Websites, are today an essential way of selling your products or services. It puts your company and brand in the public eye. It is one of your most effective ways of attracting clients to you. However, it is also essential that your website is secure, not only for the obvious reason of security, but also because secure websites rank higher in searches. Below are 6 tips you can use to make your website secure.

Secure hosting

Choose a web host that offers you real protection. Do research for the best options and shortlist the ones that are able to protect their own servers from attack. This is as an indicator as to how much protection they can provide your site. Its even better if they can offer you regular backups and SSL certification. This is especially important if customers do purchases via your website. A SSL certificate will provide a secure encrypted connection and protect your customers from data theft and viruses.

Keep software updated

To keep your site secure it is essential that you keep your software, such as Forum and CMS, updated at all time always. Server operating hardware should be updated as well so that no security holes appear in your software. Such breaches are easy targets for hackers.

Server/form validation

It is important to do validation on both the browser and the server side to avoid malicious or scripting codes from being inserted into your database. Failure to detect these early, through validation, can cause major damage to your website.

Strong passwords

It is one of the most basic requirements for security but is unfortunately also one of the most neglected. Your password should have at least 12 characters or more with combinations of symbols, numbers and letters. Passwords do not have to be recognizable words or sequences. The more random the better, as it prevents hackers from gaining access to your website. Strong unique passwords will help protect your website.

Maintain different levels of access

A great way to maintain your security is to have different levels of access. Each person that accesses your website or backend should have their own login details. These logins should also have different levels of access depending on each user’s requirements. This will limit their access only to the areas that they require, to complete the task at hand. This will protect your site from any careless mishaps or malicious intent. Overall access should not be given to everyone.

Enlist professional help

When you are creating your website or updating your security, enlist the help of professionals to have it done accurately. Having the proper technical safety features embedded into your website design will ensure, to a great extent, its security. From time to time enlist help to update the overall security of your site as well.