Some people avoid getting website maintenance as they think that it’s not essential to their website. But in reality, IT IS! Outdated websites can cost you more than being maintained.
Unmaintained websites are websites that have not receive software, code or framework updates, leaving it vulnerable and unsecured. As online presence of businesses and online usage is rising, so does online crimes increases. One of them is Hacking.
Hacking has been around since internet has started. Hackers take opportunities on an unsecured and unmaintained websites; stealing contents and information, defacing a website and even use its resources for their own personal gain. Since a website is 24/7 available in the internet, it is at a higher risk of hacking when it is unmaintained or outdated.
Do you know when your website is hacked Google labels your site as harmful or hacked? Yes that’s true! They will label your website as a threat to give warning to your visitors that you are unprotected. You have to take necessary recovery and maintenance before Google lifts that label. The process is not easy and fast. You have to wait for quite some time before they process.
There are also other harmful online crimes, such as:
- Scrapers scrape content off your website and reuse it at other websites.
- Spammers take sites and turn them into an estate of malware and phishing links.
Who is at risk?
EVERYONE IS AT RISK! Whether you are an independent individual or a large corporation, you are at risk of this online crimes.
As online technology evolves and improves so does these online criminals. They continuously find ways to get through to take what they can and manipulate it to their advantage. That’s the reason why you have to be informed, be updated and always steps ahead to protect what you have, and that’s your online presence and identity – YOUR WEBSITE.
What is the price of an unmaintained website?
You already know that when you leave your website unmaintained, it will cost you. But do you really know what you will loose? Here are the price that you will pay, when you have an unmaintained website
1. Unplanned Costs.
Retrieving a hacked website takes time and a lot of effort, equating that on the additional cost you will incur paying an IT professional to do that. And not only that, what if they stole information of your client or your company, those lost deals and possible clients and or even credibility sabotage. You will need to take a damage control on those to and that would cost you big as well.
2. Data Loss.
It might happen while the hackers hold your website. Some of them will require ransom before giving your site back and it will take days and weeks in reconstructing your site back. Or what’s worse is your have lost it and unable to be retrieved.
3. Losing Consumers’ Trust
When a website is not reliable and unusable especially when it loses important information, your clients will lose their confidence in doing business with you. Website should make communication faster, easier and reliable but if not, there’s no sense to it anymore.
4. Loss of Revenue
You lose revenue when you cannot convert your visitors to clients. This happens when your website is inaccessible, unreliable and unable to communicate information. Whether it’s an online store that is unable to sell or an information captured to companies that are unreachable because their website is down, both loses revenue.
Incidents of Hacked Websites
In the Philippines, government websites are usually targeted by the hackers as in the recent years. There are at least 30 government websites hacked by local groups. They are old websites that are not well maintained and does not have updated security, which makes it easier to be hacked.
Overseas, a hacking incident happened to Rutgers University in New Jersey. The university was said to hire three cyber security firms to help protect the school against another attack that affects two of their online learning tools.
They have spent $2 million and $3 million on cyber security to protect Social Security numbers and sensitive research data. Common attacks on other companies were known to be stealing customer’s information such as their credit card information for their own usage.
What Now?
If your website is updated and maintained, you are doing a good job. Keep it up! But if you are unsure or if you already know that your website hasn’t been checked and updated yet, have it looked by a professional or someone who has a knowledge on it in your organization.
We hope that this article helped you in gaining new insight and knowledge in the importance of a well-maintained website. Let us know how this have helped you. If you don’t have someone to help you in maintaining your website, connect with us! We will help you with your website to be on its optimized performance.
