If you owned a real store in a shopping mall, for example, you would make certain that it was safe. You would install CCTV and high-tech locks. Shutters and alarm systems would be in place. You would never leave it alone or open to theft or vandalism. On the other hand, a website is often left wide open, enabling people with less than good intentions to break in and damage it while taking financial information from both customers and the business itself. If this happens, your business will have been destroyed, and your customers will be in a terrible situation. So, how can you keep your website as secure as a safe place to shop? Read on to find out.
eCommerce Hosting
Investing in the appropriate hosting for your website is a fantastic place to start regarding security. Ideally, you will have hired a professional to design your website, make it look great, and make it a place that people want to buy things from.
Putting your great website on a low-cost, insecure hosting provider is where things can go horribly wrong. You wouldn’t purchase a top-of-the-line mountain bike or sports car and put cheap tires on it, so don’t skimp on safe eCommerce hosting. Instead, look around at the top websites where people purchase high-quality goods to get a sense of the best hosting business to choose.
HTTPS
Every URL on the internet starts with the letter HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol). If you want your whole site to be safe, use HTTPS instead. This was originally restricted to just the payment section of a website, but now you can use it on all of your pages, making it even more secure and safe. In fact, having HTTPS in your URL can help you rank better in search engines since the more secure your site is, the higher it will appear in searches.
Make Regular Backups
What would you do if the worst happens, and you wake up to discover that your website has been hacked? If you have a backup of your site, you can at least restore it and go back to work. This will cut down on any downtime you may have. Of course, you’ll still have to deal with the other issues that a hacker has brought you, but at least your site will remain operational, and you won’t be losing too much money.
It can often be worthwhile to find a well-managed IT company to outsource this and other work too, ensuring that your site is protected and your business can grow quickly and safely.
Secure Your Admin Section
It is critical to have a safe site that your clients are happy to use, and that means you must secure every element of your site, including your admin area. Most eCommerce systems provide a default admin area, which can make hacking your site simple – hackers will be able to guess what your admin credentials are because these default settings are all the same. Changing the username and creating a difficult-to-guess password will make hackers think twice. Why would they spend their time and effort attempting to access your site when they can simply gain access to another that hasn’t had its admin credentials upgraded?