Do you want to make the most out of your website — increase your conversion rate, improve your SEO, and have the most engaging content? Because to do so you’ll need to audit your site on a regular basis.

In this post, we’re covering ways you can perform a review of your site so you know what’s working and what needs improvement.

How to Perform a Website Audit

Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

In order to successfully audit your site, you need to know three things:

1. What a website audit entails.
2. Who your ideal audience is.
3. What your goals are.

The first because, well, how can you perform an audit without knowing what it is? And the second because your site should be designed with your ideal audience in mind. Any improvements you make to your site based on your audit should make life easier for them, not harder. Finally, you need to have identified your website goals. The improvements you make to your site should support your goals (e.g. – increase conversions by 5% month over month.)

Many people and online resources will tell you that a website audit has everything to do with SEO. While that is a large part of it, your site is more than just an SEO machine and we have to look at the bigger picture.

We appreciate BluLeadz’s definition of a website audit. They say that “a good website audit takes into account all the factors that can influence your website’s success: From your perspective, your customer’s, and Google’s.” Considering Google held 88.47 percent of the search engine market as of 2019, their perspective and opinion of your site is absolutely crucial to your success. Your customers’ perspective is essential, so part of your audit will revolve around reviewing the user experience of your website. And of course, your perspective is vital. Who knows your goals and motivations better than yourself? Now is the time to make sure your website is aligned to support them.

Website Review and Audit Tools

It’s difficult to determine where you should begin working on your site if you don’t have a solid understanding of how it’s currently performing. It’s best to first perform your audit and then plan your improvements based on the results.   

A good thing to do at the beginning of every website audit is use a tool built for that specific purpose. You can find both free and paid website audit tools by doing a quick Internet search. Many free tools require that you provide an email address in exchange for their services (it’s called lead generation), or you can pay for a tool to provide a more in-depth review of your site.  

Website Grader

HubSpot created a popular tool, Website Grader, that provides information on your site’s performance, mobile-friendliness, security, SEO, and more. Check out Domain.com’s grade below.

What isn’t pictured here is the plethora of information you’ll receive by starting your website audit with this beginner-friendly tool. You can use the insights from the audit to hone in on the areas where your site needs the most or immediate work. In fact, the last section, titled “What Should I Do Next?” lays it out for you.

Google’s Site Audit Tools

Google offers multiple tools to help you review and understand your website. Here are three of their resources that can best assist you with your audit.

PageSpeed Insights

The name, “PageSpeed Insights,” is pretty telling isn’t it? It’s a tool that “reports on the performance of a page on both mobile and desktop devices, and provides suggestions on how that page may be improved.”

Insights ranks your webpages using a numeric grade — 90+ is a fast page, 50-90 is middling, and anything below 50 is without a doubt a slow webpage.

Note that this tool only reviews the webpage URL that you supply, not your entire website at once. Depending on the size and complexity of your site, it may not be feasible to enter the unique URL for each and every one of your webpages.

Maximize the efficacy of this tool by identifying the most important pages on your site and reviewing those first. You can figure out what pages are most important and receive the most traffic by using heatmapping tools, or by utilizing the next Google tool in this list.

Google Analytics

Analytics provides an incredible amount of information and insight into your website. If you’ve never used it before, here’s a great beginner’s guide to Google Analytics to help you get started.

Now, some of you might be wondering why we’re focusing on this tool since it provides in-depth information on your site visitors’ behavior. But think about it: Your site visitors’ behavior, in large part, correlates to the quality and efficacy of your website and its content.

Have a slow loading site? You’re going to see some big bounce rates and small dwell times. People won’t hang around waiting for the page to load; instead, they’ll leave and find another faster loading website that suits their needs.

Google Analytics helps you identify your most popular and well-trafficked landing pages. These could be the pages that people are landing on from search results, other sites, etc. most often. Consider running these pages through the PageSpeed Insights tool to make them as good as can be before moving on to less trafficked pages.

Google Search Console

Once upon a time, Google Search Console was known as Google Webmaster Tools. We like the newer name, because it speaks to this tool’s purpose: to help you “…monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your site’s presence in Google Search results.”

If you have a website, you can benefit from Search Console. It’ll tell you things like:

• How often your site appears in Google search results.
• What terms and queries people search by that lead to your site in the results.
• Indicate any issues you may be experiencing with indexing.
• And more!

Google provides instruction on getting started with Search Console here. The information and insights you gather from this tool will be instrumental in improving your website’s SEO and overall success.

