How To Make a Website Fast and Safe? [Guide]

Having a website is nowadays a necessity for all businesses. Without a website, your customers will not trust you as much as they will when you have an official site.

With digitalization, every business is now online. So even all your competitors, regardless of their size, at least have a website.

In such a competitive scenario, do you really think having a website would be enough?

Well, we don’t think so.

Right now, every business is trying to rank its website on search engines. The reason is simple, websites on the first page get more traffic and convertible leads.

But what are the criteria for ranking your website on Google page one?

Every business or individual with a website or blog must know what Google looks for in a website to rank it. Security and loading speed are two of those many factors that must be a top priority for you if you are looking to rank on page one.

Though making your website fast and secure might sound complicated, it is not a long or drawn-out process. This article will give you all the valuable tips for making your website fast and secured within a few hours.

How to Make Your Website Secure?

Update Your Website

To make your website or blog safe, it’s essential to keep all your website software updated. If you use a CMS such as WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal, you must install the updates those platforms release.

Remember that those updates are designed to fix the errors and security flaws in the website software, and they would make your website less vulnerable to hackers and cyber-attacks. Therefore, update the software and protect your site from possible threats whenever you see the popup about the release.

Use Firewall

A web application firewall generally monitors the traffic that is transmitted to the website server. If there is any malicious traffic on your website, the web application firewall will prevent it from accessing your website.

There are different firewalls available, including network-based, cloud-based, and host-based.  Those firewalls can effectively block hacking attempts by filtering malicious traffic.

Those firewalls are also helpful in stopping the top attacks many websites face today, like cross-site scripting, cross-site forgery, SQL injection, etc.

Remember that you can stay protected against all kinds of attacks with a web application firewall, and they are implemented as part of a more comprehensive security solution.

Scan Your Website Often

If you want to know about the healthiest security practice for your website, it is to conduct scans of your website to check for vulnerabilities regularly. A website scanner helps you check your website files for many security issues, including vulnerabilities and malware.

You can find many online tools to detect security problems. But the free tools are not enough for your purpose. Therefore, we advise you to invest in a professional website scanner that thoroughly reviews your website files and detects problems.

Scanning your website takes you a few steps further. First, it gives you a detailed report about all the threats your website might face, including spam, malware, and server vulnerabilities. Those vulnerabilities often target your log-in or contact forms.  It would help if you also scanned for cross-site scripting and SQL injection.

Install An SSL Certificate

SSL certificate brings you an added layer of security, and installing an SSL certificate is easy. An SSL is a sign that the data you transmit between your website and the webserver is encrypted. Thus, it is more difficult for hackers to attack. In addition, Google favors websites with an SSL certificate and also tends to rank them higher.

You can find many hosting providers who also offer a free SSL certificate to install on your site. However, suppose your website consists of sensitive information such as credit card details and personal information. In that case, you must prefer to purchase an SSL certificate.

Secure Your Passwords

Securing a password is a must-do for any website owner to protect their site from hackers and cybercriminals. Always use a hard guess password with a minimum of eight characters consisting of a random assortment of numbers, letters, and symbols. If your password is too easy to crack, it is advisable to update your passwords and make them more secure.

It can be challenging to think up new random passwords and also to remember them. Therefore, you may securely store your passwords in any safe place, which will save you from the frustration of trying to remember them.

How To Make Your Website Fast?

For an extraordinary user experience, the speed of your website matters. Therefore, your website must not take more than two seconds to load.

Remember that even a single second delay in page load can result in:

• 10 to 15% fewer page views
• Up to 20% decrease in customer satisfaction
• 8% loss in conversions

Thus, if your site is taking some extra seconds to load, it might harm your visitors. This means having a fast site is essential, and here is how you can do it.

Reduce HTTP Requests

A study found that more than 85% of a web page’s load time is spent loading different parts of the page, like scripts and images. An HTTP request is made for each of those elements, so the more components are on your webpage, the longer it takes for the page to render.

To minimize the HTTP requests, you first need to figure out how many your site is currently making. If you have Google Chrome, you can use the browser’s developer tools to check your site’s number of HTTP requests. Reducing the number of requests will efficiently speed up your site.

Reduce Server Response Time

Another factor in how quickly your web page loads is the amount of time your DNS takes. DNS stands for Domain Name System, a server with a database of IP addresses and their hostnames.

Whenever a user types your URL into a browser, a DNS server translates that URL into an IP address to indicate its location online.

The amount of time this step takes depends on how fast your DNS provider. If you find it to take more than longer, this is probably the best time to switch to a faster DNS provider. On the other hand, using a slow DNS means the browser will take more time to locate your site.

Choose The Right Hosting Option

While it comes to choosing a hosting option, most of the site owners go for the cheapest possible hosting, which is enough for a beginner. But you need to upgrade it once your site starts getting more traffic. So don’t go for a host that offers cheap service; instead, you must choose an SEO web hosting provider you can trust.

Though shared hosting is the cheapest option, it is only workable for a low-traffic site. Shared hosting does a real struggle to keep up with considerable traffic. Therefore, they are not appropriate for high-volume sites.

With VPS hosting, you still have to share a server with other sites. But you will have your own dedicated portion. This is an excellent in-between option as you can still save the cost of dedicated hosting.

Dedicated hosting is like owning a home. You don’t need to share your resources with anyone else, and you will be responsible for all the maintenances. With a dedicated server, you can have more space and also better speed.

These simple steps will give your website a boost in its performance. Once you have incorporated all the above-mentioned changes, you will improve your website loading time and security. Remember that even these simple steps can make a huge difference and bring a better user experience. If you need help choosing the best hosting option for your site, visit Cohosta and talk to an expert.