Cybersecurity for Webmasters: How Safe is Your Website?

• The internet today has millions of websites that are up and running. These websites compete with each other for visibility and clicks.
• To deliver relevant results that contain high-quality content, Google requires the websites to SEO optimized.

Google bots run through a website’s content and rate it according to various factors. Hacking the website may prevent the bots from assessing the content in the web pages. To avoid massive drops in rankings or paying penalties, it is essential to review your website’s security processes.

Why hack?

Hackers may want to add a link to your page or make the website appear untrustworthy to Google. Some hackers may go as far as to redirect the domain to an entirely different site. In certain cases, hacked websites may be penalized or blacklisted by Google.

Implementing cybersecurity for websites

Security is an important criteria for your search engine rankings. Here are a few security measures you can adopt.

• One of the basic things that you need to do is to implement HTTPS. Although this does not guarantee security, it encrypts the data exchanged and secures the connection. HTTPS was in fact named a ranking signal by Google years ago.
• Another commonly known but also commonly ignored advice is the use of a strong password. It is a common belief that the website data is not confidential and a strong password is not required, and this provides hackers with an easy way to infiltrate into the websites.
• Invest in a web host that takes security seriously. This means fixing security flaws and scanning periodically for malware.
• Opt for automatic backups. In the case you need to wipe your site after a malware infection, you can rely on these backups to make the recovery process smooth. In fact, this is one of the things you should look for when choosing a web host.
• Input forms that collect information from anyone on the internet are prone to SQL injections. Limit the type and length of inputs to prevent hackers from using malicious code as inputs.

In spite of your best efforts, hackers may find cracks to slip through and hack your website. You may submit a reconsideration request to Google in such cases.