Questions to Ask During a Website Audit

Going into things blindly isn’t a great plan. This is especially true for your website audit.

Before spending a lot of time with the resources we mentioned in the last section, make sure you know what questions they’re supposed to be helping you answer.

Auditing Your Website for the User Experience

Your website’s user experience is integral to its success.

When you create a user-friendly website, you’re really inviting those users to stay longer, interact more, and hopefully, convert (that just means they take the action you want for them to take — purchase, sign up for email, etc.) on your site.

To audit your site for user experience, ask yourself the questions below. (Bonus: Many of the improvements you’ll end up making for user experience will directly improve your SEO!)

• Do I know my target audience?
• Are my CTAs (call-to-actions) and content geared toward my audience?
  • Good CTAs are effective. They are clear and deliberate in telling someone what action to take.
• Is my marketing funnel optimized for these users?
• Is my site’s load time too slow or experiencing any issues? (If so, it could mean the answer to the following question is “Yes.”)
• Are my site visitors bouncing?
  • Follow up by looking into their dwell time.  
• Is my site mobile responsive?
  • If your site doesn’t display well on mobile devices, you’re missing out. As of the end of 2019 mobile devices drove the most website traffic, coming in at 52.6%.
  • This is also important for SEO because Google uses mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal.
• Does your site navigation make sense?
  • Once someone lands on your site, will they be able to easily find what they’re looking for and move around?
  • Here’s an (admittedly extreme) example of a site with terrible navigation.

• Is your website design up to par?
  • If your site looks like it walked straight out of the 90s then you’re in trouble.
• Do you have a lot of broken links?
  • It’s a bad look, and your visitors won’t think of your site as reliable.
• Is your contact information easy to find?
  • We recommend making it available on every page, even if at the footer.
• Do you have any intrusive pop-up ads or is your site cluttered in ads?
  • Use a browser in incognito or private mode to get a sense of the ad experience for your visitors. 

Audit Your Website for Technical Issues

A technical audit helps get down to the nuts and bolts of your website: Are the systems and technologies working, or are they not?

• Is my website secure?
  • SSL is integral to the security of the information exchanged on your site.
    • Without SSL, information passed from an end-user (site visitor) to unsecure sites (like during a purchase or email sign up) and vice versa isn’t encrypted. This means it can be intercepted by lots of bad actors out there on the Internet.
  • Secure websites are favored by Google in search results.
  • Browsers display whether a site is secure or not, and that can make all the difference in a visitor’s trust (remember, they’re your potential customers.)
    • Below are examples of sites with and without SSL.

• Is your personal information protected from the Internet’s prying eyes with Domain Privacy + Protection?
  • Keep your site safe from both hackers and human error.
• How does your site display across the most popular browsers?
  • Test your site across all the major browsers so there are no surprises or bad experiences for your visitors. Make any necessary changes to improve how your site renders on these browsers.
  • Don’t forget to test the mobile versions of these browsers!
• Are you using a CMS (content management system) like WordPress?
  • If yes, are you using the most up-to-date and secure version?
  • Audit any plugins to make sure they’re running the newest versions and don’t pose security issues. Remove any no longer needed or used.  
• Is your site backed up?
  • Before making any big changes to your site, you should create a backup. Wouldn’t it be terrible if something went wrong while making updates to your site? Without a backup created of your site, that can equal lots of heartache, time, and lost revenue. 

Audit Your Website for SEO.

An SEO audit helps you optimize your website so that it performs well and ranks higher in SERPs, search engine result pages.

• Do you have a sitemap created so that Google and other search engines can easily crawl and index your site?
• Is your robots.txt file accurate?
• Are all the pages on your site optimized according to the various SEO ranking factors?
  • Moz provides a run-down of different On-Page SEO ranking factors here.
• Are you using appropriate and relevant SEO keywords across your site and content?
• Do all your pages have title tags and meta descriptions?
  • Title tags and meta descriptions are HTML elements that appear in the header on a web page. When a page shows as a search result, its title tag and meta description normally display right along with it on the SERP (search engine results page.) This is important because it can influence whether someone clicks through to your site from the SERPs.
• Is your website accessible?
  • Do your images have alt text?
• Do you have any broken or misdirected links?
  • Domain.com’s resident SEO expert, Mike, thinks SEO Minion, a free 3^rd party SEO tool, is good for checking broken links. Please note, this is not a Domain.com product or resource.
• How many backlinks do you have?
  • Backlinks are links created when one website links to another. You may also hear them referred to as “inbound links.”
  • Are they quality backlinks?
  • Moz created Link Explorer, a free tool to help you identify your backlinks and provide other link metrics, but it does require that you sign up for a free Moz account.
  • SEOquake is another 3^rd party tool (free plugin) that offers great insights into your SEO.
• Is your URL structure optimized?
  • URL structure matters to both search engines and the people visiting your site.
  • Here’s Search Engine Journal’s guide to an SEO-friendly URL structure.

