Why change WordPress Login Page URL?

There are several possible reasons why you might want to change the URL of your WordPress login page.

Whether to provide a better user experience, whether to remove references to WordPress, or whether for security reasons.

It is very common for cybercriminal hackers to attempt malicious attacks on your login pages. After all, by being able to access your administration page, they can do what they want more easily. Of course, by modifying the login URL, you don’t prevent a cybercriminal from finding the new URL or using other techniques to carry out attacks.

However, you will be making this situation difficult! Of course, the more layers of security you have, the better, isn’t it? Therefore, changing the login URL can ensure that you increase your site’s security.

It is also very common that these attacks are carried out through robots programmed to look for vulnerabilities. And usually, these robots go straight to standard URLs, such as “ /wp-admin ” or “ /wp-login “. Even if these robots cannot access, these actions can still affect your website’s performance.
This happens because there can be an overload of requests to the login page, and end up overloading the server. Therefore, just by changing the login URL, you will be making it very difficult for this type of situation to occur.

Anyway, changing the WordPress Login Page URL is something extremely important, especially for the security of your site!

How to change WordPress Login Page URL?

There are a few different ways to change the default WordPress Login Page URL. Some of them involve more technical processes, even changes to server files or WordPress Source Code. However, there are also easier ways, which are more recommended, especially for common users or laypeople: Using WordPress Plugins!

Exactly! There are plugins specially created to change the WordPress Login Page URL. So let’s use the WPS Hide Login plugin.

The WPS Hide Login Plugin

When it comes to plugins to change the Login Page URL, we recommend WPS Hide Login, a free WordPress plugin that already has over 900K active downloads!

WPS Hide Login is very lightweight and it doesn’t change any WordPress core files or add rewrite rules. Its performance is simply intercepting requests. In addition, it also supports several plugins such as BuddyPress, bbPress, Jetpack, Limit Login Attempts, and User Switching.

Installing and activating WPS Hide Login

The installation and activation of WPS Hide Login are very simple, it works like any standard WordPress plugin installation.

Afterward, type “ WPS Hide Login ” in the search field for the plugin.

Once the search loads, find the WPS Hide Login plugin in the list, it will probably be the first one.

Now just click on the install option.

Wait while WordPress installs, it usually takes a few seconds.

After completing the installation, the button will change, so now just click “activate”

Okay, now your plugin is properly installed and activated on your WordPress! Now just change the WordPress Login Page URL.

Read more: How to Block Spam Logs in WordPress

Changing the Login Page URL with WPS Hide Login

After downloading and activating it, you can access the WPS Hide Login dashboard through the settings, on the right sidebar of the WordPress Dashboard.

Note that you will be redirected to the settings screen of the page, and at the bottom will be the WPS Hide Login options.

In this step, you will find two new fields. In the first one, there is the Login URL, it is in this field that you will define what will be the new URL for the WordPress Login Page.
In the second field, the Redirection URL serves to specify a redirect URL for when accessing standard login URLs, such as wp-admin or wp-login. We recommend keeping it as 404, stating that this page does not exist, or redirecting it to the Home Page (in this case, just leave it blank).

In our example, we will then change the login page so that it is accessed via the URL “/login-safer”. So just put this URL in the field

Finally, just click on the Save Changes button and you’re done! Our login page should now be accessed via this new URL.

Since we kept the default “Redirection URL” as 404, if someone tried to access the login page via the wp-admin or wp-login URL, they would automatically be redirected to the 404 error page.

Final considerations

Following the step-by-step above, you should be able to install and activate WPS Hide login and change your WordPress login page URL.

Furthermore, WPS Hide Login is constantly being updated and is compatible with most current plugins and tools. However, it is important to be aware that when using some plugin or caching system, you must add the slug of the new login URL to the list of pages that should not be cached.
This way, you will be keeping this page more discreet and going unnoticed by robots/crawlers, ensuring greater security to your Login Page. Some cache plugins are already able to identify WPS Hide Login, allowing this function to be performed more easily. Still, it is important to be aware of this detail.

If you have any problems with the plugin, you can get back to normal without much difficulty. To do this, just remove the plugin, even if it is via SFTP via the Web Server.

It is also important to be aware that just by doing this you will be hindering potential cyber-attacks, but you will not be immune. The more security measures you take, the better! You can use other plugins and tools that increase the security of your website, such as Wordfence, include reCAPTCHA on your website, block IPs, among others.

It is also important that you choose a good Hosting Server.

 

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