How Worried Should You Be About Website Hacking?

Making Sure Hackers Don’t Visit Your Website 

A Google post recently brought up a topic that gets talked about more and more these days – hacking. A problem that used to live on computers is now a concern on every type of device, which has made hacking more bothersome than ever before.

A few years ago Google started their #NoHacked campaign, and it was aptly timed. Reports show that website hacking increased by 32% last year. After all of the hacking allegations that surrounded the presidential election it’s totally believable. But Google experts believe the increase is a trend that will unfortunately continue.

Hacking has serious repercussions for businesses. Everything from emails to employee social security numbers to credit card information could be at risk. In our Internet of Things era, going without a website isn’t feasible for most businesses. The only alternative is to build up a defense and monitor it regularly.

Outdated Websites Are Part of the Problem

Imagine a home that was built 50 years ago and has never been updated, including the home security. There’s no steel entry door with a deadlock or double-pane windows. It would be fairly easy to break in, especially since there’s no Wi-Fi connected cameras or motion sensors that send an alert to your phone.

This same scenario applies to websites. Outdated websites have security weaknesses that hackers can take advantage of. They’re much more susceptible to infections and sites impacted can experience lower to no visibility in Google.

Steps You Can Take to Prevent Hacking

Preventing a hacking incident is easier than dealing with the aftermath. There are a number of steps that can be taken to keep hackers away from your web properties.

Do an audit to look for weaknesses. The first step to preventing a hack is correcting the vulnerabilities that hackers capitalize on.

Build strong technical framework and strengthened account security. These are two keys to bringing a site up to modern day standards.

Verify your website in Google Search Console. Verified sites will receive an alert from Google if they’ve been hacked.

Look through Google’s hacked site documentation. It can get a bit techy, but Google added a number of new guides recently in an effort to assist webmasters. There are also clean up guides for websites that have been hacked. 

Make updates asap. Anytime your content management system (CMS), hardware or software needs an update don’t hesitate to get it done.

Hiring a search optimization company like SearchRPM can also help. We closely monitor the activity around our clients’ web properties, which means even the smallest hack will be identified and remedied quickly. 

Need to protect your website from hackers? Call SearchRPM to receive your FREE SEO Report!

By Michael Ramirez
SearchRPM Founder


Michael Ramirez is the Founder of SearchRPM, an Austin, TX based search marketing company that’s well-versed in Search Engine Optimization best practices. You can follow Michael Ramirez on Twitter @openmic0323 or on Google+ to see what he’s up to next.