Secure Your Site to Boost SEO

by Chris Reid Internet security is a growing concern, and the fact that sites like eBay have been hacked in recent months has highlighted the problem. Google’s interest in security goes beyond its own sites and services. The company is campaigning to make the Internet a safer place, and has recently launched new security resources for webmasters. Google wants to ensure that sites users access from its search engine don’t present security threats. Search algorithms have recently been revised to reward sites using the HTTPS protocol, but what are theimplications for SEO? The impact of site security on ranking currently carries less weight than other factors, but many experts believe it will become an important factor in SEO over coming months. If you own a website, write SEO website content or work in the world of SEO, you need to understand these issues and consider what action you may need to take to protect your ranking. Google’s search engine is firmly established as the market leader, but the company never takes this for granted. Its focus is always on the user experience. Updates like Hummingbird and Panda often cause controversy in the world of SEO, but these changes are only introduced to improve things for the user. The intention is never to downgrade ranking and penalize sites just for the sake of it. The risk of reputational damage and loss of trust means Google wants to avoid directing a user to a website which could be a security threat. Google take a proactive approach to Internet security, and sites with out of date software and other gaps in security are notified of problems. Around ten thousand webmasters are receiving these warnings every day. If you receive a notification like this it’s critical that you take action. Ultimately sites are tagged with the warning â€Å"This site may harm your computer† in search results if problems aren’t resolved. Aside of the impact poor security can have on SEO, having this warning appear on your site means the click through rate will drop rapidly. If you simply need to update software to current versions your ranking may not suffer at all, but gaining Google’s trust again isn’t always possible in a couple of days. If your site has been hacked or targeted for a malicious attack, some serious work may be required. The first step is to investigate how a hacker entered your site. This helps to identify security weaknesses and means you can reduce the risk of further attacks. Check all of the content and pages are restored to their original versions. Finally, scan for malicious codes, change passwords and check the site’s redirects haven’t been tampered with. There’s some debate in the SEO community as to whether all websites will have to move to HTTPS encryption, but given Google’s recent announcements it’s worth considering this now. The first stage is to introduce SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) technology to your site. Your hosting company should be able to offer advice about installing SSL on your domain and generate a CSR (Certificate Signing Request) key. Once you have the CSR key you can purchase an SSL certificate from providers like Verisyn, Entrust and Geotrust. Once your site’s secure you can focus on writingquality content for your website to increase SEO even more.