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HTACCESS File
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How to Use HTACCESS File for WordPress Websites Effectively

The HTACESS file stands for hypertext access file. It is also known as the server configuration file. With the help of this file, you can set rules for your server. Your server will have to follow these rules for your website. By using HTACCESS file, we can also generate the SEO friendly structure of the URL of a website. This essential file is present in the root folder of your WordPress website. If you want to make use of this file, you will have to get access to this file via an FTP client. If you are going to edit this file, you should create a copy of this file. You can save this file as a backup in your system. Its reason is that while editing this file if something goes wrong, you can install it again on your WordPress website. Here, we will discuss the effective use of HTACCESS file in your WordPress website.

Ways To Create An HTACCESS File In Your WordPress Website:

You can create an HTACCESS file in your WordPress website in two ways. These two ways are explained below;

Create An HTACCESS File By Setting Permalinks:

To create an HTACCESS file by setting permalinks is an easy process. For this reason, you just need to navigate to the ‘Settings’ in your WordPress website. After that, you should click on the ‘Permalinks’. On the permalink screen, you will see the ‘Save Changes’ button. You should click on it. An HTACCESS file will be created in the site root directory of your WordPress website.

Create An HTACCESS File By Using The Manual Method:

Due to some read and write permissions of the server, sometimes, there is a possibility that an HTACCESS file will not be created automatically. Under such a situation, you will have to create it manually. To create an HTACCESS file manually, you will have to follow some steps. Firstly, create a text file. You can create it easily on the Notepad of your computer. On this notepad, you should copy the code of the HTACCESS file. The name of this file will be .txt. You should change it to the .htaccess. At last, you will have to save this file in the root directory of your website.

Effective Use Of The HTACCESS File For Your WordPress Website:

After creating the HTACCESS file for your WordPress website, you will have to make effective use of this file. Some essential and effective points as shared by a dissertation writing service to uses of the HTACCESS file in your WordPress website are given below;

Use It To Protect The Admin Area Of Your WordPress Website:

Also, Read About: Importance Of Link Building

The most important use of HTACCESS file in your WordPress website is that you can protect the admin area of your WordPress website with it. For this reason, you can limit the access of the selected IP addresses of the admin area of your WordPress website. You just need to copy the IP addresses that you want to use to get access to the admin area of your WordPress website and paste these IP addresses in it. When you save this setting, no one can get access to the admin area of your WordPress website.

Protect The Admin Area Of Your Website By Setting An Additional Password:

Sometimes, there is a possibility that you will have to get access to your admin area from various IP addresses. Under such a situation, the above technique doesn’t work. For this reason, you will have to add a password to protect the admin area of your WordPress website. For this reason, you will have to generate a htpasswds file by using an online generator. After that, you should upload it in the public HTML area of your WordPress website. Now, you should create the HTACCESS file and upload it in the wp-admin directory. After that, you can set an additional password for the admin area by setting your username and password.

Disable Directory Browsing:

Most of the WordPress security experts recommend you to disable the directory browsing. Its reason is that if you enable the directory browsing, hackers can easily get access to the file structure of your website and they can steal the vulnerable files. To disable direct browsing is a simple process. You just need to add a simple line in the HTACCESS file. This line is Options – Indexes.

Set Up 301 Redirects:

If your website is showing 301 errors, these errors last some adverse impacts on the SEO of your website. You can easily get rid of these errors just by setting up 301 redirects on your website by using HTACCESS file. These 301 redirects tell the search engines that content has moved to the new location. As a result, users can’t find any kind of error. It means that your website will provide the best user experience.

You Can Ban Suspicious IP Addresses:

If you observe that your website is getting some unusual requests from a specific IP address, you should ban this suspicious IP address by using HTACCESS file. While banning a specific IP address, you should replace it with xx in the code. If you don’t ban this suspicious IP address by using this file, there is a possibility of the attack of hackers on your website.

Disable Image Hotlinking:

Some websites try to directly hotlink the images of your website with their websites. As a result, the speed of your website will be decreased. Due to the slower speed of your website, you will have to face lots of problems in the SEO of your website. Therefore, by using this file, you should also try to disable the image hotlinking in your website. If your website is smaller, it is not a big problem for your website. On the other hand, if you are running a big website which contains lots of images, it will create lots of problems for you.

Conclusion:

Along with these uses, you can also use this file for various purposes. You can use it to protect your website from unauthorized access. You can also use it to increase the size of the uploading files. You can also use it to block the author scanning issues on your WordPress website.

Muhammad Asad Raza

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