For many business owners, having a website that is secure is often seen as more of a technical issue rather than one that actually drives growth.

Of course, as is the way with most things, if there is security, there is the chance for it to have a role in helping your business to grow. Indeed, as cyberattacks become more advanced and common, thanks to artificial intelligence (or AI), it is a question that many business owners have: can improving the security on your website help your business expand?

Building Customer Trust and Brand Credibility

Would you shop from a space that had broken windows and an open till?

Trust and appearance are both critical factors in online platforms and, as such, customers expect their payment information and their personal data to be protected when they are purchasing something online or booking a service. So, you can help them to feel safe by having visible security in place, such as HTTPS encryption and secure checkout processes. You can also state that your company uses secondary defences, such as Managed Defences and Response (MDR) systems, which will help your customers to see that you take security seriously. Incidentally, investing in MDR is a good idea all around for building trust, as it protects sensitive data by actively scanning your website and isolating threats.

Reducing Downtime and Revenue Loss

A cyberattack will mean you have to take your website offline, which will disrupt services and prevent sales. As you know, even short periods of time offline can cost a fortune in lost revenue and may also cause customers to become frustrated. By having top-of-the-line security, you can prevent malware attacks, which can cause outages, helping to keep your site online and running as you need it to.

Protecting Sensitive Data and Intellectual Property

When you are making sales online, your site is storing valuable information. If there is a data breach, this will lead to secondary legal issues, fines, and loss of your brand’s name. Yikes. By having a strong and multi-factor security system in place, you safeguard all of this data, and, if you outsource this to a cybersecurity company, you can ensure that all legal requirements for data protection are being met. This showcases professionalism, which will appeal to your clients and help you to stay online, making sales.

Enabling Scalable and Sustainable Growth

If all goes well, then your company will grow. However, with this comes more complexities to handle, such as higher volumes of traffic to your website, as well as additional users and staff accessing secure pages and data. If you are lax in your security and data systems, this may introduce vulnerabilities to your site, which can slow the progress of the page and create risks. It is an unfortunate truth that the majority of data hacks occur due to staff making errors or not being trained in cybersecurity. So, you will need to invest in not only modern, top-of-the-line scalable security options, but you will also need to make sure that your staff have training in cybersecurity. This will help your business grow your digital presence without compromising your customers’ data, and rather than having a reactive approach to potential online hackers, you will have a proactive one. Of the two, the latter is the one you want for sustained long-term growth.