Mining Companies: You Need To Secure Your Website

Earlier this week, I wrote a blog post that required me to look at 500+ websites of mining companies. There was an alarming amount of public companies with sites that are not secure. If you’re not worried about security, then you should be concerned about your Google search rankings.

Why Security Matters

The primary purpose of securing a website is to protect the communication between the user and the site. A secure website helps the user know that the URL they’re typing into the address bar is indeed going to the website you’re looking at in the browser. And companies like Google understand the importance of security. Without HTTPS, Google will now mark your site as “Not Secure” (Chromium Blog). In 2014, Google came out and said that HTTPS is also a ranking signal that effects your search engine rank (Google Blog).

Furthermore, if an SSL certificate secures your website, you may need to go one step further and ensure your site supports HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security).

How To Implement

The easiest way to implement is to use Cloudflare. When signing up for Cloudflare, they’ll crawl for all your DNS settings and pull them in. Then you go to the registrar where you purchased the domain name and pointed the name servers at Cloudflare. Once completed, you’ll be using CloudFlare’s DNS, and then you can then turn on SSL and HSTS.

This level of coverage is all free with Cloudflare. They will also start serving your site with their CDN, which will speed up your website too! Their service is freemium, but for many companies, their free service is good enough.

I do recommend going a step further and purchasing their dedicated SSL certificate for an extra $5/month. The reason is that a dedicated SSL certificate will also improve your Google search rankings as you’re not sharing the certificate with other websites.

More Cloudflare Tweaks

Many mining websites are WordPress or another CMS, and rightfully so as they’re easy to develop upon and update. But, just like getting institutional financing, you need to lock it down. Turning on CloudFlare access puts another barrier from bots gaining access to your website. Cloudflare Access enables 2 Factor Authentication by way of a code that gets emailed to approved addresses – each time before you login.

If you want to know what I mean, check out our WordPress login (it’s the same /wp-admin as all WordPress sites).

Who’s the Best Hosting Company?

Having an SSL Certificate and Cloudflare SSL is a significant first step. Still, an excellent hosting company can go a long way too. A proper hosting company will ensure your website is secure, offers 2-factor authentication, runs fast and helps you stay ahead of any security issues.

For that, I recommend WPEngine. I love them. They have fantastic customer service, and I haven’t seen anyone who comes close to the level of security and speed they provide (without paying $1,000s/month for a managed server). Their service starts at $30/mo and is worth every penny.

We have a sizeable WPEngine cloud server and opted to have our server located in Canada for an extra fee. It’s always nice to know your data is close to home!

In the end, you can never be too careful securing your website and thus protecting your brand. Setting up your website security correctly, in the beginning, will help eliminate potential headaches down the line.

Neumarkets is happy to chat regarding any security questions or concerns.

Reach out and let’s connect!