How to Protect Your Website with These 7 Tips

May 16, 2023 8:34 am by Sumit Gour

---

Your website security is very important. If hackers attack your website, they can steal your data, your customers’ information, your money, and your reputation. A report by RiskIQ says that hackers cost the world $2.9 million every minute in 2020.

You need to use some tips and best practices to protect your website from hackers, malware, and other threats. In this blog post, we will show you how to protect your website with these 7 tips.

1. Install an SSL Certificate
   An SSL certificate is a digital certificate that makes the data between your website and your visitors’ browsers safe. It also shows that you are the real owner of the website. An SSL certificate helps to stop hackers from stealing or changing your data.

An SSL certificate also helps your SEO ranking and your trust. Websites that have an SSL certificate show a padlock icon and an HTTPS prefix in their URLs, which means that they are safe and reliable. Websites that do not have an SSL certificate may show a warning message or a red cross in their URLs, which can make visitors leave them.

You can get an SSL certificate from different sources, such as hosting providers, domain registrars, or certificate authorities. Some of them give free SSL certificates, while others charge a fee. For example, if you host your website on SAND IT SOLUTION, you can get a free SSL certificate as part of our hosting plans.

2. Use Anti-Malware Software
   Anti-malware software is a software that checks your website for any bad code or activity and removes or blocks them. Malware can infect your website through different ways, such as old software, weak passwords, file uploads, or phishing emails. Malware can harm your website’s function, speed, look, or content.

Anti-malware software can help you find and stop malware attacks before they hurt your website or your visitors. You can use anti-malware software as a separate tool or as a plugin for your website platform. Some examples of anti-malware software are Sucuri Firewall, Wordfence Security, and MalCare.

3. Make Your Passwords Uncrackable
   Passwords are one of the most common ways to access your website’s admin panel, database, email accounts, and other sensitive areas. You need to make sure that your passwords are strong and secure. Weak passwords can be easily guessed or cracked by hackers using brute force attacks or dictionary attacks.

To make your passwords uncrackable, you should follow some basic rules:

• Use a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols
• Avoid using common words, names, dates, or phrases
• Make your passwords long and unique
• Change your passwords often
• Do not use the same password for different accounts
• Do not share your passwords with anyone
• Use a password manager to store and generate passwords

1. Keep Your Website Up to Date
   Keeping your website up to date is important for keeping its security and performance. Old software, plugins, themes, or scripts can have problems that hackers can use to get into your website or put bad code. Updating your website often can help you fix any bugs or issues and improve its function and features.

You should check for any updates for your website platform, hosting service, plugins, themes, or scripts whenever they are available and install them as soon as possible. You can also turn on auto-updates if they are supported by your website platform or hosting service. For example, if you use WordPress as your website platform, you can turn on auto-updates for WordPress core, plugins, and themes in the settings.

5. Train Your Staff
   If you have staff members who work on your website or have access to it, you need to train them on how to use it safely and securely. Your staff members can be potential targets or sources of cyberattacks if they are not aware of the best practices and policies for website security.

You should teach your staff members how to:

• Create and manage strong passwords
• Recognize and avoid phishing emails
• Use secure connections and devices
• Backup and restore data
• Report any suspicious activity or incident

You should also limit the access levels and permissions of your staff members according to their roles and responsibilities. You can use tools such as user roles or user management plugins to control who can access what on your website.

6. Scan Your Website Regularly
   Scanning your website regularly is another way to make sure its security and health. Scanning your website can help you find any problems, errors, malware infections, or speed issues that may affect your website’s function or reputation.

You can use different tools or services to scan your website, such as:

• Google Search Console: A free service that helps you watch and improve your website’s presence on Google search results. It can also alert you of any security issues or manual actions that may affect your website’s ranking or visibility.
• Google Safe Browsing: A free service that helps you check if your website is safe or bad according to Google’s standards. It can also alert you of any unsafe content or downloads that may harm your visitors or devices.
• Site Checker: A free tool that helps you analyze and improve your website’s SEO, speed, usability, and security. It can also alert you of any broken links, redirects, or errors that may affect your website’s performance or user experience.

1. Use Security Tools or Plugins
   Security tools or plugins are extra features or extensions that you can use to make your website’s security and protection better. Security tools or plugins can provide different functions, such as:

• Firewall: A firewall is a system that watches and filters the incoming and outgoing traffic on your website. It can block or allow requests based on predefined rules or criteria. A firewall can help you stop hackers, bots, spam, DDoS attacks, and other threats from getting into your website.
• Backup: A backup is a copy of your website’s files and data that you can store in a safe place. A backup can help you restore your website in case of any data loss, corruption, or damage caused by cyberattacks, human errors, or technical failures.
• SSL: An SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate is a digital certificate that makes the data between your website and your visitors’ browsers safe. It also shows that you are the real owner of the website. An SSL certificate helps to stop hackers from stealing or changing your data.
• Captcha: A captcha is a test that checks if a user is human or a bot. It can be a simple question, a puzzle, or an image recognition task. A captcha can help you stop bots from spamming, hacking, or abusing your website forms, comments, registrations, or logins.

You can find different security tools or plugins for different website platforms or hosting services. For example, if you use WordPress as your website platform, you can find security plugins such as iThemes Security, Jetpack Security, and All In One WP Security & Firewall.

Conclusion
Website security is not something you can ignore or take lightly. A website that is exposed to cyberattacks can endanger your data, your customers’ information, your money, and your reputation.

To protect your website from hackers, malware, and other threats, you need to use some security tips and best practices. In this blog post, we showed you how to protect your website with these 7 tips:

• Install an SSL certificate
• Use anti-malware software
• Make your passwords uncrackable
• Keep your website up to date
• Train your staff
• Scan your website regularly
• Use security tools or plugins

If you are looking for a reliable, affordable, and easy-to-use web hosting platform that supports all these security tips and more, we recommend SAND IT SOLUTION. SAND IT SOLUTION is a web hosting platform that provides:

• Shared hosting, VPS hosting, cloud hosting, and WordPress hosting plans
• Free domain name registration and SSL certificate
• Free website builder and CMS
• Free email hosting and backup
• 24/7 customer support and security

To get started with SAND IT SOLUTION, visit our website and choose a plan that suits your needs. You can also contact us if you have any questions or need any help. We are happy to assist you with your web hosting needs.