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)

The AtypikLove case study presents a social platform where privacy controls and automated text and image moderation are considered from the design stage.

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.