The final focus on critical ranking factors for this “Simple Search Engine Success Secrets” book is security. There’s no way Google will send someone to your site if you haven’t implemented at least the basic security protocols.
We have all heard of, or even been the victim of, unsecured sites that have been hacked and left our personal information vulnerable to illicit data hawkers.
Side note: Want to know what personal information of yours is out there on the dark web? Check out this tool that shows you which sites have been breached and what details of your private data they have revealed (warning: this may make you want to drop this book and go change your passwords). https://haveibeenpwned.com
If you are interested in learning more about how to secure your personal data to protect your home and family, watch for the upcoming book “Simple Cybersecurity for Your Home Office” which you can pre-register for here: https://yourhomeoffice.com/cybersecurity
You may have seen a “ Not Secure” warning when trying to visit certain pages. In most browsers, this warning is now shown on all sites where the data between the browser and server is not encrypted by a secured certificate.
Google almost always disallows unsecured sites from showing on mobile devices and will greatly devalue a website that doesn’t contain a verified SSL, which is usually indicated by a padlock or shield symbol in the browser bar and will show your URL with a “https” prefix (includes an S for secured) such as https://yourhomebusinessonline.com instead of just http://…
Securing your site is easy and most options are free. If using WordPress, install the “Really Simple SSL” plug-in and within seconds you’re secured, as long as your host has one available to you, which is most likely.
Let ’ s Encrypt provides a free SSL certificate which you can install on various platforms. If using Wix or another secured, self-hosted web provider like FlyWheel , they will have one automatically installed for you.
We touched on this in Chapter 5 as it’s also an important factor in reducing page load time. It’s absolutely CRITICAL for security.
If WordPress is showing you that bright red dot with an exclamation point every time you login, pay attention. Hackers are notorious for entering websites through outdated plugins and the damage they do is sometimes irreparable.
Oftentimes, you may not even know you’ve been breached. They hack into a back-end area and install spam software that can send tens of thousands of emails that originate from YOUR site without you ever knowing. I have seen many clients have their sites completely banned from Google for this and it’s a great undertaking to resolve.
You absolutely must keep your site up to date with the latest version of your platform, plugins and any associated features. Be sure you have anti-spam widgets installed. Again, most of this is automatically taken care of for you on a self-hosted or managed platform.