Website security has become a topic that everyone needs to take seriously. Too many business owners have felt the negative impact of poor website security: from lower search engine rankings to hacked sites to losing all of their data. So it’s important that we all take website security seriously, and here are three sites (plus a bonus) to help.

Why No Padlock:

Put the URL of your site into this tool and it’ll tell you exactly why your visitors are not seeing that padlock in the address bar of their browser. The padlock is important because Google has included it as one of its many signals that determine your position in search results since 2018. Plus, many browsers and some corporate networks will block sites that aren’t secure.

The results of this report will most likely be somewhat technical and may require you to work with your hosting company. Your hosting company should be able to help you fix most of the reported issues. If they refuse to help or refer you to a web developer, then please feel free to reach out to us.

Qualsys Security Scan:

This tool checks your server configuration to ensure that there aren’t any security holes. It looks at different protocols and setting on your web server for things that are outdated or not set correctly. Unless you manage your own server, there’s not much you can do with these results other than switch hosting providers, which is what we recommend if you’re seeing anything less than an A. Even a B indicates that your hosting company doesn’t take security as seriously as they should.

Now, most of the popular hosting companies such as GoDaddy, BlueHost, SiteGround, Wix, and Shopify generally do a good job with keeping up with their security. But some of these bargain hosting companies or services may not factor that in – you often get what you pay for. If you have any questions or would like some guidance, we’re here to help.

Have I been pwned?

This website will show you whether your email or phone number is associated with any accounts that may have been comprised. If you no longer require access to services that are listed, just delete your account. For all of the others, change your password.

Use this site to check the admin email for your website, especially if you use the same password on other accounts associated with that email address. And make sure that you use a unique password for your website that is strong. If you need to generate a strong password, use this password generator from LastPass.

In Summary:

You need to ensure that your website is protected. We check for most of this as part of our website audit. But if you have concerns about security or want a deeper dive, please contact us.