Building a website as part of your business is standard practice for both reaching your customers as a marketing tool and to provide your customers another way to purchase your products and services. However, security is an essential element to having a website that users can trust and that will provide you with the ease of collecting payments. There are number of security measures you can take to help secure your website. Here are just a few. Keep Your Software Updated No matter what you use to build, design or run your website, all of your necessary software should be updated every time an update is available. When you fail to update your software, hackers have the chance to create and execute hacks to your site on older versions of the software. With an update, you can get bug fixes that will close these loopholes, keeping your information and your customer information safe. Buy an SSL Certificate An SSL certificate is a clear way to show visitors to your site that you are serious about your security and theirs. The SSL certificate lets users know that your website is verified and depending on the level of SSL you purchase, verifying your business. Visitors looking to buy your products and who are concerned about their safety online will probably not decide to make a purchase from your website if you are lacking an SSL certificate. Don’t Give It All Away Information is what hackers need to infiltrate your website. The less information your provide them when things go wrong, the less likely they will be able to find the right information to get it. For example, if someone types a username or password incorrectly, it is important to not be specific about which one was incorrect. If you tell them which one is correct, they no longer have to concentrate on both to get it, giving them more time to figure out how to hack into a person’s account. These are just some of the ways that you can help protect your website. Whether your site is simply informative or you are running a full-scale ecommerce website, it is important to provide security protection for yourself and for all of your visitors so your site can continue to see success.