Website hacking and malware account for most data breaches in cyber security today. This is according to a 2021 research by Verizon.
What’s more? It’s so for large and small businesses alike.
Thankfully, you can follow some web hosting tips when you’re designing your website to improve its security and keep hackers away.
It would be frustrating if your website information got wiped out. Or worse still, if someone stole sensitive customer information on your page.
Therefore, whether it’s just a small blog or a website for a small business, hackers can still find a reason to breach your data.
These web hosting tips will get you started on your security journey to safeguard your website from these attacks.
Top 5 Web Hosting Tips
With a few proactive web hosting best practices, you can keep your website safe. Here are the top five web hosting tips to look out for.
1. Install Security Socket Layer (SSL) Certificate
Adding an SSL certificate to your website is the easiest web hosting tip on this list. SSL certificates are easy to install and come in different types. They ensure that data exchange between your website and your user is encrypted. This keeps information, such as login details, secure.
This is especially important for sites with payment requirements.
Most web hosting companies provide a free SSL certificate with domain or web hosting purchase and that would suffice if your site doesn’t deal with overly sensitive information.
Your website URL will read HTTPS if you’ve installed SSL. Additionally, SSL certificates are also important for SEO so you should consider buying them when you’re developing your website.
Google, for instance, warns site visitors about your website’s security if it’s not HTTPS secured.
2. Keep Your Software Up to Date
If you use a content management system (CMS) and plugins, you’ll need to update them constantly to prevent any vulnerabilities.
This is because this kind of software is often open-source, letting you modify its code.
That makes it susceptible to malicious access, as hackers can use this code to find security weaknesses on your website. Updating your CMS and plugins frequently reduces these risks, as updated versions are often safer.
This web hosting tip isn’t for websites that use a managed WordPress hosting solutions, as their host already takes care of these updates.
But if you, for instance, use a WordPress-based website, you’ll find your update notifications on the dashboard and will have to do them manually. Then you can easily select the updates and click on the “Update Plugins” button as can be seen below.
Image via WordPress
3. Install Anti-Malware Software
This is one of the most crucial web hosting tips for every website. Anti-malware software scans your device for any malicious software, spam, and spyware and removes it.
It does this by monitoring suspicious behavior of software and removing it before it infects your computer.
Anti-malware does more than just scan for viruses. It has advanced features that strengthen your security vulnerabilities and constantly monitors your site for malware.
One example of anti-malware software available on WordPress, Magento, and WooCommerce websites is SiteLock.
4. Strengthen Your Passwords
This may seem like an obvious web hosting tip, but it’s one people often miss. Passwords are an easy target for hackers, especially if you haven’t created a strong one. This applies to both you and your website visitors.
You should always use a strong password to access your admin profile, and email hosting, and insist your website users to create strong passwords for their accounts.
Here are some tips for the setting passwords:
- Use a minimum of eight characters
- At least one symbol
- An uppercase letter
- Number in the password
Here’s another tip—always encrypt these passwords using best password checker if they’re saved on the site. This would limit the hackers as they’d have to decrypt them.
5. Backup Your Website Content
Backups keep your website content in an alternative safe place in case your original content gets wiped out by a hacker. While other web hosting tips prevent hackers from accessing your information, this one addresses a worst-case scenario where you get hacked.
Regular backups ensure you have the latest content of your website somewhere ready to be republished in case of any loss. If your business website gets hacked, you’ll be back and running in no time without affecting most of your customer activities.
This is also one of the most powerful ways to ensure your productivity doesn’t take a dip when the website gets hacked.
And the best part?
Some web hosting services include backup software with your hosting. But you could always use another service. For instance, UpdraftPlus and BackupBuddy are some backup plugins available on WordPress. Or, you could use a backup service like Sucuri, for a fee.
Whichever way you choose to back up your website, ensure that it’s done on a regular basis with little time in between. Make it as frequent as you make your website updates. Automated or real-time backups are best.
Keep Your Website Protected From Hackers
All these web hosting tips keep your website safe so you can focus on growing your business. If you’re a small business running some of your operations online, these tips will help you start protecting your sensitive information.
Besides hackers, your SEO rankings also depend on your site’s security. Therefore, this is not something you can overlook.
Search engine crawlers will trust your site more if it’s secure.
All the best in setting up security measures for your website using these tips.
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