Anyone who wants to get to the dashboard of WordPress blog must first login by entering the username and password at wp-login.php page. The problem with using the standard wp-login.php login page as you login page is that it can make your blog vulnerable to hackers. Many bloggers reported about being shocked to find that their blogs have been taken down by hackers one day. One of the reasons for this to happen is the wp-login page is insecure and easy for hackers to crack the password. If a hacker want to hack your site, they would send a bot to the wp-login page and the bot will keep on guessing the password until it generates the correct password to hack the login page into the dashboard.
Even if they did not manage to crack the password, they will still end up using a lot of bandwidth on your web hosting server. The turn around solution for this issue is to create a custom URL for the login page. By creating a custom URL, you are changing the login URL. You should create a unique URL that is hard to guess for the custom login page URL. Most people will give up trying to access your blog’s login page when they type wp-login.php into the web address bar and get returned with a 404 error.
Creating a custom URL for your blog can also prevent people from knowing that you are running your blog on WordPress. It is best to not let your blog visitors know the CMS that you are using to run the blog. If they know your blog is run on WordPress, they can do something that threatens the security of your blog.
Another benefit is that it allows you to rebrand the login page with your own logo. For example, if you operate a membership based site, you should set up a custom login page and rebrand it with your logo. In this way, your members will feel some value when they are accessing the login page to go to their account dashboard.A custom WordPress login URL will look more professional and give your members a good impression on your company.
Lots of large and reputable blogs have already set up custom login page for their WordPress and you should also do this for your blog. It is actually change the login page URL to another URL and you don’t need to be good at programming to do this. The easiest way to set up a custom URL is to use a plugin that can be downloaded for free from the WordPress plugin directory. If you search for custom login URL in the WordPress plugin directories, several plugins will appear in the search results. WPS Hide Login is one of the free plugins that you can download from WordPress plugin directory. Get more details at this tutorial.
Out of these plugins, WPS Hide Login is the best because it is lightweight and the login page will load fast. Installing WPS Hide Login does not remove the wp-login.php login URL but it will redirect your users to the new URL created with WPS-Hide Login. Activating the plugin will instantly block access to the wp-login page. If you uninstall WPS Hide Login page, the default wp-login.php login page will become accessible.
In conclusion, setting up a custom WordPress login page can deter people from attempting to login into your blog’s dashboard. You should not delay in setting up a custom login for your WordPress blog. It only take a few minutes to install the plugin, activate it and set up it on your blog.