Wrapping up Your Website Audit

Auditing your website can seem overwhelming at first. If that’s the case, break it out into smaller sections and complete them one by one. It could take a few days or a few weeks, but either way, audits are necessary for the success of your site.

You should plan on auditing your website at least a couple of times each year. For more complex websites, consider auditing them more frequently.

Reviewing and auditing your site will give you a leg up with search engines, your customers, and your competitors.

Did you have any other tips or recommendations for auditing sites? Let us know in the comments!

Many have used this time to strengthen their eCommerce operations as more and more people resort to online shopping. And with the holiday season upon us, this trend is gaining more traction.

According to a 2020 holiday predictions survey, 85% of the retailers interviewed estimated that online sales will increase in this holiday season as compared to 2019 and 55% said they are investing more in upgrading their eCommerce platforms.

It’s evident that this holiday season will take the competition to the next level while also posing new challenges for businesses to keep up with the increase in demand, handle shortages created by reduced scale of operations and, most importantly, build trust with new and existing customers.

This, in fact, is the perfect opportunity for businesses to gain the loyalty of wary online shoppers through a fulfilling and secure shopping experience.

Build Trust with Your eCommerce Customers.

Whether you’re a seasoned eCommerce company or have recently started your online store, these five trust-building tips will help you make the most of this pandemic-fraught holiday season.

1. Reassure customers about safety

The pandemic has everyone on the edge about the transmission of COVID-19 through physical contact. Physical distancing rules are either firmly in place or strongly recommended. Several companies have come up with a strict contact-less delivery policy to allow people to reap the benefits of home delivery without hesitation.

If your business has such a policy in place, along with other rules of how products are handled from packing to delivery and safety measures followed in your workplace, such as wearing of gloves, masks, and other protective equipment, make sure you communicate them clearly to your customers.

A great idea is to send an email about it to all of your subscribers to show them that their safety is your primary concern.

Moreover, communicate these policies to each and every member of your team and make sure that everyone is on board to make this virtual holiday shopping season safe for customers as well as staff. 

2. Be transparent about delays

The competition in eCommerce makes it mandatory for businesses to be well-stocked at all times and offer the quickest, most hassle-free delivery possible.

However, most eCommerce companies rely on third parties such as suppliers, warehousing facilities, delivery management agencies, and customer support. Often, delays are caused by situations that are not in your hands.

Several companies had to press pause on their operations during the pandemic and while business is bouncing back now, companies are still at different stages of resuming their operations. This means that not everyone is operating at full capacity, which can lead to longer wait times than usual.

People, too, have become more patient with such inevitable delays but as a brand that cares about its customers, it is your duty to be transparent about any issues that impact their shopping experience.

Make sure you communicate realistic wait times so that people don’t have unrealistic expectations that set them up for disappointment. If a product is out of stock and it will take time for you to obtain it, let the customer know, offer alternatives, and reward their patience with a discount or a freebie.

3. Improve your website experience

If you’ve been considering a website revamp, this is the perfect time to do so. Here are three things to keep in mind when you’re looking to improve your website’s user experience.

Unique Landing Page

To highlight the merriment of the holiday season, you could create a unique landing page where you highlight all your start products that are perfect for holiday shopping.

To give it an additional flavor of branding, you could give this landing page a unique domain name such as www.holidaybonanza.store or www.merrytimes.fun. New domain extensions such as .store, .online, .fun, and .space, can add that extra spark in your branding.

Speed of site and service

People have little patience when it comes to browsing the Internet. Keep bounce rates low by ensuring that your website loads in less than 5 seconds. Optimize image sizes so that they load quickly. Remove all unnecessary plugins and make sure that the built-in apps for payments and other features are not slowing you down.

Optimize for mobile

While there’s nothing like your own mobile application, you can still create memorable mobile shopping experiences by optimizing your website for mobile devices. Before you start your holiday season campaign, see how your website loads and looks on different devices such as computers, phones, and tablets. Take steps to ensure it loads quickly, the alignments are proper, and that scrolling and browsing are easy.

