Customize and Secure WordPress Admin Login

How WordPress admin Login URL Works

The first step in using WordPress is login, you will see this type of login box where Username or Email Address and Password will be required to log in. Often times website owners want to customize WordPress login, however, let’s not forget about security here. WordPress is an open-source system and every hacked knows WordPress login URL, so let’s talk about how to secure WordPress login as well.

A login URL will be required to get this login box. The login URL will be your website URL with a small addition. If your website URL is example.com then your WordPress login URL will be example.com/wp-login.php as shown in the figure below.

Login with Subdomain

WordPress login is also possible with subdomains. For example, your subdomain is subdomain.example.com for an above-mentioned website then your WordPress login URL will be subdomain.example.com/wp-login.php as shown in a figure below.

URLs installed in a subdirectory

The above procedure for WordPress login is valid until WordPress is not installed in a subdirectory. If it is installed in a subdirectory then you will need to change the URL accordingly. For example, you have installed WordPress in folder name wp-demo then your login URL for the above website will be example.com/wp-demo/wp-login.php also shown in a figure below.

Saving and Accessing WordPress Login URL

If you want to add WordPress admin login URL into your webpage in order to login easily that is also possible. By default, it is not present on a web page but you can easily add it.

For that login into your WordPress dashboard, then go to the Appearance and select Menu from it. (see figure below)

If you have multiple Menus on your website then select the one in which you want to add the URL. After that go to Add menu items, and open the Custom Links, here you will use the WordPress admin login URL and the name you want to give the URL. (see figure below)

Now you can simply click on Add to Menu, the link will be added to the webpage.

Persisting Login Credentials

You will see an option Remember Me during WordPress Login. If you select this option it will keep your login to the WordPress dashboard area. The options work on the cookie and when the cookies expire you will need to login again.

WordPress Login and c Panel

Some web hosting companies give cPanel where you can manage things like server system administration, file transferring to the web hosting environment, resource monitoring and in general, managing your web hosting environment.

You can also use a plugin WordPress Manager to use your cPanel. Through this plugin, you can view your database name, manage automatic updates, manage passwords, also make backup and restores your website.

Customize WordPress login

The default WordPress admin login box is very simple, so if you want to customize WordPress login then you have many plugins available to do that. For single or limited users the default login box is good but if your website has some features which can only be available on logging in then using these plugin will be a good idea because it will give it an elegant look and some more information about the user as well.

Adding a Login Form

As mentioned above, for multiple users website use of login form is a good idea. Creating a custom form from scratch is a little bit of a difficult and lengthy process so using a plugin is the best option.

There is a well-known plugin for adding login and Registration form into the website and also to customize WordPress login.

WP-Forms

It is one of the simplest and beginner-friendly plugins to use to customize the WordPress login. It has two benefits for the website,

1. Registration form for new users.
2. Login Form for the existing users.

A very simple setting form of WP-Forms is shown in a figure given below.

Customize the WordPress login page

The login page is very simple so you can customize WordPress login as well with the help of a plugin and can give it a look according to your theme.

Theme My Login

Theme My Login is a free plugin that can customize the WordPress login from the default login page. It is a similar plugin to the WP-Forms but has less functionality.

Add Login with Social Platforms

Instead of a long registration form, you can allow your user to login with different social media platforms like Facebook and Goggle. This can be done by using a plugin WordPress Social Login.

WordPress Social Login

This plugin is provided by mini orange and it supports a large number of social media platforms as shown in the figure below.

Limit Registration and Logins

If your website has an option for registering and logging in for the general public then you will find that a lot of entries on your website will be spam. So, in order to avoid these spams re-captcha is the best option.

Login No captcha reCAPTCHA

If you are using this plugin then it will add a checkbox that only humans can check, which will help you to keep your website safe from spams.

Securing WordPress login

If you are not keeping your WordPress login secure then it will be very easy for hackers to guess your login credentials and hack your website. So, login security is very important and let us discussed two methods below to understand the login security.

Changing the URL of Login Page

Changing URL is a technique to keep your website more secure. If hacker by some means manage to get login credentials but if you have changed the URL then he can’t do anything. You can change the URL by using a plugin WP-Buffs.

Using a full login protection

If you want to use some additional features to secure your WordPress login then you can use different plugins to do that, one of them is mentioned below.

Wordfence Login Security

WordPress login security adds the following features on your website.

• Two- Factor Authentication: It makes very difficult to login even they get the valid credential because it includes the second factor like mobile number or fingerprint which they don’t have.
• CAPTCHA: The addition of captcha keeps the bots and spam out.

Limit Login Attempt

Another way to hack your website is the number of attempts made to guess your login credentials. This problem can be very easily solved by putting a limit on login attempts. The plugin Loginizer is used for this purpose. The IP of the user is identified so he will not be able to make an attempt when he will reach your selected limit. You can also select specific IP addresses who can login only in your website.

Conclusion

We tried to explain in this article that WordPress login is not just limited to username and password to get access to your dashboard. It has much more complicated and important issues. You can provide a better experience to your users if you have a multi-user website, which is not possible with the default WordPress login system.