Our Guide to Website Security
How important is website security? Do you know how to make your site secure? In this article, we’ll be explaining how to convert from HTTP to HTTP.
Websites being compromised isn’t exactly a new or uncommon thing.
Every website has a chance of being hacked, even if your site doesn’t have (what you think) as anything worth being hacked for. There’s always some sort of data breach in the news, whether it be leaked private information or classified data.
What does this have to do with your website? Who and why would people hack small websites when there’s surely more interesting ones to breach. But don’t be fooled, hackers can compromise your data base, spam your content with links, destroy your information and compromise your hosting server regardless of the audience and purpose of your website.
It’s unfortunate but also a reality; businesses need to know why and how to protect themselves and their customers by improving their website security.
The Importance of Website Security
Websites are a crucial feature for a lot of businesses; you need improve your website security so …
- – Malware or viruses are not uploaded to your website
- – Your data won’t be stolen
- – Your website layout isn’t altered
- – The use of your server to send spam emails
- – To protect losing your important information
- – To improve your rankings on SERPs (search engine results pages)
- – Your visitors feel safe when visiting your website
HTTP VS HTTPS
HTTPS is an acronym for Hypertext Transfer Protocol; which is a basis for internet communication. You’ll find HTTP, or HTTPS, at the beginning of a URL.
The most basic yet essential way to improve your website security is to use HTTPS hosting, to do so, you’ll need an SSL certificate.
HTTPS, Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure, is crucial to protect your website and those using it. HTTPS reassures users they’re on the server they expect, and nobody can change or hack the content they’re seeing.
Whilst HTTPS is good practice for websites, it’s particularly important when users use your site to deliver something confidential; login pages, credit card details and personal information. By using HTTPS, instead of HTTP, there will be an encrypted connection between the browser and website, so data passed between then (like personal information) cannot be hacked.
If you want to swap to HTTPS (and we strongly recommend that you do) you’ll need to get an SSL certificate; many hosting providers will include you on their SSL certificate, so you don’t need to buy your own. Regardless, if you need to buy your own they’re a wise investment and aren’t tricky to come by.
If you’re looking for some extra information, just visit Google’s Search Console Help for additional information.
As we said earlier, Google favour HTTPS on their search rankings so you’ll also boost your website awareness. If you’re looking for other ways to boost your SEO, our articles will help you;
Once you have installed SSL on your service, you then need to make sure all site pages are HTTPS and not the insecure HHTP. SSL installation won’t automatically convert pages into HTTPS. To do so, you should consider;
- – Testing
- – Redirections to HTTPS
- – Server configuration
To test your success, simply try using HTTP and see if you’re automatically redirected to HTTPS (it’s only a single letter difference so keep an eye-out). Try it on your most important pages to start (like your home page) and then randomly select different pages to ensure HTTPS is fully working across your site.
Could We Help?
Different Gravy Digital can help get your website up-to-speed.
Get in touch for a free, no obligation consultation for more information!
Why not check out our Digital Marketing Terms Glossary?
E: contact@differentgravydigital.co.uk
Tel: 0161 706 0004
About the author:
Marie Harwood is a Digital Marketing Assistant at Different Gravy Digital, Hale, Cheshire.
Different Gravy Digital are a full service Digital Marketing Agency operating in the Hospitality & Leisure, Financial Services, Legal & Property sectors. Products and services range from; 3D & 360° Tours, Website Design & Build, Social Media, Video Production, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Content Creation, Email Marketing, Online Feedback / Review Systems and Paid Advertising (Google, Bing and Social Media).
Contact Details:
marie@differentgravydigital.co.uk
0161 706 0004
120a Ashley Road, Hale, Altrincham, Cheshire, WA14 2UN