Did you know that your website security or its absence can affect your SEO ranking directly? It is easy to get locked into a digital marketer’s perception of SEO and thereby ignore what it should be. That is why the digital marketing industry has varied opinions about the impact of website security on organic searches.
Even though the debate is ongoing, would you care to find out the true cost of a cyber attack on your website? Website owners can often end up neglecting the security aspects while focusing on digital marketing plans. But the lack of website security can prove detrimental to search engine optimization as well. In this article, we will discuss how the absence of website security can impact SEO.
HTTPS Domain
While focusing on enhancing your site’s visibility, it’s crucial to recognize that comprehensive strategies, which include understanding the nuances of effective optimization techniques, are integral to achieving success. Expert insights, such as those offered by Digital Spotlight, delve deep into how aligning security with SEO practices can significantly boost your site’s performance and protect it from potential cyber threats.
According to leading international SEO experts like Idan Ben Or , they should be more concerned about what the users experience because it will eventually matter to Google as well. A person would never want to visit an unsecured website that cannot guarantee their online safety. Therefore to show the users that you have taken the necessary steps to secure your website, you need to buy the Cheapest SSL Certificate to have an HTTPS domain.
If you are still using an HTTP domain, a user might think that your website is outdated and unsecured. Therefore, getting an HTTPS domain should be the first on your list of search optimizations.
Google Blacklist
If your website becomes a target for a cyberattack, the damages will not be limited to financial losses. Your website will also get blacklisted as per Google manual penalization, which will affect your search engine ranking negatively. If your website is subject to a malware attack, the rank can also suffer without getting blacklisted.
The presence of malware or spam on your website will increase the chance of your website getting hacked. Moreover, It will have a negative impact on your website SEOs. Therefore, securing your website will not only protect it from cybercriminals but also safeguard your website’s organic ranking.
Bad Crawling Bots
Web crawling bots are indeed responsible for your website’s organic ranking. However, not all search bots have honest purposes. Studies have shown that almost 19% of web crawlers on the Internet are there to mind domains, detect website vulnerabilities, and phish data.
If a malicious web crawler gets attached to your website, it will not allow a genuine search bot to scan your website because both of them use similar bandwidth and resources on the server.
Moreover, if multiple bots keep your server engaged, it will also create a bottleneck for incoming website traffic. That means if you find a 404 or 503 error for your website even though it is up and running, Google search bots were probably unable to crawl through your website.
SEO Spam Injection
A lot of websites become victims of spamdexing or SEO spam injection. It is usually done to sabotage or capitalize on an authoritative website. In most instances, cybercriminals will exploit the existing vulnerabilities for an SQL injectionand obtain administrative access to make strategic changes on the website.
SEO spam cannot only harm your brand image but also get the website blacklisted. The worst part is that they are usually well-disguised, which makes it impossible for you to notice them until the damage is done.
Reducing the risk to SEO and website security is not very complicated. These are some of the ways in which you can increase your website security and prevent damage to the SEO and organic ranking.
- Install security plug-ins that can protect your website from malware attacks.
- Use the source code analysis tool to detect compromised areas.
- Fix the security vulnerabilities from each page.
- Use unique and strong passwords for administrative rights.
- Use two-factor authorization for accessing administrative privileges.
- Keep your content management system (CMS) updated and secure.
- Get an SSL certificate and HTTPS domain.
- Tighten your local network security.
Security can affect every aspect of your website, including SEO. If you do not invest in adequate preventive measures, you might have to face long-term consequences. It can affect the reputation and ranking of your website.
So make sure that you take parallel actions to optimize SEO and security at the same time. Since the problem is not going to go away on its own, you will have to take the necessary measures to protect your website from cybercriminals.