Online Security and Search Engine Optimization
SEO and Security: Does it Matter? Are they related and how? Learn here how to secure your site and by doing that are you improving your site's SEO?
As a content marketer, it’s your job to make sure your web pages are reaching as many people as possible. More views ultimately lead to a higher PageRank and, hopefully, more income for your business. It’s not an exact science, but there is a myriad of tools available to content marketers these days to make the job more efficient.
Internet Security and SEO
It’s never a fast process. You always have to be on the cutting edge of what’s trending, and more often than not, that means adapting your processes to accommodate some fresh ideas. Being flexible is a big part of being successful in the online community, but there’s also a lot to be said for how you protect your reputation.
In a world of viral stories, word spreads quickly when your site gets taken over by hackers. It’s an embarrassing situation for any company to have to deal with, but the sooner it’s handled, the better. Ideally, though, the best policy for preventing this kind of detrimental damage to your reputation is considering your security while you market content.
With SEO research, we put a tremendous amount of information about our business out there, and just like we’re watching sites and trends, much of the time, someone is watching us, and the information we enter is more valuable than we might think.
Using simple search strings and login info, hackers can trace an alarming amount of information back to us. These simple pieces of information can be used to link us to other sites, and if poor password practices are used, begin the domino effect of having your entire company infiltrated from the inside out.
It’s not unheard of, and it happens more than you might think. So how seriously are taking your cybersecurity? Here are a few basic tips every internet marketer needs to consider.
Your Activity Can Be Tracked
First and foremost, it’s important to understand that everything you do online is 100 percent traceable back to you. The NSA isn’t the only one keeping tabs on people. Advertising software and hackers alike use this information to feed you spam and ads for things you may have searched for recently.
On the hacking side of things, it may seem harmless enough, but the truth is that more often than not, this information is used to send you spam emails and trick you into revealing personal information.
To keep your browsing activity and searches private, disable sharing your cookies with sites, and clear out your cache from time to time. You can also use things such as Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and Incognito Mode to step up your privacy a bit. More on that later.
Be Smart About Where You Work About SEO
Here’s the thing: public networks are really convenient places to work on the go, but they’re not the most secure. These days all it takes is a few hours on the internet and $100 to put together a setup that can intercept data over an unsecured network. Anybody can do it, and unfortunately, lots of people do.
To make sure you’re not compromising the security of your site, be picky about where you work. Try to limit it to private, secure networks. If you have no choice but to work on open networks, be smart about it and install a VPN. You may have heard of a VPN in your search to unblock a site or stream Netflix, but these programs are also incredibly useful as security tools, not just filter circumvention.
VPNs encrypt your data and hide your IP address, so not only is your data completely private and secure, but your activity is completely anonymous and untraceable. By keeping your cookies private and using a VPN when you work on public networks, you can ensure that your data isn’t going to be tracked or intercepted by anyone with bad intentions.
Practice Sensible Password Security
More often than not, it turns out that when a website is hacked, it’s a combination of a few things, and password security is definitely one of them. Hackers are getting increasingly more clever about finding ways to steal your login information. You’d be amazed the lengths they’ll go to.
One way is through a technique called social engineering, in which they try to get revealing personal information about you through simple, random online interactions (this is why you should be selective about who you allow on your friend's list). They might even just try to get enough information to answer your security questions, at which point they can pretty much just reset your password altogether.
Aside from that though, some common sense password security goes a long way. Choosing long, unique passwords for each account you manage is critical. A shocking number of people set themselves up for real trouble by reusing the same passwords over and over again. Once they get one, they can essentially unlock just about anything you’re registered on.
If you have a hard time remembering passwords, using a program such as LastPass is something worth looking into. They store all of your login information for you and enter it automatically, and you just have to remember one big, secure password. It’s perfect for all of those SEO tools and WordPress logins.
Limit Who You Give Admin Privileges To
In addition to practicing some sensible password precautions, it’s also worth mentioning that you limit who you give the keys to the kingdom to. Having too many employees running around with login information to your site can be an accident waiting to happen.
Make sure everyone is well versed in basic security practices. It’s not a bad idea to have them read this article. And make password managers the norm to save yourself the headache of having to constantly reset forgotten passwords. Also, keep the list of people with full admin privileges as short as possible that way there’s less at risk if they do fall short and compromise your site’s login.
The simple truth is, the information you use to market your site is very valuable to some people, and your login information can all too easily be stolen. Always operate on the defensive. Your site is a prized platform for hackers for distributing spam and malware, and your reputation will be the one to suffer if you don’t take security seriously.
Make these simple practices second nature, and make sure any staff you have working on the site is also up to speed. You can market your site on public networks, and keep things secure with multiple users, but in order to do so, you need to start marketing with security in mind.
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I’d like to thank SEO Basics for posting this article on their site. This is such a great resource for online marketers and content developers. I’ve found a lot of great articles here to broaden my own knowledge, and highly suggest checking out this guide to basic SEO tips.
