In a perfect world, we would not need to worry about website security.
People would visit websites to read up on the latest trends or purchase something they wish to own or searching other stuffs.
Sadly, our world isn’t perfect, and there are a lot of people out there who have dedicated their lives towards making our lives slightly more complicated.
Hackers have plagued the internet ever since its initial start, as the golden rule goes if a person creates something, chances are another person will want to ruin that same thing.
Websites are amazing for promoting your content or selling your brand and are a huge convenience to both consumers and suppliers.
However, a website can be hacked, and information can be stolen, leading towards potential scams, malware and ransomware.
To combat this, developers have created different methods of website security. To inspire more websites to adapt better levels of security, Google has modified their algorithm to boost websites that have better security within their search engine and in turn show up higher in search results.
If you own a website, especially if it is an eCommerce website, website security is necessary, both for earning the trust of your users and for gaining more traction on Google search results.
What are the benefits of protecting your website?
Increasing the security of your website has its benefits.
Even if you are mainly securing your website for the SEO advantage it provides for search engines such as Google; it is essential that you know what you are getting into when implementing such a system onto your website and what benefits it provide.
There are different types of security protocols and systems that go into play when trying to protect your website from hackers.
Here are some of the most significant benefits you gain when increasing the security of your website:
Encryption of the data.
Whenever you are browsing a website, hackers with access towards that window can track your behaviour on the site. They can trace what you click on, what you end up purchasing, and what kind of habits you display.
Encrypting this data leads to better security and privacy, leaving your behaviour anonymous and private. Encryption saves data passing between the user’s browser and the server.
Increase in the integrity of the data.
Increasing the integrity of data can leads towards safer transfers between the cloud and the client-side.
The data has a lower chance of becoming corrupted and unreadable, and it won’t be picked up or monitored illegally by hackers.
Authentication methods.
Through authentication, you can avoid different attacks from hackers that could clone your website and scam people into providing their personal information on this cloned fake website.
SEO Optimization
As previously mentioned, a well-secured website can lead to better search engine results.
When everything works perfectly, and Google recognizes your website as a safe and secure place for users to spend their time and potentially money on, you have the potential to spike in popularity and skyrocket to the top of the search results.
How do you get secured?
The best way to secure your website is through the implementation of an SSL certificate and if you want the highest validation then the best option is EV SSL Certificates.
EV SSL Certificate is generally used for HTTPS websites to prove that a website is legitimately owned by the entity that claims to own it. The certificate can be obtained after verification of business related documents and third party business registration proof.
This certificate plays a huge role and is essential for online security.
EV Certificates have the advantage of requiring structurally reliable insurance and management processes.
Differences between HTTP and HTTPS?
HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) lacks in several areas when compared to the Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS).
These differ in several ways.
HTTP does not include any advanced security features and only sends data in non-encrypted text, which makes it an easy target for hackers to steal that information and potentially cause harm towards end-users.
HTTPS, on the other hand, encrypts and sends data through end-to-end tunnels and is ultimately preferred by the Google search engine because of its advanced features that lead to better security.
How do you maintain a high level of security after implementing these changes?
Always stay updated.
Most website security tools are regularly being updated to defend your website from the latest threats.
As technology evolves and computers get smarter and faster, so do hackers with their advanced algorithms that continuously change and break past security walls implemented by security experts within these tools.
If your websites use platforms such as WordPress, always keep plugins up to date to fight against this constant threat.
Optimize your website load.
Having a quick and efficient website can lead to better rankings on Google as well, besides the security factor.
Quicker websites mean a better customer experience, while slower site clogged by too many plugins or information is a general turn-off for both users and the Google search engine.
Set up limits.
Limits can seem counter-productive when you are trying to attract the entire world towards your website. An audience of a bigger size in general, but with a bigger population viewing your website, the bigger the chance that some of those viewers might end up wanting to hack into or potentially break your site and potential profits.
This is where limits come into play.
By limiting the number of times, a person can attempt to log into your website session. You are implementing a bottleneck for hacking bots that randomly attempt to brute-force their entry into your website through bots that continuously try to log in with randomly generated passwords.
Adding a time limit to your website can also prove a valid security method. It limits the amount of time idle people stay on your website by ending their session due to expiration.
In conclusion, keeping yourself secure benefits both your website, the SEO results and the end-users and is an excellent way to build trust with your visitors as well as search engines that can and will potentially boost you to the top of the search results.
