How to Secure a Website in 7 Simple Steps?

February 10, 2023 admin

Hacking is expected today on the internet for both harmful and illegal reasons. In fact, a hacker attacks every 44 seconds. They are also constantly changing how they attack. Therefore, it’s unlikely that a business owner will be able to develop both trust and a powerful brand if they don’t secure a website and protect their customers.

These seven easy steps can help you have a secure site, whether you’re a small business owner or a complete novice.

How to Secure Your Website?

Hackers frequently scan networks and web pages for loopholes to access a website or a person’s computer. In light of this, let’s explore how to make a website secure and ensure that the confidential info of your business and customers is kept private.

Use HTTPS

Most times, when you type a website URL into a search engine or visit a website, HTTPS is undoubtedly shown in the address bar. One of the simplest ways to protect the confidential information on your website is to use HTTPS, or hypertext transfer protocol secure. With HTTPS, you can:

encrypt interaction between website visitors and the website itself
give a sense of validation to your website visitors
ensure that faulty data transfers are detected

This way, you can thwart hacking attempts that might be trying to steal personal information, protect your customers’ information, and maintain the security of your website.

Implement SSL Certificates

An SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate is one of the essential security protocols you can use on your website. It allows the website owner to secure a website via its networking technology.

More specifically, SSL must be used to secure the information on your web server if you accept credit or debit cards or any other personal information. For instance, you should have an SSL website to safeguard users from having their personal information stolen if you maintain a database of usernames, passwords, and email addresses.

The same login information is frequently used across numerous websites. Therefore, should a hacker obtain the data, they may be able to access more than just the account on your SSL website.

If you go through the pros & cons of website builders for small business websites, you might find that many website builders don’t provide SSL certification. But, Shopivana, one of the best eCommerce website builders for small businesses, offers you an SSL certificate for free!

Create a Strong Password

There is no excuse for not considering creating a strong password when contemplating how to make a website secure. Moreover, if you’re just starting your entrepreneurial journey and exploring how to start a small business at home, a safe website with a strong password is one of the initial steps. Thus, avoid using weak passwords or using the same one across other accounts.

Your login system may become vulnerable to brute force attacks due to a weak or frequently used password. This malware bypasses poor website security by guessing passwords through guesswork, and it is widely used.

Therefore, it’s crucial to establish a secure and distinctive password for the admin accounts on your website. A secure password typically consists of a mix of digits, uppercase, lowercase, and special characters. Do not reuse passwords or keep them in locations where others can access them.

Use a Secure Web Hosting

Your website’s information is stored and managed by your web host. It must have robust security measures to keep hackers from attacking the server. A safe website’s cornerstone is thus picking the appropriate web hosting.

Your chosen web hosting must have the following features:

Monitoring network traffic using a web application firewall will prevent unauthorized users from accessing the server.
DDoS prevention to stop hackers from deactivating the website server with fictitious traffic.
Use secure FTP to ensure that any files you upload to the website are safe and legitimate.
Software updates prevent dangerous malware from targeting outdated software and scan websites for malware. They also keep you updated with the newest security fixes and plugins.

Craft Secure Error Messages

Error messages are crucial information regarding the overall process of how your website functions to hackers who are capable of writing harmful code and cross-site scripting. Therefore, one of your website’s major security flaws—and a potential entry point for a hacker—could be an error message.

An effective strategy, in this case, is to keep your website’s error messages brief.

However, you should also include enough details in your errors so that the visitor can figure out what went wrong. So, it is advised to provide the following information to site visitors:

A general overview of the problem
How a user may be able to resolve the problem
Changes a user can make to avoid the problem

Shopivana allows you to customize your 404-error pages. Consequently, your customers would know what’s wrong.

Install Security Plugins

Some of the most significant security flaws on websites are caused by plugin clashes and out-of-date plugins. So, if you run a website, you should seriously consider adding reliable security plugins and keeping them updated. These plugins can scan websites for malware so that you can take the necessary actions in time.

As site security requirements vary frequently and plugins can quickly become outdated, the best approach to ensure that your site security add-ons are up to date is to choose one with regular software upgrades.

Create Regular Backups

75% of businesses assume that since they are too small for hackers to meddle with, they are protected from security breaches. In reality, attacks against small businesses are more common than those on huge brand chains since they are perceived as the weakest link and are much easier to target.

When the worst occurs, regular backups stop data loss from the website’s server. To prevent this, ensure that your website and all consumer and business data are backed up locally and to a remote location, such as the cloud.

Instead of using free software to do this, you can make your disaster recovery plan and inquire about your web host’s existence of one. Therefore, in the event of data loss, you will be in a far better position to resume your operation.

Conclusion

The best method to secure site and your business is to be aware of the threats and adopt the precautions suggested above to keep your business from succumbing. These measures can safeguard your data, and the private and financial data visitors entrust to you. In fact, website security increases the chance that your website will appear higher in search results.