How to Fix Missing Security Headers (Without Being a Developer)

You may have run a security check on your WordPress website and received a warning saying that security headers are missing.

Don’t panic. This doesn’t mean your website has been hacked.

Why is this happening?

Your website is running on an Apache web server, but the server isn’t currently sending some additional security instructions to visitors’ browsers.

These instructions are called security headers.

Think of them as extra rules that tell a visitor’s browser how to safely interact with your website.

This is not normally a WordPress theme or template problem. The settings are usually controlled by your hosting company, server configuration, Cloudflare, or a WordPress security plugin.

What are the risks?

Missing security headers don’t automatically make your website vulnerable, but they remove some additional layers of protection.

Depending on the missing header, the risks can include:

• Your site being more vulnerable to certain types of browser-based attacks.
• Your pages potentially being embedded in another website and used for clickjacking.
• Browsers being less strict about how website resources are handled.
• More information being shared with other websites when visitors leave your site.
• HTTPS not being enforced as strongly as it could be.

These are security hardening issues, rather than evidence that your website has been compromised.

How do you fix it?

The simplest solution is to ask your hosting provider to add the recommended security headers to your website’s server configuration.

For a typical WordPress website, the main ones to consider are:

• Strict-Transport-Security (HSTS)
• X-Frame-Options
• X-Content-Type-Options
• Referrer-Policy
• Permissions-Policy

There is also Content-Security-Policy (CSP), which can provide strong protection against certain attacks, but this should be configured carefully. A badly configured CSP can break WordPress plugins, forms, fonts, analytics and other website features.

If you don’t have access to your web server, your hosting company will need to make these changes, or you can use a suitable WordPress security plugin if it supports them.

What about the other warnings?

You can run a deep check with SSL Security Headers Test to test your website security.

The goal isn’t to get a perfect scanner score.

The goal is to add the appropriate protections without breaking your website.

In short: Why is it happening?

Your web server isn’t currently sending additional security instructions to browsers.

Is your website hacked?

No. The warning alone does not indicate that.

Is it worth fixing?

Yes. These headers provide useful additional protection.

Who should fix it?

Your hosting provider is usually the best option if you don’t have server access.

What should you tell your Host Provider?

Send them a quick email with the following message:

Hi, I’ve run a security header check on my WordPress website and it shows that none of the recommended HTTP security headers are currently being returned.

Could you please add the appropriate security headers at the server level for my domain, including:

* Strict-Transport-Security (HSTS)
* X-Frame-Options
* X-Content-Type-Options
* Referrer-Policy
* Permissions-Policy

Please also advise whether a suitable Content-Security-Policy can be configured without affecting the WordPress site, plugins or third-party services.

I don't have access to the Apache/server configuration, so I would appreciate it if you could configure these for me and confirm once they are active.

Thank you.

Just remember to tell them which website and whatever your provider requires.