Did you know that a slow website will reduce your ranking in Google?
Did you know that a website that was hacked or is spreading malware will be blacklisted by all major search engines?
Yes, Website Security and Performance are very important for the success of your website.
Search engines are just companies. Be it Google, Bing or Yahoo.
They want their customers to come back and use them over and over again. That’s how they make money. If your website is slow or infects the visitor’s computer, it is bad for business.
For that reason, your website will be downranked if it is slow and even blacklisted if it is infected.
Here at HelpingHost.com, we have almost twenty years of experience in the field of hosting websites. We have many measures in place to prevent your website from being hacked.
However, we have to strike a balance between security and you, the customer, being able to work on your site.
Here I will talk about steps to increase your website security and performance.
Starting with things YOU can do for free, all the way to products which will help secure and speed up your website.
What YOU can (SHOULD) do to improve Website Security for free:
The most important thing YOU can do is to keep your Apps, themes, and plugins up2date.
It does not cost you anything but a bit of time at least once a month, better once a week.
(Do you have lots of websites to manage and would like to have us take care of this?
No problem, its called managed WordPress and starts at 50 cents per month per website)
Next, if you are using WordPress, look for a quality security plugin. For example, Loginizer which you can install via our one-click installer or later on by using WordPress plugins.
If you are using Joomla, you could use Admin Tools made by Akeeba.
Last, and often overlooked, please choose a GOOD password! Do NOT re-use the same password in multiple places. You will not believe how often we find websites or accounts protected with passwords that are just too simple.
Remember to update your FTP password, your Hosting account password, AND your Application password. (The user you use to login to your WordPress, Joomla, Magento and so on)
Paid solutions to increase website security and performance:
- cWatch – A service that acts as a firewall in front of your website, filters bad traffic, and scans your website constantly for infections and hacks. In addition, it also looks for changes to your website files to see if you were hacked or infected.
If issues are found a dedicated security team will repair the website as well as patch it if any vulnerabilities (Weaknesses) are found. - Cloudflare – Its main purpose is to enhance the website’s performance, but it also includes some firewall functionality to block bad actors from hacking your site.
- SiteLock – is mostly focused on Website Security. This product basically tracks changes to your website files. If something changes they check if the changes are caused by a virus or hack or are legitimate. It also checks your website’s reputation on a daily base. Only the most expensive edition of this software includes a web firewall and CDN to enhance the performance of your website.
- Astra Website Security – unlike the services above, the main advantage is that it gets installed directly on your website. No need for DNS Server changes or DNS entries. Imagine it like an Antivirus Software for your website.
Summary:
First, the most important thing you can do to keep your website safe and perform at its best is to keep it up2date at all times. It does not cost anything and will ensure that our intrusion detection can do its job.
Second, if available, add a security plugin to your application.
Third, choose a good password and make sure to use UNIQUE passwords.
Last, if you are making some money with your website, it might be worth it to pay a little bit extra to get an extra layer of protection.