Are You Making this Common WordPress Mistake?

Recently, I had multiple brute force attacks against my website. On Facebook I suggested that everyone make sure they were NOT using “admin” as their login name. I know from personal experience that when you first start out with WordPress it is easy to stay with the default. I was even surprised that when I looked at my personal website I still had “admin” as my default username. Oops, BAD Lisa!

WordPress Username Change

Many people believe you cannot change the default “admin” assigned when you set up your WordPress site. Let me show you how to perform a WordPress username change. In the 3 minute video below, I explain how you can quickly change your default login username in WordPress.

The short and sweet version for WordPress 3.8.1:

• Login to blog
• Click on “Users” in left panel
• Top of page click on “Add New”
• Assign a username
• Email (this will have to be a different email address than your “admin” user)
• First Name
• Last Name
• Website (optional)
• Password
• Repeat Password
• Click “Add New User”
• Log out of your account
• Log into your account with new username and password
• Click on “Users”
• Hover over “admin” and choose “delete”
• You may need to reassign posts to your new username.

When your site is under attack you want to make sure your password is secure. I know from personal experience how difficult it is to recover from your site being hacked.

Make sure your password is at least 12 characters long, is not a name, pet’s name, birthday, etc. I believe the best password is a string of characters, numbers, and have no discernible pattern.

Is your website secure? I would love to hear from you. Leave a comment below!