Securing your website: best practices

Website security is not just a technical detail – it is a trust contract with your visitors and clients.

In this article, I summarise the main good practices I apply on my own projects and those of my clients.

The main risks

Depending on your stack and exposure, a vulnerable site can lead to:

• Compromised data (contact details, orders, messages…)
• Malicious redirections or injected content
• Spam and phishing using your domain
• Blacklisting by browsers or search engines

Essential security measures

Keep your stack up to date

Whether you use WordPress or a custom stack, you should:

• Regularly update dependencies and plugins
• Monitor security advisories for your framework
• Remove unused components

Use HTTPS everywhere

• Install and renew TLS certificates (Let’s Encrypt or provider)
• Redirect HTTP to HTTPS
• Use secure cookies, especially for authentication

Harden authentication

• Use strong, unique passwords
• Enable 2‑factor authentication where possible
• Limit login attempts and protect admin areas

Backups and monitoring

• Regular automated backups (files and database)
• Easy restore procedures tested in advance
• Monitoring to detect anomalies (traffic spikes, errors…)

Security by design in my projects

In the websites I build, security is considered from day one:

• Choice of reliable, battle‑tested tools
• Minimal necessary privileges for services and accounts
• Clear separation between environments (development, staging, production)

If you want to audit or reinforce the security of your current site, or start a new project on solid foundations, you can contact me via the contact section.