4. Offer quick checkout

Customers have a lot to accomplish when they’re shopping during the holiday season and you can help them save time by offering a short and sweet checkout.

Simple process

The fewer steps in your checkout process, the less likely people are to abandon their shopping carts. Limit your checkout process to no more than three steps: name and address, purchase review, and payment.

Guest checkout

Every brand likes to gather contact information of their customers to get to know them better and continue to attract them with personalized offers and deals.

However, not every customer feels comfortable sharing their email address especially if they’re doing business with you for the first time.

Some customers just want to make the purchase and be done with it and they shouldn’t feel like they’re being compelled to create an account with you. Provide a guest checkout option to make shopping easy and stress-free for everyone.

Multiple payment options

People have different preferences when it comes to online payments. Some are apprehensive about divulging their card details to different companies. Some prefer online bank transfers. Others use third-party apps such as PayPal or Google Pay. Make sure you cater to all preferences by providing as many payment options as possible.

5. Secure your site

Several people are skeptical of online shopping for security reasons. They are unsure about what might happen when they need to input sensitive information such as personal details and credit card or bank account numbers when making online purchases.

As more people may resort to online shopping due to the closure of physical stores and for health safety concerns, eCommerce companies must reassure buyers that their information is safe at every step of the way.

If you haven’t obtained an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate for your website, this is the time to do so. This certificate ensures safe transmission of encrypted data from browsers to websites.

Websites that don’t have SSL of HTTPS in their URL are flagged as “insecure” by Google when a user tries to access them. This message can raise suspicion among visitors and discourage them from shopping on your website.

Apart from the SSL certificate, you should also display security seals across your payment pages, such as badges by trusted companies like Visa, Mastercard, Google, and PayPal so that people feel safe about sharing their sensitive bank account information.

Ready to make the most of the holiday eCommerce season?

The holiday season is always an exciting time for people and businesses, but this one is slated to be unlike any other. For people, it is an opportunity to connect with their loved ones after a difficult year, even if just through gifts or virtual meetings.

For businesses, it is an opportunity to make up for the losses suffered so far. By building trust among customers through safety measures and enhanced online shopping experience, businesses not only stand to increase their revenue but also evolve as players to watch out for in the eCommerce playing field.

Author Bio

Alisha is a Senior Content Marketing & Communication Specialist at Radix, the registry behind some of the most successful new domain extensions, including .STORE and .TECH. You can connect with her on LinkedIn and Twitter. 

And when something is valuable, it deserves protecting.

We’re here to help you understand and navigate the security issues your website faces so that you’re prepared to handle them should they occur. Today, we’re delving into website security risks, website owner responsibilities, and how SiteLock Security helps keep your website secure.

SiteLock and Website Security

The state of cybersecurity

You might think that as a small business or independent contractor you’re not on any hacker’s radar, because who’d want to waste their time when there are bigger targets, right?

Think again. Small business websites are prime targets for hackers because they’re often not well secured, yet they still harbor a wealth of data and information.

In 2015, (which already seems eons ago) Ginni Rometty, IBM’s Chairman and CEO, stated that:

We believe that data is the phenomenon of our time. It is the world’s new natural resource. It is the new basis of competitive advantage, and it is transforming every profession and industry. If all of this is true – even inevitable – then cybercrime, by definition, is the greatest threat to every profession, every industry, every company in the world.

That statement rings truer today than it did a mere five years ago. 4iQ says in their 2019 Identity Breach Report that “Cyber criminals [have] shifted their focus, targeting more small businesses, resulting in a 424% increase in authentic and new breaches from 2017.”

Whose responsibility is website security?

At its most basic level, website security is any action taken to protect your website from harm.

But whose job is it to make sure a website is secure? Well, as a website owner — it’s yours.

And there’s a lot to keeping a website safe, like maintaining secure passwords, patching vulnerabilities in different applications, and keeping plugins and tools up to date. But a website owner’s responsibilities don’t stop there. If a website does get infected with malware or hacked, it’s also their job to fix it.

Luckily, you don’t have to do these things on your own (okay, the password bit you probably should). There are tools, like SiteLock Security, that are designed to prevent and mitigate attacks and harm to your website.

Sometimes, we get asked, “Isn’t it my web hosting provider’s job to keep my website secure?” And the answer is no, it isn’t.

