About the Book
WordPress security is not about finding one “perfect” security plugin. It is about building the entire website on a stronger foundation.
In WordPress Security From the Root Up, web developer Mark Gleason draws on more than 14 years of hands-on web development experience to explain how WordPress security actually works—and why protecting a website requires multiple layers working together.
Written for business owners, freelancers, developers, agencies, and anyone responsible for a WordPress website, this practical guide moves beyond fear-based security advice and complicated technical jargon. Instead, it shows you how to reduce risk by understanding the systems that protect your website from the server all the way through WordPress itself.
Inside, you’ll learn how to:
Build a layered WordPress security strategy instead of relying on a single plugin
Choose safer themes and plugins and reduce unnecessary software risk
Keep WordPress core, themes, plugins, PHP, and hosting environments maintained
Strengthen administrator accounts, passwords, permissions, and user access
Understand secure development practices including validation, sanitization, escaping, nonces, and capability checks
Protect important files, databases, domains, and configuration settings
Use firewalls, monitoring, malware scanning, logging, and security plugins effectively
Create a backup strategy that focuses on recovery—not simply creating backup files
Secure forms, ecommerce sites, client websites, and business data
Respond when a vulnerability, stolen password, malware infection, or other security incident occurs
Safely migrate, launch, maintain, and take over existing WordPress websites
Build a realistic long-term maintenance and security routine
You’ll also find practical checklists, security workflows, incident-response guidance, maintenance routines, and a 30-day improvement plan designed to help turn security concepts into actions you can actually use.
No website can be guaranteed to be completely immune from attack. The goal of professional security is to reduce unnecessary risk, eliminate weak points, prepare for failure, and make recovery possible when something does go wrong.
Whether you run a small-business website or manage WordPress sites professionally, WordPress Security From the Root Up will help you understand what is happening behind the screen and make better decisions about how your websites are built, protected, and maintained.
Build the foundation correctly. Protect it in layers. Maintain it responsibly.
Built from experience. Rooted in better code.