SEO strategies typically take time before they can produce viable results. Both on-page and off-page optimization methods have to be continuously and ready to meet variable industry requirements and trends. A cyberattack can destroy years of hard work in an instant, especially if you have no system in place to alert you that an attack has successfully breached your system. In this article, you’ll see how cybersecurity impacts your SEO strategy.
Cyberthreats can sink your search engine ranking, undermine your niche authority, and demolish customer trust. Cybersecurity goes hand in hand with your organic search performance, so make sure to prevent hacks and breaches before they happen. If you’re in the area, consider working with Baltimore managed IT services that can help you strengthen your overall website security and identify and address vulnerabilities that cybercriminals may attempt to exploit.
Here are some of the other ways cybersecurity impacts your SEO strategy:
1. Hacks Can Destroy Your Reputation
A major aspect of your SEO strategy involves building up your reputation. Brands and websites are more likely to have higher search engine results page (SERP) rankings when customers perceive them as reliable, authoritative figures in their niche and industry.
If your site suffers from a cyberattack, the following scenarios may happen:
- Visitors may suddenly get redirect to 404 pages or third-party sites.
- An internal server error (error 500) may pop up.
- Your website may also get infect by malicious code that can spread to your visitors
- Cybercriminals may add covert pages or outbound links on your site to launch phishing attacks that target and steal your customers’ or visitors’ data.
When you’re in a target or victimizes by cyberattacks, all your efforts to up your brand image and reputation go down the brain. In the scenarios above, your visitors won’t just leave your website, they’ll most likely never return and even leave a negative review.
2. Bot Traffic Can Hurt SEO Rankings: Cybersecurity Impacts SEO:
SERP rankings are highly dependent on content quality. This is why a lot of website owners, bloggers, and business owners invest heavily on creating and publishing high-quality content on their sites. However, duplicate content from another site can hurt your ranking.
A report from SiteLock showed that 60% of website traffic comes from bots—and a lot of these are malicious. Some bots copy your content so they can publish it on another site. If search engine crawlers find the copied content first before they find the original on your site. So, you’ll most likely get a lower ranking compared to the other site.
Worse, you might get a penalization for publishing plagiarized content. So, which can hurt your rankings even more and may even get your site out from SERPs completely.
3. Malware Can Get You Penalized Or Blacklisted By Google
Search engines like Google don’t just penalize or blacklist websites with duplicate content. They may also penalize websites for not implementing the proper security measures cybersecurity SEO. They also impose these penalties to websites that had been hacked to prevent consumers from stumbling upon the site and incurring damages. The severity of the penalty will depend on the extent and duration of the hack.
If your website infects by malware—or malicious software often used. By cybercriminals to redirect visitors to malicious sites or steal sensitive information. It might get completely banned and blacklisted by Google Chrome and other browsers. Once your site is blacklisted, your rankings are completely eradicated. Even if you manage to eventually resolve the hack and clean up your site. You’ll have to start over with your SEO efforts if you want to improve your rankings.
4. Cyberattacks Can Lead To Website Downtime
For businesses and eCommerce store owners, having websites that are available and functional 24/7 is a must. A site that loads fast and offers a great user experience is crucial when your goal is to increase sales or conversions. A single minute of downtime can mean the loss of tens or hundreds of visitors—some of whom may be planning to purchase your product or service.
When you site suffers a cyberattack, the downtime can last for hours—some may even take months. This prolonged downtime won’t just affect your sales, it’ll also affect your SEO strategy. You’ll start to slip down the rankings on SERPs, which means that all your past efforts.
Cybersecurity Impacts SEO: Takeaways
Cybersecurity and SEO are, essentially two sides of the same coin. They’re both important facets of your efforts to grow your website and increase your reach.
Cyberattacks are bad for business, so make sure that you have measures in place to stop cybercriminals in their tracks. Invest in cybersecurity resources and tools that will help you monitor suspicious activity and minimize the changes of having your website compromised.
