Website Safety: 5 Ways to Keep Out of Trouble

Having a website is a real asset for small business owners; it allows your business to reach customers that you wouldn’t ordinarily have the opportunity to. Unfortunately, there are some risks involved with owning a piece of the World Wide Web. Here are 5 tips for keeping you and your website safe:

1. Conceal Your Email Address

Posting your email address makes you vulnerable to spam. Spammers use harvesting software that scans the web for email addresses in order to add to their database. Falling prey to spammers can be costly – they can overload your email system making it difficult for legitimate clients to reach you. Instead of spelling out your email address like this, youremail@yourcompany.com, bury it inside JavaScript to conceal the “mailto:” link or use a contact form, that way it’s still easily accessible to clients, but not to harvesting software.

2. Be Careful with Images and Graphics

If you use photographs of people on your website, be sure you have obtained written permission allowing you to publish their picture online.This is especially important if there are children in the photograph.

Also, never use graphics, images, or photos you found on someone else’s site unless you have been granted written permission. Even though it’s easy to download an image, it’s still illegal. It’s a copyright infringement and if you get caught, you’ll be sorry. If you see a picture you like, contact the owner, sometimes he/she will let you use it for free and other times you may have to pay for the rights. Either way, it’s better than a law suit.

3. Monitor Your Blog

A Blog is fantastic a way to keep clients informed, but blogs also open you up to a host of unsavory events. Spammers may flood your blog with links to other sites, write offensive comments, or post illegal material. Even well-meaning people may unintentionally post copyrighted images or text in which you may be liable for. Screening your blog’s comments before posting them should help to eliminate this risk.

4. Don’t Let Your Domain Name Expire

Be sure to keep on top of your domain name. Know when it expires and renew it in plenty of time. There are people out there that are waiting to snatch up domain names the second they expire. This is one bill you can’t afford to pay late.

5. Copyright Your Pages

Every page of your website should have a copyright statement.In order for it to be valid it must have 4 things:

1. The symbol © – Important note: using (c) is NOT valid
2. The word “copyright” or the “Copr.”
3. The first year of publication
4. Your name

What Do Websites Have in Common with Gardens?

What would happen if you planted a garden and then just left it alone? It might do alright for a little while, but eventually it would whither a die, right? Well, websites are no different. Like gardens, websites need nurturing, pruning, and fertilizing.

 

Nurturing
Plants need water to grow and websites need attention in order to sustain themselves, too. A neglected website will not grow or evolve. As technology and styles changes, websites need to be updated in order to stay fresh and useful to viewers.

 

Pruning
In order to thrive, plants need pruning and weeding. Like weeds crop up in a garden, websites are vulnerable, too. Errors, broken links, and outdated information can creep up before you know it. It’s important to monitor your site regularly for these unwanted occurrences. Get rid of the unfruitful content and make room for vibrant, valuable, up-to-date information.

 

Fertilizing
Without fertilizer, plants will survive, but if you really want to see your garden flourish, fertilize it. Search engine optimization (SEO) is a website’s Miracle-Gro. A top 10 ranking won’t last forever. Keywords and phrases may need to be adjusted or the copy on the page may need to be revised in order to reclaim that #1 spot. Like adding fertilizer to a plant, SEO can revive your site’s search engine performance.

 

So, as with a garden, all a website needs in order to be full of vitality, is a little bit of regular maintenance and some TLC.