What is SEO and Why is it Important in Cybersecurity?
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process of increasing your website’s visibility in search engine results pages to attract more organic traffic. While SEO typically falls under marketing disciplines, it also has significant implications for cybersecurity. In today’s digital world, a secure website is a vital component of a successful SEO strategy.
Cybersecurity and SEO may seem like two entirely different disciplines with distinct goals, but they actually influence each other more than you might expect. SEO efforts enhance a website’s visibility in search engine results by optimizing content, site structure, and technical elements like page load speed to make it easier for search engines like Google to crawl, index, and rank the site higher for relevant search queries. Cybersecurity focuses on protecting digital assets from threats and attacks. The combination of these two fields will not only safeguard your website but also improve your SEO simultaneously.
Continue reading to learn how cybersecurity and SEO can work together to improve your overall website performance and discover the 9 best practices for better SEO and website security.
Strengthen Security with Co-Managed IT
Boost your SEO strategy with our cybersecurity expertise. Maintain control while we scale your security to match your evolving SEO goals.
How important is a secure website for Google rankings?
SEO and cybersecurity work hand in hand; if one is ignored, the other will suffer. Google upholds certain standards for websites to meet in terms of cybersecurity to rank highly in search results. Sites that cannot meet these standards, such as malware protection, face consequences.
One of the most important aspects of having a successful website is being trustworthy in the eyes of browsers and search engines. If cybersecurity is lacking, browsers may display cautionary messaging to deter users from accessing your site.
A critical aspect of building trust is using HTTPS encryption, which ensures that the data between your site and its visitors is secure. In fact, Google uses HTTPS encryption as a ranking signal, meaning it can directly impact the visibility of your site.
Additionally, cybersecurity attacks or data breaches can cause reputational damage. If users catch wind of a website breach or stolen data, they will seek other options to solve the problem they were searching for. Cybersecurity fosters trust, while optimized SEO enhances the user experience. For example, by reducing page load speed and adding alt text for visually impaired users, SEO positions your website for success and encourages user retention.
Now that you understand the connection and importance of focusing on both cybersecurity and SEO for your website, let’s discuss how to optimize your efforts.
9 best practices for website security and SEO strategies
Your business won’t achieve long-term success in this digital age without a robust website. Users expect their searches to efficiently answer their queries, which means your site must promptly provide them with what they need, both in content and navigation. Slow page loading times or downtime will foster a sense of distrust in users and increase your bounce rate.
To get the most out of your SEO and cybersecurity efforts, start by following these 9 best practices:
- Implement HTTPS:
In order to implement HTTPS encryption on your website, you first need an SSL certificate. This certificate is a data file hosted on a website’s origin server, enabling HTTPS to be more secure than HTTP. If you do not obtain an SSL certification before using HTTPS encryption, your users may be redirected to a blocked connection, negatively impacting your site’s SEO and decreasing website traffic. - Secure coding guidelines:
Website developers should adhere to strict coding guidelines, including input validation, encryption of sensitive data, and appropriate error handling. This will establish a strong security foundation that positively impacts the website’s health. - Use web application firewalls:
Installing a web application firewall (WAF) will create a layered security structure that can sort through incoming traffic and quickly identify common attacks. These attacks may include cross-site scripting or SQL injections that will be blocked from bypassing your defenses. - Leverage access controls:
Authentication and authorization practices are always encouraged. They can help you identify any suspicious activity, such as increased failed login attempts or traffic from dubious IP addresses. This will not only keep your website secure but also protect your users’ experience by safeguarding their information and creating trust. - Monitor suspicious activity:
With the use of solutions like SIEM tools or intrusion detection systems, your team can find any suspicious activity like increased failed log in attempts, traffic from suspicious IP addresses, and so on. This allows you to respond quickly, and identify what gaps in your system are allowing these issues to come through. - Use a CMS:
With content management systems like WordPress, you can streamline your content process and reduce the attack surface area all in one platform. The ability to add plug-ins, add-ons, or remove unnecessary modules will keep your content flowing and safe from malicious activity. - Validate user input:
All user-controllable input should be cleaned and validated on the server side before processing. This will help your team avoid OS commands, SQL injections, and other cyber threats affecting the server. - Conduct security audits:
We recommend regular audits for all processes, but these are especially important when it comes to security. Systems or procedures may have become outdated or have room for optimization. To catch this, schedule vulnerability assessments, penetration testing, source code audits, and compliance audits regularly. - Protect backlink profiles:
To gain traction in your SEO efforts, it’s important to build authority in your industry. Authority can be heavily influenced by your backlink profile. A backlink profile is a collection of all the links pointing back to your website from other websites. While this can be beneficial, it’s essential to conduct regular backlink audits to remove any links from untrustworthy sites.
It’s critical to stay ahead of cybersecurity and SEO and understand how they affect one another. By integrating cybersecurity protocols into your SEO efforts, your business can enhance its digital potential without compromising your website’s safety.
Beware of malicious bots
If you’re familiar with the term “bot,” then you know that they are software programs designed to automate tasks. However, you are probably also aware that there are both good and bad bots. Some bots can be helpful for SEO, like the search engine bots that index your website pages to improve their ranking in search engine results.
Unfortunately, cyber criminals can pose as bots to bypass threat detection. Once they access your network, they can begin scraping or mirroring content, overloading your resources, or spreading malware.
To avoid the bad bots from entering your site, follow these 6 steps:
- To identify and filter out bot traffic, use bot detection tools such as reCAPTCHA, behavioral analysis, or IP reputation data.
- Monitor site analytics regularly for spikes in traffic, 401 errors, or other anomalies that may indicate bot activity.
- Implement rate limiting and load balancing techniques to manage bot resource demands.
- Validate forms and user information to reduce abuse from bots during submission.
- Integrate intrusion detection systems and web application firewalls to prevent bots from accessing your site.
- Stay informed about evolving bot threats, and reach out to IT and cybersecurity professionals if you notice an increase in bot activity on your site traffic.
With all of these helpful tools and techniques integrated into your website, malicious bots will find it more challenging to infiltrate, while the good bots can continue to index your pages and assist your site in ranking for users to find.
Strengthen Security with Co-Managed IT
Boost your SEO strategy with our cybersecurity expertise. Maintain control while we scale your security to match your evolving SEO goals.
Build a holistic digital strategy
The intersection of SEO and cybersecurity underscores the importance of a holistic digital strategy. Neglecting website security can adversely impact your SEO efforts by diminishing website visibility, harming your reputation, and leading to a poor user experience. Conversely, effective cybersecurity protocols and practices can enhance SEO performance by fostering trust, stability, and user satisfaction.
By understanding and leveraging the inherent connection between SEO and cybersecurity, your business can establish a well-rounded, trustworthy online presence. We recognize that both SEO and cybersecurity are complex topics; our team of experts can assist you in ensuring that your cybersecurity measures support your SEO initiatives.
Contact our team today to discover how we can assist your business in enhancing cybersecurity and implementing SEO strategies to grow your company, reduce risk, and build trust.
About Applied Tech
Applied Tech is a leading IT and cybersecurity services provider dedicated to helping businesses protect their digital assets. Our proactive and strategic services include cloud management, security, productivity, and IT growth strategy. With a team of experienced professionals, we provide unique solutions tailored to your IT needs.
Protect your business with Applied Tech’s fully managed IT services, co-managed support, and security assistance. With IT services focused on your business goals, keep your team productive and your data secure.
