Why is Website Security Important and How You Can Secure it?

If you are still taking the matter of your website security lightly, then start taking it seriously because one lose threats of your security system can destroy your whole online reputation. See how?

Today, one-third of the world’s population has been shifted to the complexed web of the internet. From doing regular daily activities like ordering grocery to run a multinational company, everything has been moved over the internet.

However, similar to the real world where good and bad things coexist, on the internet some negative stuff like hacking, phishing, malware, etc., has been going also which can be easily controlled by keeping your website security tight.

If you want to run your website properly and want to offer a safe surfing experience to your visitors, then you have to work on the security factor of your website development. That’s because a number of hackers are ready to exploit your website.

Don’t believe us? Well, Google itself has announced that the number of malicious websites has been increasing worldwide. It was reported that in 2015 the number of infected sites was 17 million which later on increased to 50 million in 2016. The numbers are increasing rapidly and if you don’t want to become part of these numbers, then you have to pay attention to your website security.

There are plenty of different reasons available that will compel you to think about your online security seriously.

Why Work on Your Website Security?

1. For your Visitors

If you are running an online store or blogging site, then numerous visitors daily visit your site to shop from it or to subscribe to your newsletter. Now, if in this malware attack hijacks your site and stole all the personal information of your visitors, then imagine how much the wrong message will this give to your customers that you can’t protect their data. It has been recorded that 60% of small companies which suffer from cyber attack can’t survive six months in the market. So, if you want to become a successful entrepreneur, then your website security can help you with it.

2. For your Revenue

You see folks make the internet a clean and safe place, Google has stepped up and released new SEO rules about spam fighting.

From July 2018, every website which doesn’t have SSL security will be marked harmful by Google and will also receive SEO penalty. This whole new dynamics of Google has difficult for companies to attract new customers.

Moreover, if your site gets banned, then you will definitely lose potential customers and this will eventually affect your revenue.

As per an article published in a Forbes magazine, without exactly using term blocklisted, it has been recorded that Google quarantines almost 1000 websites daily. Your one negligence towards your site security can destroy your business completely, now the choice is yours!

3. To Save your Money

According to a report presented by Acunetix, around 84% of websites are surrounded by the vulnerabilities at any time.

The process of cleaning an infected website is far more expensive as compared to the cost of installing a website security system. Averagely, services related to website cleaning starts from $150 and goes beyond.

Plus, there’s no guarantee that after cleaning, your site will be fully secured because malware is mostly hidden from the main file and hackers pay special attention to their backdoors which aren’t easy to remove.

That’s if you want to save your time and energy from cleaning your infected website, then you should take preventative security measures in advance.

Tips to Quickly Secure Your Website

Now, you know that without proper security you are set to doom on the internet. Thus, if you want to beat the hackers and malware, then you have to follow a few simple tips to keep your website security tight.

1. Regular Software Updates

This is the most important step, you have to ensure that your server operating system and other software that you are using on your site are completely updated. When hackers find any hole in your software system, then immediately use it to exploit your website. If you are using managed hosting, then you are fully secured, but in the case of third party hosting, you have to be careful.

2. SQL Injection

– It is easy to insert rogue code when you are using standard Transact SQL on your website. It could change the query tables and can get information or delete it. This can be easily avoided by using parameterized queries, almost every programming language offers them.

3. Password

–To get a clean and secure site, you need to set strong passwords. There are plenty of breached passwords online present that can hackers use to crack your site admin password. So, here you have to take care of few things while setting up your site admin password; repeatedly change your password, set the long password of more than 12 characters, use random password combinations, etc.,

Give Access Permission to Sensible User – It is a very important website security tip, always provide limited access of your site to other users which is required to complete their job and once the job is done take the access away. For instance, if you are allowing someone to write a guest blog post in your website, then don’t give full admin privileges to the account only provide basic rights to create a new post and edit the post. Just keep your site’s full access in your own hands only.

4. Change CMS Settings

– Nowadays, CMS applications like WordPress, WooCommerce, etc., are a bit complicated from the context of security. These days cyber attacks are automated which can target the default CMS Settings pretty easily. You can avoid a large number of cyber threats by changing your default settings. Such as, few CMS apps are writeable by users like WordPress where you can download multiple plugins. You have to change the settings of every third-party plugin to keep your site secure.

5. Vet Your Web Hosting Company

It is imperative you research your web hosting company by reading industry reviews and customer opinions. The web hosting company you choose is the primary designer and caretaker of your first line of defense; your firewall.

Your web host should also monitor and deflect current hacking ploys along with providing regular antivirus and malware updates. However, it is strongly suggested you run scans across all of your operating systems as well to provide reinforced protection for your site.

Wrap Up

You see people, website security is very important if you want to conduct your online business without any worry. Moreover, there’s no doubt that with little extra care and by installing a proper security system, you can completely safeguard your website from the prying eyes of hackers and other sorts of cyberattacks. So, elders always say it’s better to be prepared than sorry, follow this mantra when your site security is in the question.