Jessica Ortega created this great, short YouTube video that explains the responsibilities of both website owner and web host when it comes to security.  In it, she interviews Ryan Austin, who paints the following analogy.

Think of your web hosting provider as the superintendent of an apartment complex. It’s their responsibility to make sure the building is secure from the outside, to keep the lights on in the parking lot, and ensure all is well outside of your apartment. Your website is like an apartment in the complex and it’s your responsibility to keep it secure — lock the doors and do your part to prevent intruders. If someone does get in because you’ve left a window or door unsecured, your superintendent isn’t at fault.

What happens if my site gets hacked?

Your website is central to your business, so if it gets hacked or infected with malware you face a number of potential consequences that range from a suspended site, to data theft and ransom, and loss of revenue and consumer trust.

If your web host detects malware on your site, they’re liable to suspend or take down your site. This is because they don’t want the malware on your site to spread and infect other sites. It’s similar to the idea of using quarantine to keep viral infections at bay.

A site infected with malware isn’t something you can keep under wraps. Google’s Chrome browser is the most used internet browser in 2020, and it’s not shy in warning its users away from websites that are possibly infected with malware. If they detect that your site is infected they’ll blacklist it and alert their users, as malware can spread to people who visit and interact with your site. Your potential customers won’t want to take the risk. Instead of doing business with you they’ll turn around and find a (safe and uninfected) competitor’s website.

And if your website is infected with malware, chances are you’ll have to restore it to an older version (assuming you have backups) or re-build it altogether, both options meaning you’ll have lost a lot of time and hard work.

The effects of website hacking are many and varied, but never pleasant. Here are five real-life examples of small businesses that got hacked and their devastating consequences.

How to keep your website secure with SiteLock Security

The security of your website should be a top priority, and there are things you can do today to help prevent and mitigate attacks to your site.

We know that small business owners, entrepreneurs, and people with side hustles wear a lot of different hats. It’s tough enough keeping up with the day-to-day aspects of running your business much less staying on top of online threats that are hard to see and harder to predict.

That’s why we’ve partnered with SiteLock Security to give you, and your website, some peace of mind.

Benefits of SiteLock Security

SiteLock Security protects your website from malware, viruses, hackers, and spam. It does this by scanning your site for these malicious things, automatically removing any malware it locates, and alerting you when something doesn’t look quite right.

In addition to the services they provide behind-the-scenes, SiteLock Security comes with a seal that you can display on your site. The SiteLock seal inspires confidence in your site; in fact, when SiteLock and Domain.com did a user study in 2014, we found that displaying the SiteLock seal can increase conversions by up to 15%.

SiteLock Security plans and features

At Domain.com we offer three different SiteLock Security plans: Essentials, Prevent, and Prevent Plus, to suit the varying needs of website owners.  

If you think you might need even more protection to maintain your website performance and security, we can help. Call us toll-free at (800) 403-3568 to speak to an expert and make sure that your website gets all the protection it needs.

Don’t delay when the security of your website and site traffic is at stake.

Hackers, malware, suspended websites — it all sounds like the stuff of small business nightmares… because it is. Save yourself a headache or ten by investing in your website’s security now. 

Get SiteLock Security today and rest easy knowing that your website is in good hands. 

In large part, that’s due to something called Secure Sockets Layer, or SSL. SSL is a technology that keeps internet connections secure. It encrypts and protects sensitive information and data as it’s sent between two systems (like your browser and another website or two servers). SSL stops bad people and bots from reading or changing the information being sent between the systems, like credit card information during an e-commerce transaction.

If you have a website or are in charge of the web hosting for your business, you need to understand the importance of data privacy and securing internet connections. As you begin your research, you’ll come across the term “SSL port” and that’s what we’re focusing on today.

What is an SSL port?

Data can be communicated between systems (like your web browser and your favorite online shopping website) with or without SSL. But the SSL port number is what indicates whether or not your connection is secure.

How can I tell if my connection to a website is secure?

Look at the URL in the address bar in your browser. You’ll see that the URL starts with one of two things: it’s either HTTP or HTTPS. The HTTPS indicates a secure connection and it uses port number 443. HTTP, an unsecure internet protocol, uses port number 80.

What is a port?

Whenever you open up your computer to visit a website you’re quite literally docking into the Internet, like a boat would dock at a port. Internet ports are numbered differently to indicate what the ports are used for and what they offer. These ports are called “TCP Ports” and that stands for Transmission Control Protocol.

