Key Security Factors to Consider When Starting an eCommerce Store

Today, eCommerce has easily become one of the most popular business models. Almost everybody shops online and starting your own online shop has never been easier. But whatever you want to sell online, if you want to open an eCommerce store, your first priority should be ensuring that you have strong security. Cybercrime is a real problem today and the online nature of eCommerce means that these businesses are particularly vulnerable to hackers. So, what are the main things that you should do?

Get Help from an IT Professional

First of all, it pays to outsource your IT and cybersecurity to experienced professionals who can provide you with access to support, technology, services, and expertise that you would not have been able to access otherwise. IT experts like HLB System Solutions can help you with putting together a strong defense against hackers, ensuring that your eCommerce customer data is protected, and creating a strong business continuity and disaster recovery plan to follow should the worst happen.

Make Sure Your Site is SSL Encrypted

HTTPS has become the basic standard for websites today, particularly when it comes to eCommerce. Not only does HTTPS encrypt and protect customer information, but it can also have an impact on your SEO, reputation, and trust with your customers. Failing to get SSL encryption and using the old HTTP protocol can have much more than simply security implications for your online store. It can cause you to lose credibility with customers who may not feel safe to enter their payment details and cause you to drop down the Google rankings.

Use Strong Login Credentials

Using strong passwords for your admin login to the backend of your website is one of the simplest yet most effective ways to make it more difficult for hackers to find their way in. Many eCommerce platforms provide a generated username and password; continuing to use this makes you an easy target for hackers as they are not always difficult to guess. Using strong passwords that are not easily guessable is a must, and consider changing your password at least once every couple of months. Don’t use any words that could be associated with you in your passwords like your child’s name or pet’s name. Make sure that every password you use is unique; don’t recycle them.

Choose the Right eCommerce Platform

Many eCommerce business owners take the DIY route with an eCommerce platform like Shopify or Magento. But when choosing an eCommerce platform, don’t forget to take security features into account along with other important factors like functionality, design options, and speed. Opt for an eCommerce platform that makes security a top priority and are on top of keeping their security measures up to date to keep your online store and your customers safe.

eCommerce is one of the easiest businesses to get started with today, but this model is also a particular target of cybercriminals. To keep your business secure and ensure strong trust with your customers, it’s important to keep these key security factors in mind.

How to tailor your content to improve your Google ranking

SEO. It can be an intimidating term for many people, especially if you’re more creatively minded than tech-savvy. Yet it’s also a necessary aspect of doing business in the digital sphere. It can be particularly important for SaaS companies, who offer purely digital services in often niche and highly competitive environments. Luckily there are plenty of steps that you can take to boost your Google rankings, even if you have little technical know-how. This is true when it comes to the content of your website. Here are some tips to help you best utilize the SEO potential of your content.

Use keywords

Keywords are very important in any SEO SaaS strategy. Start by doing some research into the words and phrases that your target customers might type into Google. This could include the variety of product or service you offer, the features it has, or the solutions it provides. You can then create content based around these keywords. It’s important to do so naturally, though. Don’t just stick them in awkwardly, as this can be off-putting to readers on your site.

Keywords can be used in all sorts of content on your website, for example, descriptions of your product or service, information about your company, or news items and blog posts. Just make sure that you are choosing relevant keywords. If people click through to your site via Google then immediately leave, this will have a negative impact on your ranking in the future.

Focus on your users

It’s easy to get carried away when thinking about SEO and forget about user experience. With every piece of content on your site, you should be thinking about who you are writing it for. What kind of content will be useful to people visiting your site? How easy is it for them to navigate through and understand the content you’ve created? Are you answering the type of questions they will have?

Try and be as specific and descriptive as possible when it comes to writing about your product or service, too. This helps readers to differentiate you from your competitors and enables you to stand out in a crowded marketplace.

Quality is key

This point can’t be stressed enough. The quality of the content that you produce will affect both your ranking on Google, and the impression visitors to your website get of your company. Take your time to craft well-written and informative pieces of content and include a few well-chosen links to credible and reputable external websites – making sure that the anchor text is descriptive and relevant.

Don’t be afraid to write longer articles that cover a topic more deeply, either. These comprehensive pieces are likely to do better than superficial ones and show readers that your website is authoritative and trustworthy. A top-quality blog post or another piece of content is also more likely to be shared on social media, which also helps your page to rank more highly on Google.