“Absence of web-security directly impacts the website’s organic performance. A poorly designed website deters the SEO rankings.”

If you are curating a digital marketing roadmap, then firstly, ensure that your website is fully secure to any unauthorized access. It’s natural that most of the webpreneurs go complacent in terms of site security.

Rather than blaming the IT department, you must follow certain cyber-security practices in your SEO drive. Your website’s organic performance is deeply hampered if it is either poorly designed or lacks security.

Read More: How web design and SEO are closely linked?

In this post, we’ll gain a deeper insight into why you cannot afford to ignore web-security before channelizing your digital marketing plans.

So, let’s start connecting the dots!

Firstly understand, what is Hacking and how it affects SEO?

Hacking is basically an authentication breach that allows unauthorized/illegal access to a website or a computer network. Hackers aim to access the sensitive/private information of the web-owners and visitors. They even redirect the users to their website that’s akin to the original.

How Hackers Affect the Website?

Malware and spamming are two major tools used by hackers to disrupt the compromised website. Where Malware is indented for a data-breach, spamming is done by adding a hypertext and is used for redirection.

A spammed web-link takes the user to hacker’s website, thereby, boosting its traffic and SEO rankings of the hacker unethically. A poorly designed website makes the website easy to hack and is easily compromised.

How Hacking affects SEO?

If you are witnessing a significant drop in your rankings/traffic despite the best digital marketing techniques, then there must be a catch.  The corollaries may be far-reaching and disruptive.

• SEO Spam

According to GoDaddy, around 73% of the total websites hacked were due to SEO Spam. SEO spam is done mainly on the authority websites that have good rankings and visibility. Here the websites are turned into link farms.

The visitors are tricked using malware or phishing links. Sometimes, the entire website is scraped using SQL injections. This ultimately makes the recovery even more difficult.

• Malicious Code

Your overall organic traffic will be affected if your website gets bugged with malicious code. This code can be detected by Google and can put your website on-stake if sensed.

A warning message will be displayed by Google when users try to navigate the website. Henceforth, it tells the users to stay away. If no action is taken by web-owner, the website could eventually be removed from the SERPs.

Are Google New Core Updates Negatively Impacting Your Rankings? Here’s What You Can Do.

Google does that to safeguard its users from diving into the sandbox. This action by Google impacts SEO directly as well as indirectly. The metrics such as page per session, bounce rate and time on site are negatively impacted.

In fact, a deep sense of mistrust will prevail amongst the visitors which will significantly affect the bottom line.  

• Unplanned Redirects

Most often, the hacker plants a redirection on CTA buttons. This makes the user visit another look-alike website. The content may be designed to fetch sensitive information from the user.

If Google bots find the redirection, the SEO rankings are hurt severely in terms of visibility.

• Backlinks and Blacklisting

Search Engine bots assess the value of links and domains that link with the main website. When a website is hacked, the links that are added to it are of low value/authority. This seriously impacts the SEO efforts.

The ramifications of hacking do not stop here. Google may flag a hacked site or may blacklist a website for containing malware. This seriously hampers SERP rankings, visibility and revenue as well.

Read More: Why Ranking High on Google is a key to Make Money Online?

How to prevent your SEO efforts from going detrimental by hacking?

Here are a few tips that would help you stay away from hacking.

• Design it from a Professional

Get your website designed by a professional. An experienced web designer knows the complete nitty-gritty of web designing. Your website would not only be as per the latest trends but would be fully secure and comply with web-standards as well.

Read More: 10 Viral Trends that are reshaping the Dynamics of Web Development

• Don’t Install Plugins from Untrusted Sources

You may need to install plugins for your WordPress or other CMS website. But, installing from unknown or untrusted sources may increase the chance of the site being compromised.

Always install updated plugins or other tools from trusted websites (such as those with HTTPs or green padlock). Take the reviews and ratings into consideration before installation.

• Server Sharing

If you are hosting your website on a shared server, then you must be extra careful. The hackers may upload some malicious files on the server to get access or perform a breach.

• Strong Passwords and Penetration Testing

Make your passwords very strong and make them extremely difficult to guess. Make sure that you not becoming a victim of shoulder surfing. Professionals perform penetration testing to analyze and pull out all the stops related to web security.

Top 20 SEO Hacks You Can’t Afford To Ignore In Today’s Time

Conclusion

While designing a website make sure to give it in safe hands. Digital Kangaroos- the best digital marketing company in North India offers a 360-degree solution to all your web needs. From digital marketing to web development, from SEO to social media marketing, get in touch with us for best-in-class e-solutions.

Call us at +919814820845 or drop your queries at info@digitalkangaroos.com for best and affordable digital solutions.