If you’re diving into the world of websites and hosting, it’ll be helpful to know what the most commonly-used ports are and their assignments, or their purpose.

How Are TCP Ports Used?

TCP is pretty reliable. In order for TCP ports to work, there must be an “anchored connection” between Point A, where the data or request originates, and Point B, where the data or request is being sent. The only way that transmission of data will fail with TCP is if the connection between Points A and B is lost, like if you lost your internet connection.

What are the more common TCP Ports?

What’s the relationship between HTTPS and SSL?

To understand how SSL and HTTPS work together, let’s first go back to the unsecure HTTP. HTTP and HTTPS aren’t that different. In fact, the only difference is that when HTTPS creates and maintains a secure internet connection, it’s doing so with SSL.

How do I secure my website with SSL?

You want your site visitors and customers to trust you. You want them to have faith in your site and know that the information they’re sharing with you during a purchase is safe and secure. The way to go from HTTP (a visual marker of an unsecure site) to HTTPS (the visual marker of an SSL-secured site) is to install an SSL certificate on your website server. This certificate verifies your site’s identity so that information can be passed securely from your web server to your visitors’ browsers.

Is SSL a certificate or a protocol?

SSL certificates and HTTPS protocol are two separate things. But together, they make for a mighty secure internet connection.

Think of the HTTPS protocol as the physical structure that allows encrypted information to travel securely from point A to point B.

SSL certificates are what encrypts the information being shared over that HTTPS structure. However, you must keep in mind that the SSL certificate itself isn’t going to do anything for you. It only works once you’ve configured and set it up on your server.  

Isn’t SSL outdated?

If you’re researching SSL then you’ve probably come across the term “TLS.” Is it really a new and improved version of SSL? What are we all doing still talking about and using SSL? Don’t worry folks, we’ll explain.

TLS stands for Transport Layer Security, and it’s definitely a newer and better version of SSL. However, the term SSL is so well known that it stuck around even after TLS was introduced. So when you purchase SSL you’re in fact purchasing TLS (it’s like SSL plus).

What are the differences between TLS and SSL?

The original SSL was developed back in the wild & wooly 90s by a company called Netscape (remember them?). TLS isn’t too different, it uses many of the same technologies and protocol, but it’s been updated to withstand the security risks and issues of today’s world. TLS provides stronger encryption, but remember, it’s still referred to as SSL because that’s the more well-known name.

Why does my SSL port matter?

You need to configure your SSL certificate on your web server to get “HTTPS” to show in your website’s URL in the address bar. This indicates that you’re using an SSL port, which means the connection created between your site and someone’s browser is secure.

People are growing evermore distrustful of seeing “HTTP” in their browser and for good reason. With the amount of hacks and data theft happening today, people want to know you’re doing what you can to protect their information. Your SSL port indicates there’s a secure, encrypted connection that will keep their data away from malicious prying eyes.

Advantages to using SSL

• Faster web page loading
  • HTTPS loads pages faster than HTTP. Who waits around for a webpage to load nowadays when there’s always a competitor around the digital corner whose site might be faster?
• SEO Improvement
  • Your site is likely to rank higher in search results if you’re using HTTPS as opposed to HTTP.
• Stop hackers and bad actors in their tracks
  • SSL encrypts the data transferred back and forth between two systems. Even if these bad people and bots could somehow see the data being transferred, they won’t know what it says.
• Maintain PCI Compliance
  • PCI Compliance stands for Payment Card Industry Compliance. This is required by all credit card companies when making transactions online to further secure and protect against data and identity theft.
  • Part of the PCI Compliance guidelines are that your site must use HTTPS, which means your SSL certificate needs to be configured on your site before you can accept payments via credit card for purchases.
• No scary alerts
  • If you’re using HTTP then chances are your site visitors are receiving notices telling them your website isn’t secure when they land on it. Frankly, this looks bad. It causes them to lose confidence in your site and odds are good they won’t be back.

Where can I get SSL for my website?

Domain.com offers a variety of different SSL certificates to suit you and your websites’ needs.

Only need basic SSL protection so your customers see your site is secure and you improve your Google search rankings? We offer that.

Do you have multiple subdomains that need SSL protection? We offer that, too.

And what if you have an e-commerce site and require even more protection for your customers’ data? Yeah, we’ve got you covered.

All of our SSL offerings come with a warranty ranging from $10K – $1,750,000 USD and a visual indicator that your site is secure.

