fbpx
 

9 Security Must-Haves for Your Business Website

by | Blog

Nowadays, the threat of online security breaches and data theft looms large in the minds of many business owners. Any company running a website for business purposes must focus on cybersecurity like never before. The good news is, you can greatly enhance the security of your website with a few relatively simple steps. The following nine security measures will turn away the vast majority of suspicious programs or individuals trying to visit your site with ill intent. 

9 Security Must-Haves for Your Business Website

1. Protect Your Data With Encryption

If you look at the address bar above this website, you’ll see a little padlock symbol to the left of the website URL. This padlock symbol shows that the website is protected by a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), which means all information traveling between the website hosting service and your computer is encrypted. Nobody can read the data and steal it as it travels over the internet when it’s protected by SSL encryption.

Installing SSL certification is one of the first things any website owner should do, as many browsers and virus protection programs warn people away from any site that lacks the SSL padlock, and rightly so. It’s wise to be wary of websites that aren’t protected with an SSL certificate. SSL protection is especially important if your customers input sensitive data, such as payment details, email addresses, or contact information. 

2. Keep Your Software Updated

Software providers regularly update their products. In doing so, they bring things up to date with the most advanced technology and programming methods. These updates also often fix potential bugs and weaknesses that leave sites open to potential breaches.  

If you fail to keep your website’s software updated, you risk having outdated software that’s easier for hackers and malicious programs to break into. Many website builders will automatically update files and systems for you. Check with your website builder or manager to ensure that your website is continuously checking for and installing the newest iterations of all themes, files, and plugins. 

3. Use Super-Strong Passwords

An important key to effective cybersecurity is never to allow yourself to be the low-hanging fruit: never be the easiest mark for hackers to target. While scanning the internet for hacking opportunities, malicious actors and their programs will almost always zero in on the sites, apps, and individuals that are most vulnerable to data breaches, scams, or fraud. 

Despite the risks, many business owners still use simple, memorable passwords on their websites, social media accounts, and other online services. Worse still, they sometimes use the same password across multiple platforms. These business owners are the low-hanging fruit for hackers; make sure aren’t among them. Always create extremely long, complex, nonsensical passwords for your website and other services, and store them all securely in encrypted password managers like LastPass, 1Password, or KeePass. 

4. Schedule Frequent Backups

Regular automatic backups are your insurance against unexpected catastrophic failures with your website, which can and do occasionally occur. If you ever lose website files to a virus or hardware crash or have them stolen, having a recent backup will save you a great deal of heartache. You can periodically back your files up on an external hard drive that you keep in your home. 

You can also often set up a system whereby your website files are regularly backed up on the cloud, which means on another company’s server somewhere. If you do so, it’s best to have your files encrypted end-to-end during the backup process, which prevents anyone from reading them except for you. Your website builder or hosting platform may be able to arrange automatic cloud backups for you.

5. Choose Secure Web Hosting

Your website lives on the servers of whichever hosting company you use. As such, the security of your website depends in large part on how secure your hosting provider is. So when choosing your hosting company, pay attention to how security-conscious they are. You can scour their website for information about their security protocols and ask their customer support for info on this. 

A good hosting provider will often provide free SSL certification and also offer an even more robust advanced SSL certificate for larger companies. They should also provide a variety of other security features, including using SFTP for file transfers, DDoS protection, network monitoring, CDN support, and more. 

6. Set Up a Web Application Firewall 

It’s wise for every business owner to set up a web application firewall. This firewall sits between your website’s server at the hosting company and the data connection and checks every bit of data that passes through with a fine-toothed comb. 

Firewalls provide an additional layer of protection against all kinds of application layer attacks, which include SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and cookie poisoning. These kinds of attacks constitute a significant source of data breaches. These days, it’s quite straightforward to set up a cloud-based Web Application Firewall as a set-and-forget system.

7. Scan Your Website Files for Malware

One of the greatest cybersecurity threats to business comes from malware: software intended to cause harm if it gets into your system. If malware gains access to your computer or website files, it can cause data loss or even financial loss. Malware may steal the confidential data of your customers, causing harm to them and also to your reputation. Ransomware, a form of malware, can even encrypt important data, forcing you to pay a ransom via cryptocurrency to regain access. 

Depending on the security measures of your hosting company, you may need to periodically scan your website files for malware, especially when uploading new files to the server. There are various effective virus-scanning tools you can use for this, or you can ask your web manager or hosting provider to carry regular scans out for you. 

