some are scripts and stylesheets loaded by your WordPress plugins and themes.
Fixing Mixed Content in WordPress Database
Majority of the incorrect URLs will be images, files, embeds, and other data stored in your WordPress database. Let’s fix them first.
All what you need to do is find all mentions of your old website URL in the database that started with http and replace it with your new website URL that starts with https.
You can easily do this by installing and activating the Better Search Replace plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you need to visit Tools » Better Search Replace page. Under the ‘Search’ field, you need to add your website URL with http. After that, add your website URL with https under the ‘Replace’ field.
Below that, you will see all your WordPress database tables. You need to select all of them to run a thorough check.
Lastly, you need to uncheck the box next to ‘Run as dry run?’ option, and then click on ‘Run Search/Replace’ button.
The plugin will now search your WordPress database for URLs starting with http and will replace them with secure https URLs. It may take a while depending on your WordPress database size.
Fixing Mixed Content Errors in WordPress Theme
Another common culprit causing mixed content error is your WordPress theme. Any decent WordPress theme following WordPress coding standards will not cause this issue.
First, you will need to use your browser’s Inspect tool to find the resources and where they are loading from.
After that, you will need to find them in your WordPress theme and replace them with https. This will be a little difficult for most beginners, as you will not be able to see which theme files contain these URLs.
Fixing Mixed Content Errors Caused by Plugins
Some mixed content resources will be loaded by WordPress plugins. Any WordPress plugin following WordPress coding standards will not cause mixed content errors.
We don’t recommend editing WordPress plugin files. Instead, you need to reach out to the plugin author and let them know. If they do not respond or are unable to fix it, then you need to find a suitable alternate.
Note: If for some reason, you’re still encountering mixed content error, then we recommend using the Really Simple SSL plugin temporarily, so your users are not impacted while you fix the issue on a staging website or hire a developer.
Search engines like Google consider https and http as two different websites. This means you will need to let Google know that your website has moved to avoid any SEO issues.
To do that, you just need to go to your Google Search Console account and click on ‘Add a Property’ button.
This will bring up a popup where you need to add your website’s new https address.
After that, Google will ask you to verify ownership of your website. There are several ways to do that, select any method and you will instructions to verify your site.
Once your site is verified, Google will start showing your search console reports here.
You also need to make sure that both the https and http versions are added in your Search Console.
This tells Google that you want the https version of your website to be treated as the primary version. Combined with the 301 redirects that you setup earlier, Google will transfer your search rankings to the https version of your website, and you will most likely see improvements in your search rankings.
We know that we did when switched our websites from http to https.
We hope this article helped you add HTTPS and SSL in WordPress. You may also want to see our ultimate WordPress security guide with step by step instructions to keep your WordPress site secure.
Source: https://www.wpbeginner.com
DNS prefetching is an attempt to resolve domain names before a user tries to follow a link. This is done using the computer’s normal DNS resolution mechanism.
The main reason for rel=dns-prefetch to exist is to speed up the way web pages load when they are using different domains for page resources. This process is often called “DNS prefetching“.
The WordPress link looks like this:
<link rel='dns-prefetch' href='//s.w.org' />
To remove the DNS-Prefetch link from WordPress wp_head hook is not very hard.
You can add the following code to your functions.php to remove DNS-Prefetch link from your header:
add_action( 'init', 'remove_dns_prefetch' );
function remove_dns_prefetch () {
remove_action( 'wp_head', 'wp_resource_hints', 2, 99 );
} Generator META is usually used to point to the authors of the services used inside a website. Lately, more and more WordPress plugins authors are adding their generator METAs in source-code.
The WordPress generator meta looks like this:
<meta name="generator" content="WordPress 5.*.*" />
To remove the Generator META from WordPress you can install a free plugin like Hide My WP Ghost and activate the Hide WordPress Version option.
The plugin will also remove:
If WPPlugins founds any security issues, it means that your WordPress CMS is easily detectable, which leaves your site exposed to hackers.
If you don’t act NOW, it’s very likely that hacker bots will manage to break into your website sooner or later. If they do, they usually remove the website content entirely and steal your database information.
The loss and recovery costs can be … oh well … you do the math.
Below you will find more details and solutions for each security breach WPPlugins may uncover for your site.
(more…)You can customize the database permission if the server allows this.
For WordPress website, you can leave only the following permissions enabled:
Follow the pictures:
2. In the “Privileges” tab which list your users click the “Edit Privileges” of the user.
Then select the database:
After that specific the privileges by checking them and then select your table as shown in the picture:
After you select your table, you can define the operations in detailed:
If you followed all the Hide My WP Ghost indications, probably it’s a .htaccess file issue.
Please check the .htaccess file and look for
# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress(more…)If you have a sharing hosting service, you can follow this tutorial and use only the features that don’t need rewrite rules in nginx.conf file:
https://hidemywpghost.com/how-to-use-hide-my-wp-ghost-with-nginx-hosting-without-editing-config-files/
Please follow this tutorial step by step to set up the Hide My WP Ghost for Nginx server:
If your server is a Linux server, the main path to the nginx.conf file is /etc/nginx/nginx.conf (or /etc/nginx/conf/nginx.conf if you’re using Arch Linux). If the server is a Windows server your nginx.conf file will be located at C:/nginx/conf/nginx.conf)
If your nginx doesn’t have sites-enabled option activated (check for sites-enabled subdirectory in the same directory with nginx.conf file), you will find the server configuration in nginx.conf file like in the below example:
server {
server_name [your domain name];
root [path to the website root];
index index.php;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
}
}(more…)Step1: Install, Setup Hide My WP Ghost Plugin and click the Save button with the new paths.
Step2: Copy the rewrite rules from Hide My WP Ghost into Bitnamy config file
Bitnami uses “htaccess.conf” files by default instead of “.htaccess” files for security and performance reasons. You can find more info at https://docs.bitnami.com/general/apps/redmine/administration/use-htaccess/
(more…)Setting Hide My Wp Ghost on a Nginx server it’s pretty easy.
Nginx stores its configuration files in the “/etc/nginx” directory.
Inside of this directory, you will find a few directories and various modular configuration files:
cd /etc/nginx ls -F(more…)
If you want to create a login based website and you need to redirect all your visitors to login page, please add this code in your theme’s functions.php file.
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