Three things to do to keep your website safe & secure 🔐
Hey, thanks for visiting the blog! Quick heads up - this is a micro-post in a long running series called Your Website Sucks - Let's Fix That. If you find what's written here useful, check it out!
For too long, security has not been a priority for website owners. This is no longer something anyone can afford. Google has started cracking down, and if you don't take care of basic security, they will rightfully penalize you in search results.
The good news - the simple things you might not be doing don't take long to fix. Taking care of the basics makes it much more difficult for your site to be compromised, and ensures that in worst case scenarios you will still have copy of your website.
For a small site, you can take care of the basics without any outside help. Here's where I recommend you start:
Sort out Passwords
None of the next steps matter if your website isn't protected with a good password. While you're doing this, make sure your current passwords aren't out there in the wild. A well designed password is useless if it's already in possession by a potential intruder.
(Always create passwords that are both secure and easy to remember. There's no point in a password you'll forget.)
If you already have a myriad of passwords to remember, I highly recommend using software for aid. Here's a couple to consider:
Use SSL
If you don't have SSL on your domain, Google is visibly marking you as insecure. Fixing this is easy, as many technologies like Let's Encrypt have emerged to make the whole process much easier.
Using Cloudflare is my recommended solution, since it's quick, painless, and improves a whole lot with a simple install. Analytics, better speed, traffic monitoring... In my estimation, the bevy of features it adds make it a must have.
Create regular backups
Security isn't only about the safety of your website visitors. It's also about the future of your site. Websites get hacked all the time, with Wordpress owners accounting for the largest percentage. For website owners not keeping regular backups, you risk losing your entire website. Nobody wants to rebuild a site from scratch.
If you're on Wordpress, hosting solutions like Flywheel and Siteground make this easy. There are plenty of plugins to help with this too.
My rule of thumb? Always have (at least) two backups. When protecting the life of your site, redundancy is good!
If you have trouble choosing a backup solution for Wordpress, I highly recommend this article to find the the best solution for you.
Don't get intimidated
For those new to the website world, don't be intimidated by any of this. If you take care of the aforementioned details, you'll be covered even for the worst of scenarios. If you need help with any of this, drop me a line.
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This series of articles is constantly evolving and always open to improvement. If you have any thoughts don't hesitate to reach out. Feel free to drop me a note at [email protected]
Need help with your website? Check out my portfolio, or give me a shout!
Cheers, 🍻
- Josh @kraahkan
Cover photo by Joshua Sortino on Unsplash