Online Shopping 101 – Part 6: Website Security and Reputation

After you’ve set up your payment gateways, you need to have strong security and reputation measures implemented. Without these, customers will be wary about using your site. Their internet browser may even pop up a warning that your site is unsafe – not a great start to getting your online sales rolling!

It used to be that a significant amount of the population was nervous about using their credit card details online. Fraud, identity theft and just a general wariness of not being able to see the person you were paying money to, contributed to the concerns. Nowadays, those concerns are not so bad and the reason is the added protection of security and reputation procedures on all secure websites.

SSL Security

Your website absolutely must have an SSL certificate. SSL certificates encrypt the information being transferred from your customer to your site so that no-one can steal it along the way. SSL Certificates protect credit card data, banking and financial account information, customer login information, health records and even identification numbers such as driver’s licenses.

SSL certificates are easy to buy and place on your site. Beware of cheap SSL certificates. Make sure you understand the differences between SSL certificates before you purchase one. Ensure that the padlock is prominently displayed on your website and for extra advertisement of your website’s security, go with a SSL seller who also provides a logo to place on your website while the customer enters their details.

Website Security Scanner

A website security scanner will dig through the code on your website to find any vulnerabilities that could leave you exposed to hackers. Web security scanners are inexpensive and ensure any malware is removed from your website along with constantly scanning activity in emails sent and other activity happening on your website. Complete Cloud can provide you with advice on the best security scanners to implement.

Prevent Spammers With A CAPTCHA

CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public Turing Test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. These are the little boxes that you need to enter a word into before you can submit a form. Including one on your secure site will prevent spammers and ensure that all your customer enquiries are genuine people.

Strengthen Your Reputation

No customer will buy from a store that they worry won’t deliver on what they promise. Even though many payment methods, such as PayPal, have no-delivery guarantees, there’s a lot of time and effort that goes into purchasing a product and no one enjoys the feeling of being ripped off.

Third party review sites allow your customers to see real feedback from real customers. Ask a few of your regular customers to submit reviews of your store onto some of these sites. You can use Google Places, Yellow Pages or WOMO. If your website is industry specific, look for relevant review applications (for instance: Yelp in the restaurant industry).

Don’t forget this vital step in securing the success of your website. A good online store is a secure site! Now you’re ready for the final step… Marketing, stay tuned for our next installment

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