Take a look at our plans and let us know if you have any questions about those, or SSL in general, in the comments.  

Lately, news of online hacks and data breaches abound. You wouldn’t think that hopping online to buy a new sheet set from a major retailer could jeopardize your private and financial information, but for many of us, it’s happened and it’s a hassle.

So what can you do to reassure your website visitors and prospective customers that your site is a safe place to transact? Wouldn’t it be helpful if there was some kind of visual indicator?

Rest easy, because there is!

SiteLock Security is a website must-have

It’s called the SiteLock Security Seal and you can proudly display it on your website with any purchase of SiteLock Security.

That’s not the only benefit SiteLock Security provides. In fact, by the time you’re done with this article you’ll wonder how you ever published a site without it.

Let’s take a look at why you need SiteLock Security on your site.

Malware Scanning – What is malware? It’s a portmanteau, created from the words malicious and software, and it strikes fear into the hearts of Internet users the world over.

Ever heard of viruses or Trojans? How about ransomware or spyware? These are a sampling of different types of malware. Viruses spread from infected files to clean files and can cause extreme damage to websites. Trojans, a lá their namesake, are discreet — they create “backdoors” that allow other viruses into your computer, server, and security. Ransomware and spyware are what they sound like — one can hold your computer and its contents hostage while the other spies on your every action.

Depending on the SiteLock Security plan you choose we offer both daily and continuous malware scanning so you can relax in the knowledge and comfort that we have your, and your website’s, backs.

Automatic Malware Removal – All those nasty types of malware we just discussed?— yeah, we’ll automatically get rid of those for you if they’re detected by SiteLock Security. If you don’t have the time to manually scan and remove malware yourself (and who does?), don’t fret because we’ve got you covered.

Blacklist Monitoring – There are a lot of good lists out there that you want your name on, like the VIP list for that fantastic new eatery opening up around the corner. But a blacklist? Not so much.

If you find yourself on a blacklist your bottom line will feel the negative impact. So what is a blacklist and why is appearing on them detrimental to your site and business?

We’re betting SEO and where your website shows up in Google search results is important to you. (If not, it should be.) SiteLock’s Blacklist Monitoring will help ensure you don’t get put on one of Google’s blacklists, which would damage your domain and site reputation, and keep your site out of search results. 

Block Automated Bot Attacks – Bots, also known as Internet Robots, come in a variety of forms and perform numerous functions. Some bots are good, like the spiders and crawlers Google uses to search websites and determine the best results for people’s search queries. These are not the bots to worry about, and not what SiteLock protects against. SiteLock Security protects your site from bad bot attacks.

Bad bots exploit issues on your site and aggravate the effects of any malware on your site. Put simply, bad bots do bad things. Their functions run the gamut from logging keystrokes (that means they track and record the keystrokes your site visitors make — including when they enter sensitive and financial information and login credentials) to sending spam that can land you on blacklists.

DDoS Protection – What’s DDoS? It stands for Distributed Denial of Service. DDoS Protection prevents your site from succumbing to a DDoS attack, which can render your site unusable for the duration of the attack.

DDoS attacks are a particularly ugly form of bot attacks. What happens during a DDoS attack? It’s when multiple compromised computer systems (usually ones that have fallen prey to a Trojan virus) maliciously band together to flood your website and server — rendering your site unreachable because it’s overwhelmed. Sometimes DDoS attacks can last a few minutes, or in particularly bad cases, they can last for days. What would happen to your revenue if your e-commerce site was rendered unusable and unreachable for days on end? Nothing good, that’s for sure.

Advanced Web Application Firewall – You’ve probably heard of firewalls before as they’ve been around for a long time. Basically, firewalls are another way your site and server are protected from bad actors trying to infiltrate them.

Think of a firewall as a bouncer, and an advanced web application firewall (WAF) as the biggest, baddest bouncer around. When bots and other malicious entities try to reach your site and server to wreak havoc, your WAF won’t let them through the door.

Keep your website up and running with SiteLock Security

When it comes to Internet security, it pays to be safe.

Running an unsecured website is like playing Russian roulette with your digital livelihood. Don’t become a victim, unable to use or monetize your site due to DDoS attacks or Trojan viruses; instead, use SiteLock Security.

SiteLock Security is the guardian your website needs — never sleeping, always on, and always working in your best interest. If anything malicious is detected on your site you’ll receive email and account alerts, and you’re guaranteed a quick response time should we at Domain.com need to jump in and help with anything happening on your site.

