What can you do to keep your website secure?

Are you worried about the security of your website? Are you looking for tips on how to keep your website safe from cyber-attacks? We’re here to help!

In today’s digital age, hackers and cyber criminals are constantly looking for vulnerabilities in websites to exploit for their own gain.

As a digital marketing agency, cyber security is a key priority to keep not only our own website safe, but the websites of our clients as well.

In this article, we’ll cover some simple tips that can help you keep your website secure. We’ll start by discussing the importance of website security, and then move on to practical steps you can take to secure your site.

Why website security is important

A secure website helps protect your business, your customers, and your reputation. If your website is hacked, your business could suffer financial losses as well as damage to your reputation.

If any of the personal data of your customers is stored on your website, for instance login or payment details, these could also be compromised.

Another reason to keep your website secure is for search engine optimization (SEO). Google and other search engines prioritize secure websites, so if your website isn’t secure, it may not rank as well in search engine results pages (SERPs). As a result, you could miss out on potential traffic and revenue.

Now, let’s move on to some practical steps you can take to keep your website secure.

1. Keep your software up to date

One of the easiest and most important ways to keep your website secure is to keep your software up to date. This includes your content management system (CMS), your plugins or extensions, and any other software you use to run your website.

These softwares are updated frequently by their developers to correct any vulnerabilities in them that might make them vulnerable to hackers. Furthermore, updating them fixes any bugs that might cause glitches on your website. So, it’s not only important for security, but also for optimising the user-experience of your website.

2. Use strong passwords

Unfortunately, password123 or the name of your first pet simply isn’t a strong enough password to keep your website secure.

Weak passwords are easy for hackers to guess, and there are also automated tools that they can use which try different combinations of usernames and passwords, without them even need to lift a finger.

To create a strong password, use a combination of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. Avoid using easily guessable information such as your name, birthdate, or address. Also, avoid using the same password for multiple accounts, as this can increase your risk of a data breach.

Tools like 1Password can help you to generate strong passwords and store them securely.

3. Implement two-factor authentication

Two-factor authentication (2FA) adds an extra layer of security to your website login process. With 2FA, users must provide two forms of identification to log in, such as a password and a verification code sent to your phone or email.

Implementing 2FA can help prevent unauthorized access to your website, even if a hacker guesses or steals a user’s password, they’re unlikely to also have access to your email or mobile.

4. Use HTTPS

You’ve definitely seen https:// written at the start of every URL you’ve clicked on, but why exactly is it there?

Well, HTTPS stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure. It’s there to encrypt the data sent between a website and a user’s browser. The sort of data that is sent between the two includes website cookies, HTML, CSS and JavaScript code and any form data.

Encrypting this information adds an extra layer of security for both the website and the user.

Google also prioritizes HTTPS websites in search results, so using HTTPS can help improve your SEO.

5. Backup your website

Regularly backing up your website is an essential part of website security. Backups ensure that you can quickly restore your website if it’s hacked or experiences a technical issue.

Make sure you store your backups in a secure location, such as an external hard drive or cloud storage service. Also, test your backups regularly to ensure they’re working correctly.

6. Limit user access

Limiting user access is an important step in website security. Only give users access to the parts of your website they need to do their job. For example, you may have some users who only need access to create new content, while others may need access to the website’s backend.

Limiting user access can help prevent accidental or intentional damage and is fewer logins and passwords for hackers to target.

7. Monitor your website

Monitoring your website is an important step in keeping it secure. Regularly check your website for unusual activity, such as changes to your website’s code or unexpected file uploads.

Your website team or developers should be able to do this, but there are also services available to automate this process, such as CrowdStrike and Acunetix. They can send you alerts when unusual activity is detected on your website, allowing you to take action quickly and prevent any potential security threats.

8. Use security plugins

Security plugins are tools that can help protect your website from hackers and other security threats. There are lots of different security plugins available for popular content management systems like WordPress.

Security plugins can help you with tasks like monitoring your website for malware, detecting and blocking brute-force attacks, and enforcing strong password policies. Look for security plugins that have good reviews and are regularly updated to ensure that they remain effective against the latest security threats.

9. Educate your users

Educating your users is an essential part of website security. Your website may have multiple users, such as content creators, administrators, and editors. All of these users should be aware of the risks of using weak passwords, clicking on suspicious links, and other common security threats.

Provide your users with clear guidelines on how to create strong passwords, how to avoid phishing scams, and how to report any suspicious activity they may encounter. Regularly remind your users of these guidelines to keep them top of mind.

10. Work with a web security expert

If you’re not confident in your ability to secure your website, consider working with a web security expert. They can perform a comprehensive audit of your site to identify its weaknesses and then implement the protocols necessary.

Security experts are not cheap though, but they may be worth it if a security breach could massivley damage your business.

Secure websites with Podymos

Do you want to communicate more effectively with HCPs and patients? Do you want to be able to deliver high-quality and also secure websites as part of your larger multichannel marketing strategy? You’ve come to the right place.

Podymos is a healthcare marketing agency, specialising in downstream Medical Device marketing.

We’re more expensive than non-specialised agencies and freelance teams because we only work in the Medical Device space so we have specialist knowledge and experience that other agencies may not be able to offer you.

If you want high-quality, compliant campaigns that help achieve your business goals, we’d love to hear from you. Simply leave us your contact details below and we’ll get back to you very soon for a no obligation chat.