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4 Reasons Why Website Security Is Important

Did you know there are more than 50 million infected websites on the internet? This is an increase of over 200% on the previous year.

If you’re reading this and you or your business has a website, you’re probably starting to get worried. You should be worried, the number one cause of website infections is people thinking “I don’t need to bother with security, why would anyone target a small site like mine?”. Well, they would target it precisely because it’s a small site and they know you won’t have bothered to protect it.

We have a list of 4 reasons why securing your website is essential. Securing your website isn’t just good practice, it shows respect for your users and will help your site’s search engine ranking.

1. A Secure Website Shows You Are Trustworthy

If you are going to ask a customer for their money or their data, you need to be trustworthy. Have a website that’s unsecure shows the opposite.

Many browsers now warn users if it detects the website, they are on is not secure. If you saw that warning before you were going to pay for something or hand over your phone number and address it’s unlikely you would continue, so why would your customer?

At a bare minimum you should secure your site with an SSL certificate. This would be indicated by the ‘S’ in your URL (HTTPS) and by a small padlock symbol next to the address bar when viewing your site on a browser like Google Chrome. Ask your web hosting provider about installing one if they have not already.

 2. Securing Your Website Increases Your Search Ranking

Unsecure websites weather using cable internet vs satellite internet, especially those without SSL certificates are heavily penalised by search engines.

Almost all traffic to websites comes from search engines like Google (over 90%). Your competitors might have a worse product and a worse looking website, but if it’s secured properly Google will prefer it.

The longer it is unsecured for the longer it will take to recover from a penalty so you should act immediately to solve any security issues. There are several IT support and Digital Marketing companies that will offer website security check-ups as a one-off service or as part of their SEO services.

 3. Securing Your Website Protects You From Hackers

Hacking is no longer a one on one affair. That is, a hacker is not sitting there targeting your site specifically. More likely is that they are using a scattershot approach and using software to automatically scan for unsecure websites. Some do this for profit by locking you out of your own website and threatening to delete it unless you pay a ransom, others are looking to steal customer information and others are just malicious pranksters trying to spread chaos.

Securing your site properly will protect you from all three. It is also always a good idea to have a regularly updated backup of your site that can be restored should your site ever be deleted (by a hacker or by accident).

4. Securing Your Website Protects Your Customer’s Data

For many businesses, their websites are not just static pages but also databases which contain within them customer information like names, addresses, passwords, phone numbers, financial details. Depending on your business there may be other even more sensitive data held there, for instance medical data or sexual preference. If this information were to be hacked, you would not only be putting your customers at risk of identity theft or extortion, you would also be putting your reputation on the line. Large data breaches have caused serious damage to the standing of companies like Equifax and TalkTalk.

It is always worth investing in security. It is not really an “option” anymore so much as a necessity. We understand that you may not be the most technically skilled person in the world, but a hacker isn’t going to buy that excuse and your customers won’t if their data gets leaked.

The first thing you should do is speak with your current website host and ensure that you are on the most secure hosting option that they have. Check reviews online and see what your provider’s reputation for security is. If they have had breaches in the past you should consider moving to another website host.

There are also third-part companies such as IT support and SEO companies who can use their advanced cybersecurity tools to scan your website for known vulnerabilities and they will often have developers on hand who can help to fix any issues they discover.

Investing a small amount in checking website security and fixing it now will save you a large amount of reputational damage in the future.

 

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