8. Introduce Employee Security Protocols

Even though you as the business owner are highly security conscious, how cautious are your employees when handling your website and customer data? Many security breaches are caused by careless or unwitting employees who never think to scan for malware or use complex passwords. 

Ensure that your own security protocols are shared by everyone in your company. This should include intelligent use of passwords, including regular password changes, security measures against malware, a firm emphasis on data protection, varying access levels to data, and an overall privacy-by-design systems setup. Take the time to implement systems to ensure that none of your employees is a weak link in an otherwise robust cybersecurity chain. 

9. Build Your Website for Business Securely 

If you already have an existing website, you can certainly improve its security with all of the above measures. But the very best way to ensure website security is to prioritize security from the very beginning when you’re first designing and building your website for business. 

Whichever website builder you choose to use, ask them about their security measures and ensure that protection against attacks, malware, and data breaches is a top priority. Building your website in a security-conscious way from the foundation up will save you the expense and time it may take to make big changes or recover from security breaches down the road. 

If you’d like a super-secure, SEO-friendly, turnkey website created for you, contact Next Level Media Crew today to schedule a free strategy call. We create gorgeous websites for small business owners that are live and ready to start attracting customers in just 30 days. 

7 Effective Strategies for Improving Your Business SEO

Right this moment, somewhere nearby, a perfect prospective customer is searching on Google for answers to a problem that you can solve. Is your business going to appear in the results they see? That all depends on the quality of your search engine optimization (SEO)....

Modern Commercial Websites Need a Mobile-First Design Strategy

A mobile-first design strategy puts creative focus on what's most important for your business. This simple approach prioritizes the needs of your commercial website and leads to faster load times and a better customer experience. As mobile becomes the standard, your...

How to Incorporate Call-to-Action Messages on Your Business Website

Businesses today need more than a webpage, they need to create an experience that turns leads into loyal customers. A custom website, with well-thought-out call-to-action messages, will capture a viewer's attention and nurture that lead. We've put together this...

8 Potential Benefits of Using Chatbots on Your Business Website

Your small business website is where customers come to get answers about your business. Today, chatbots are making sites more useful to customers than ever before. Because they can be used in so many ways, though, it can be hard to see how to implement them.What...

How Long Does It Usually Take to Create a Custom Business Website?

These days, the success of a business may be found in the design of the business's website or social media pages. A website for business has the responsibility of advertising the business services, connecting clients with the business, and sometimes educating the...

10 Things To Consider When Hiring a Website Designer for Your Small Business

As a small business owner, having a website makes your business a whole lot more attractive to your customers. In fact, 84% of consumers prefer businesses with websites, and 81% of small business owners say having a website helped them grow. But to build a...

Six Ways to Incorporate Branding in Your Online Marketing

Your company's brand does more than tell customers about your company culture and products - it can also help you reach your target audience with niche advertising. But how can you incorporate branding into your online marketing strategy? From your website to your...

What Are the Benefits of Custom Websites Over Templates?

If you want your business to appeal to a broad audience, show up high on the search result rankings, and advertise your products optimally, the website you use is a crucial factor. When your website is underwhelming and underperforming, it's unlikely that your...

How Important Is Social Media in Your Business’s Digital Marketing Strategy?

Social media is one of the most important aspects of your business's digital marketing strategy. An innovative, compelling, consistent social media presence can lend your business credibility, differentiate you from your competitors, and generate many leads. As with...

5 Benefits of Personalization in Digital Marketing

As digital marketers, we find new strategies exciting but know it can be daunting when trying to run a business. Do you really need to learn about website builder tools for personalization, AI chats, and lead nurturing? While learning about digital marketing may seem...
Level Up Program - Digital Marketing

Our Method

1. Build

Your Design, Page Text, and User Experience is built custom for your business.

2. Launch

Your new website is ready for launch in less than 30 days.

3. Scale

Drive qualified leads & sales through your website to increase your profits.

Schedule Discovery Call

Use the form below to request a discovery call. Please make sure your information is accurate. Before the call, we'll be using the information you provide to research your business so our call is as productive and efficient as possible. Provide as much info as you can. We're looking forward to speaking with you!

The First Steps

We are excited to learn more about your business. We want to know your goals so we can create a plan to get there as soon as possible. The strategies we create are custom and focused.