How to Properly Manage User Accounts For Your Business Website

You can’t afford to have a security issue on your website. Close to 43% of security breaches target small businesses and they can cost around $200,000.

You still need to open up access to the back end of your website and set up user accounts. Developers need access to maintain the site, writers and marketers need to update pages. Members need access to the content they already paid for.

How can you keep your site secure and open up access at the same time? Keep reading to discover how to set up user accounts for your website.

Decide Who Needs Access

The primary question you need to ask yourself is who needs access to the backend of your website? Then decide how much access they need.

You need to keep this list as small as possible. When you increase the number of people with backend access, the risk of an attack increases as well.

Content management systems like WordPress have different roles that you can assign to users. You can limit how much information and access they can have so they can’t bring down your site.

An administrator has complete control over the website. This should be limited to you and your developer.

Editors can create and publish posts that other users submit. Those with author access can write and publish only their own content.

Contributors have the ability to write content for your site, but they have to be approved by an editor.

Subscribers only have access to their own profiles. They can’t see any other functions on the backend of your site.

If you have a membership site, there are plugins that have access restrictions for members and non-members.

Require Strong Passwords

Weak user passwords were the cause of 30% of all hacks and breaches in 2019. That makes it incredibly important to require users to use strong passwords.

When you have strong passwords created by a password generator, it’s very likely that users will forget the password or not save them in a password manager.

You don’t want users to constantly bother you or your IT staff to reset passwords. Instead, adopt some of these best practices for a self service password reset.

Monitor User Activity

Once you have your user accounts set up, monitor their activity. If you use WordPress, you can install WP Activity Log to see who logs in and from where.

This helps you see if hackers access your site using someone else’s credentials.

Create a Secure Policy for User Accounts

It’s more important than ever to keep your website safe and secure. You also need to have other people access your site to help you manage the site.

When you have strong protocols for user accounts, you limit the chances that hackers access the backend of your site. You need to make sure that you have the right users with the right access and require strong passwords.

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