If you asked someone with a reasonable knowledge of search engine optimization (SEO) to list off as many related words and phrases they could think of (which would be rather apt, given keyword research is a significant part of it), they’d likely mention content, backlinks, title tags, meta descriptions, Google algorithms, and so on. It’s rare, however, that website security and SEO would be used in the same breath.
While there may seem to be little connection between these two concepts, they’re far more closely linked than many of us realize. In fact, website security plays more than a minor role in SEO — a lack of sufficient cybersecurity measures can have a crippling effect on an SEO strategy if vulnerabilities are exploited.
But just why does website security matter so much when it comes to SEO? Let’s explore.
Search engines prioritize secure websites
A multitude of factors are considered by search engines such as Google when determining which search results to prioritize (these are typically referred to as ranking factors, and there are thought to be around 200 of them), including the quality and relevance of content, the presence of related keywords, the number of backlinks, and the average speed and responsiveness of the page.
According to Google itself, security is also a top priority, with the search engine taking into account whether sites use secure, encrypted connections in order to protect user privacy and data. Sites that use HTTPS, therefore (an indication of a secure encryption between server and browser), are likely to be favored by search engines, while those with a less secure HTTP connection may struggle to rank highly for their target keywords.
Compromised sites may be blacklisted
If a business’s website were to experience a cyber attack, there could be any number of negative consequences as a result — the company may endure financial losses, for example, or the exposure of sensitive information. Either way, this is likely to cause significant reputational damage that can be difficult to recover from.
But a compromised website can also incur manual penalties from search engines like Google, meaning they run the risk of being flagged as unsafe and even blacklisted from search results in some circumstances — which may entirely obliterate organic traffic. It’s essential, therefore, that businesses have robust security defenses in place to protect against cyber attacks and prevent punitive action.
Websites can fall victim to ‘SEO spam’ attacks
Perhaps the most direct impact of website security on SEO are what’s known as SEO spam attacks. These attacks may be carried out by competitors or disgruntled former employees (or anyone with nefarious objectives) and typically involve a website being flooded with spam-laden content — such as a slew of irrelevant links or keywords — which may cause it to be severely penalized by search engines.
Worse still, by inserting phishing links into your content and enticing innocent visitors to click on them, your site could compromise users’ devices and/or data. A website security solution such as SiteLock can help to prevent SEO spam attacks through a range of features such as website scanning, vulnerability patching, and malware removal.
Loss of performance can impact the user experience
Any SEO guru worth their salt (or any specialist SEO agency such as Seeker, for that matter) knows the importance of the user experience to SEO. A number of key search engine rankings factors concern UX-related elements such as visual stability, loading times, mobile responsiveness, and user signals like dwell time (how long a visitor typically spends on your site after clicking a link in the search results).
Since a security incident may have a significant impact on the performance of a website, it can negatively affect its UX and cause its rankings to tumble. For example, an attack may cause the website to become unresponsive or run much slower than usual, which would likely lead to users swiftly exiting the page. This sends negative signals to search engines, potentially causing them to penalize the site.
Extended downtime can cause a drop in rankings
Another potential consequence of a security-related incident is downtime, which is when a website becomes unavailable to end-users. Downtime is never ideal for any business — it can lead to temporary loss of revenue, impaired productivity, a damaged reputation, and significant user frustration — and the longer it goes on, the more severe the impact is likely to be.
Extended downtime can also have a negative impact on SEO. If your website is offline for several hours, days, or even longer, for example, your search rankings might start to suffer as a result. Google may register that your site is suddenly getting no traffic — as well as slew of negative feedback — and treat this as a reason to prevent it from appearing in a prominent search position.
Malicious bots can affect search engine crawlers
Bots are increasingly commonplace across the web — there are several types of bots, including web crawlers (or spiders), scrapers, shopping bots, monitoring bots, and multiple others besides — and most of them have perfectly legitimate intentions. Certain others, however, such as spambots and account takeover bots, have solely malicious aims.
If these ‘bad’ bots are able to access your site, they could potentially impair the work of innocent search engine bots (or crawlers) responsible for crawling your content in order to determine its rank within search results. With these legitimate crawlers unable to perform their roles properly, search engines may be unable to index your content, and you may see your ranking potential impacted as a result.
In summary, while there may appear to be little association between website security and SEO, the two are in fact closely linked. To ensure your site doesn’t fall victim to an SEO spam attack or experience the wrath of a Google penalty, reliable website security is a must — features such as SSL, advanced web filtering, and vulnerability patching are essential tools in the fight against malicious users.
