It has always been important to protect yourself from hack attacks online, and this is even more crucial as hackers become more sophisticated in their methods. If your website falls victim to a malware attack, the fallout can be nothing short of devastating.
The problem with hacked content is isolating the source of the hack and working on re-securing your website before your content in the SERPs (search engine results pages) is completely hijacked and you face damage to your online reputation. This can obliterate a successful SEO strategy in no time at all, which can be disheartening.
How does hacking affect a website?
Hacked content is mostly only obvious once a link to your website is clicked from a search results page. The user might be redirected to any number of spam websites, from gambling to pornography. Pop-up ads can also be used. Severe hack attacks can see multiple pages on a website being populated by spam content that is rooted with the original domain, which means it is not an obvious redirect from a browser’s perspective. If nobody is monitoring SEO efforts and feedback, the hack can be hugely destructive.
This is why training and the implementation of proper website maintenance are vital, whether you manage this in-house or outsource it through web support services like www.somersetwebservices.co.uk.
Malware – or malicious software – is usually the cause of this damage. This is software that is specifically designed to gain access to a computer system without permission and cause problems. The malware triggers what is known as bait-and-switch hacking, where the hackers leverage the authority of the website they’ve gained access to in order to promote their own content. You might not even know that it is happening.
Protect your website
Along with daily website monitoring, you should be ensuring that your software is up-to-date so you have access to the most recent security facilities, and you’ll also want to use a reputable web hosting provider that offers strong support. Multi-level web service providers are well versed in a range of support for websites, like that offered by Taunton web design, and can help to implement safeguarding practices across your whole site.
It is also vital to back up your site’s content so if the worst should happen and you lose everything, you will not be starting from scratch.
