Getting hacked can be a small business owner or blogger’s worst nightmare. A hacked website gives criminals direct access to your sensitive information, and the downtime your website experiences discourages visitors and customers from considering your business.

In short: the longer you’re offline, the more customers you lose.

Hacking is so prevalent that many website owners can assume that an unauthorized person has attempted to access their website. Just last month, SNL actress Leslie Jones’s own website had to be taken down after hackers flooded it with her personal information and photos. While most of us aren’t public figures, our websites have the same vulnerabilities. Website owners still have caches of valuable data that hackers might want — passwords, credit card numbers, email addresses, or even something as silly as bragging rights.

How do these blogs get hacked in the first place, and how can you prevent hackers from gaining access to your site?

1. A hacker installs malware on your hosting platform. A vulnerability on your hosting platform is an open invitation to hackers, which explains why it’s the No. 1 way a hacker can access your data. Through this backdoor entry, hackers can do whatever they want to your website, including stealing your data, removing your content, and placing whatever images and text they like onto your site.
2. Your blog’s theme is corrupted. Themes aren’t just aesthetically pleasing — they are essential to the proper function of your website. When your theme stops working, your entire site stops working — and is at risk.
3. A plugin addition to your theme malfunctions. It is important to only install plugins from trusted and verified developers. Faulty plugins create gaps in security that make you susceptible to hackers.
4. Make sure your password isn’t “password.” Create a strong password that doesn’t contain any personal information. While fewer cases of hacked blogs are caused by stolen passwords, it is still a basic step that everyone should take to uphold their website’s safety.

At Jason Hunter Design, we perform all the important updates that keep your website functioning properly and all of your information safe.

We offer three maintenance packages to our clients:

1. Full-service maintenance (best value!): With the monthly maintenance package, Jason Hunter Design monitors your site around the clock, with consistent updates against potential hackers and threats. If your site goes down, we will restore it to normal working condition. We also post content and change images when needed. ($375/month for 12 months)
2. Key updates: If your site goes down, we will restore it to normal working condition. We will implement any updates as they come out. ($200/month for 12 months)
3. Pay as you go: We will notify you when an update is available, and you will tell us if you want Jason Hunter Design to add it to your site. ($125/hour)

Click here to compare the plans, view all the details, and determine which one is best for you.

Through Sept. 30, current Jason Hunter Design clients will receive 10 percent off the purchase of the full-service maintenance and key updates packages when they purchase 12 months of service in advance. Contact us to learn more about how Jason Hunter Design can keep your website and blog safe from hackers.

SEO is a term that doesn’t mean what it used to, but still cannot be ignored.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which put a different way just means that the site should be optimized for search engines.

“Huh?”

It means that the search engines need to be able to quickly identify what the site is about… and they do that like a blind person would read braille.

That is to mean that in order to keep the site optimized, it needs to be coded a specific way and the content on the pages needs to be relevant to who you are.

What used to be part of SEO process was adding “meta tags” to the site that the search engines used to understand what the site was about.

Not so much anymore!

Search engines have become so smart that even without placing keywords on the pages, they are able to tell what your site is about (probably faster then most humans) just by reading the content.

You see the way those little spiders work is that any time they are “reading” a page, they are clicking on the links within that page and following those links to see where they lead. If you’re site is mentioned (ie, linked to) from other sites that the spiders are crawling, they will end up at your site. And the more times they end up at your site, the more recognition you’ll get with that search engine within whatever terms it has determined that the originating website and your website have in common.

So, if the originating site is about widgets and there’s a link to your website, which is also about widgets, the search engines now have a pretty good idea that you are in fact a company that deals with widgets and when someone searches for widgets within their search engine, guess who’ll show up?!

So what do we do to beat our competition in search rankings?

Blog and participate in social media!

Blogging can sometimes be a scary term for people. Especially for business owners who are already strapped for time. Well, I hate to tell you, but these days, it’s a necessity!

At the end of the day, a blog is tied to your site and gives you a chance to add more relevant keywords to your site. To a search engine, a blog represents that you are contributing to the web; helping to make it a better place.

Social media sites can serve the same purpose, but since the vast majority of humanity spends a good portion of their day on social media sites, your chances of being seen are much greater if you too are hanging out there with them!

Think of it this way, to be popular you need to hang out with the popular kids. And the social media sites are dominating the hallways of the internet. So go play with them!

With the rise of social media, and the creation of so many business pages, search engines have become aware of all this activity and have started working that into their algorithms.

You see, business pages on social media are public, and public pages are crawled by those search engines spiders you’ve probably heard of. So naturally, it would make sense to have one of those public pages for your business. But just existing isn’t enough… creating “engagement” should be your #1 focus, and if you’re not going to actively do that, you shouldn’t have a presence there at all.

Engagement?

Communicate with the people that you want to be your customers, and with the people who already are your customers. Do so by posting things that get people talking and are inviting for them to share.

So you probably want to know how this is going to help you with search engines….

The answer goes back to what I said above about spiders. Each and every post you make on your social media pages should link back to your website. Remember that when the spiders are crawling those very popular websites’ public pages, they are counting how many times your website has been linked to, and they are figuring that number into their secret algorithm.

My advice: Once you have a website that is mobile-friendly, optimized for search engines, and you’re actively participating in social media and engaging with your fans, you’ll be surprised at how your ranking will rise within the search engines.