So what are you waiting for? Safeguard your site today! 

Hardly.

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, and you need it if you want your website visitors and potential customers to trust you and your site. Stick around as we dive into the details regarding SSL — you’ll learn what it does, how it can affect your SEO efforts, and how it influences people’s trust in your site. 

What is SSL and how does it work?

What exactly is a Secure Sockets Layer? Dictionary.com defines SSL as “… a protocol that uses encryption to ensure the secure transfer of data over the Internet.”

In a nutshell, SSL is a technology that keeps your website visitors’ personal information private (and away from hackers) when they submit it on your website. 

Fun fact: The original SSL technology has since been replaced by an updated version, called TLS or Transport Layer Security, but the collective Internet is so used to the term SSL that we keep using it.

Think of it this way: Whenever someone fills out a form or submits information on a website their information has to digitally travel from point A (where they submitted it) to point B (where it’s stored).

If the website they’re using isn’t secure, or doesn’t use SSL, then hackers can intercept and read the information being transmitted. This is called a man-in-the-middle attack and you won’t know it’s happened until it’s too late. 

Secure websites, or those that have an SSL certificate, are less likely to fall prey to any MITM attacks. When SSL is used, the connection between your computer and the other site is secured and heavily encrypted, making it nearly impossible for hackers to snag any information being passed back and forth. 

Put yourself in your site visitors’ shoes. If you like to do online shopping or banking, wouldn’t you feel better knowing your information is transmitted via a secure connection? We sure would. And a survey by GlobalSign found that “85% of online shoppers avoid unsecure websites.” That’s a lot of business you could be missing out on. 

How to identify a secure site. 

Websites can’t hide their security status. In fact, most browsers will alert you to a site’s security status in the URL bar. 

How do you know if a site isn’t secure?

If you use Chrome, you’ll see an alert that looks like this:

If you click on the information icon, you’ll get the following message:

What will you see on a site that has SSL enabled?

On Chrome, you’ll see a little padlock icon to indicate a secure site. 

If you click on the padlock icon, you’ll receive the following message:

Alternately, you can look to the website’s full URL in the browser’s address bar to find out whether or not it uses SSL.

• Not secure websites: URLs will start with “HTTP://…”
• Secure websites: URLs start with “HTTPS://…,” where the S stands for secure.

Secure websites perform better in search engine results

Since 2014, Google has said that they use HTTPS as a ranking signal in search results. 

What does that mean for you?

If your website has SSL then it’s more likely to show up higher in SERPs (search engine result pages) than a site that isn’t secure. Even if you’re not collecting visitors’ information on your website, you need SSL so you aren’t penalized in search results. 

Google has pledged to “continue working towards a web that’s secure by default,” so we don’t think HTTPS importance will decrease any time soon. 

How can you add SSL to your site?

It’s easy with Domain.com — we offer a variety of SSL certificates to fit your needs. Here are the plans and details so you can identify the best option for your site. 

LetsEncrypt Free SSL – If you have a basic website and don’t collect any sensitive information from your visitors, then this option should suffice. Search engines and visitors will see that your site is secure and that will increase their trust in you.

Before getting SSL for your site, you’ll need to make sure you have your domain name and hosting. Then, you can log into your account to turn on your free LetsEncrypt SSL. 

If you actively collect customer information (even if it’s just an email address) on your site or manage an e-commerce site then consider purchasing a more advanced SSL offering, like one of the following, all powered by Comodo SSL.

Domain Validated SSL – Secure your customer information, help boost your Google search rankings, and receive the TrustLogo® Site Seal to display on your site. You’ll also be backed by a warranty from Comodo SSL for up to $10,000 to protect the end user.

Wildcard SSL – Our Wildcard offering will give you all the features of the previous plan along with the ability to protect multiple subdomains. You’ll receive a warranty of up to $250,000 to protect the end user with this plan.

E-Commerce SSL – This is our best SSL plan and is ideal for those with e-commerce websites, and offers a green “trust” visual bar for your site, like you see in the image below, and up to a $1,750,000 warranty for the end user. 

Rest easy knowing you’re secure with SSL

The importance of having SSL on your website is only going to increase. 

Google is without a doubt the most popular search engine, and they aren’t pulling any punches when it comes to making the Internet a safer place for all of us.

If you don’t have SSL you risk having your site pushed down in search engine results and losing your site visitors’ trust. Get SSL today, and turn your site into a trusted resource.