With endless advancements in technology, it’s more important than ever to increase your security, keeping both you and your customers safe from online harm.
As a business, you can’t compromise on top-quality security. Keeping your website secure for your customers can be the difference between a steady stream of daily site visits and a user leaving your page at the drop of a hat. We’ve all been there. You click on a link that looks reputable on the surface, only to find that when you do get there, you get a warning from Google or you’re overloaded with pop-ups. Not ideal as a first impression!
It’s the responsibility of the business and its website to provide a safe and secure environment for a potential customer. Not only does a website give you access to a range of products and services, it’s also the shop front for your business; the first thing a customer will see and experience before they make a purchase. How can you ensure that your window of opportunity stays open, and how can you create that secure business environment online? SEO Yorkshire, digital experts in Rotherham ecommerce website design, explain the different ways you can improve your website’s security.
1. HTTPS: Get an SSL Certificate!
Choosing the right certification and switching your site from HTTP to HTTPS enables a secure connection and transaction. As your ecommerce site will deal with online transactions daily, a user’s confidential information is of utmost importance. Securing this information in the right way will prevent unauthorised users from accessing it and from using it without permission. Sticking with HTTP could have a negative impact on your site, especially since Google and other search engines favour secure sites over insecure ones when ranking sites online. However, it’s worth noting that you’ll have to continue to update your certification when it expires.
2. Choose a secure CMS.
A reliable business needs the right content management system to run their ecommerce site efficiently without any hiccups. With so many to choose from, each claiming that they are the go-to system for your business, it can be very difficult to place all your trust in a particular platform. If we’re narrowing it down a little, Magento, Shopify and WooCommerce are some top secured platforms/plugins. They can not only give you a safe and secure platform to run your ecommerce website from but they can make the task of organising your products and payments so much easier, giving you the time to focus more on what matters; running your business!
3. Only store necessary information on site.
The less information you have about an individual, the better. If you collect and store the credit card details of a customer, you’re immediately giving potential hackers more information to get their teeth into if the opportunity did arise. A single slip where information is accessible for an unauthorised user could be the end of your business and the faith of your customers. Avoid any nasty surprises by eliminating the need to store card numbers and by introducing safer ways to pay. PayPal and Apple Pay for example hold a customer’s card details securely, so no sensitive information has to be held on your website.
4. Take extra precautions by layering your security.
It’s not just a CMS and HTTPS that completes your ecommerce site security. Taking other measures to ensure you cover all bases is essential if you want to maintain your credibility and keep the trust of your loyal customers. Begin with a firewall; it creates a barrier, which monitors your networks and ensures any traffic that reaches your site is trusted. Additionally, boosting your Content Delivery Network (a group of servers working to deliver speedy content on the web) can help improve a site’s loading time, as well as the security of your pages. It’s also worth researching and staying up to date with what a potential attack can look like, so you can put necessary precautions in place.
5. Back up your site’s information.
It’s strange isn’t it? We all know how important it is to back up our data, but it’s a common problem to forget to do it regularly. It’s up to you to make sure your information is backed up, either manually or through an automated back up service. It’s recommended to do an automated back up to eliminate human error and to ensure you have the time to concentrate on other important tasks. Platforms such as Shopify can carry out this automated backup through a plugin, helping to keep all of your data safe and securely stored.
And finally, don’t forget to encourage customers to help themselves.
As an extra precaution to help customers keep their information safe, there are ways you can encourage best practice when setting up their own personal customer accounts. Despite you being responsible for the safety and security of all personal information on your site, there’s still a possibility of misuse on an individual customer’s account. Encouraging the use of strong passwords with a variety of characters or allowing a customer to sign in through an external site, such as Google or Twitter, makes it easier and safer for both parties. These external sites have high website security themselves and saves a customer creating multiple accounts.
This article was produced by SEO Yorkshire, Rotherham ecommerce website design specialists, helping businesses across the Yorkshire area thrive online. Visit their website to find out more about their services or to make an enquiry.
