Social Cindy specializes in website design for local businesses. We believe one of the primary benefits local business owners want in a website is for it to bring in new customers and make the phone ring. One of the primary factors in achieving that goal is for the website to rank highly in Google search results for the keywords and phrases that prospects may search to find your business. For example, for Social Cindy, our site should rank as highly as possible in a Google search for the term:
“Website Design in Vero Beach”
So a primary goal of our website designs is to equip all the sites we build with the features that help a website fight hard to rank in those search results for those important words.
So Search Engine Visibility is sort of job one in our studio. That is what helps our customers pay themselves back for the investment in the form of increased business. Of course, in addition to the obvious benefits there may be a downside to being so visible in search results. That visibility is what helps bad actors to find you. Hacking and spamming are significant problems and getting bigger for the owners of all websites these days.
Geopolitical conditions in the world today are causing some state actors to become involved in the game. I doubt state actors are after our little business but I think they may be inspiring small operators to become more active as well.
No. Hackers and Spam is not a British breakfast dish.
Fortunately, the prevalence of the problem has also inspired more people on the “white hat” side of the fence to come to our assistance.
For example, a company called WordFence now offers tools for the WordPress platform that can help WordPress-based website owners get a peak at what is going on in that area. We tend to install WordFence when we complete each custom build. WordFence includes a scan to make sure that the software that we install is free of malware. WordFence also includes features that will let us know if any of the themes or plugins have been secretly modified or need an upgrade.
Wordfence does more than just notify you of changes to your site, it can also play an active role in preventing known bad actors from accessing your site.
Here is a chart I received recently that shows from which countries it has recently blocked access from a known bad actor.
Top 10 Countries Blocked
| Country | Total IPs Blocked | Block Count |
|---|---|---|
| Iran, Islamic Republic of | 1 | 73 |
| United States | 9 | 62 |
| Germany | 3 | 52 |
| Ukraine | 2 | 8 |
| United Kingdom | 1 | 2 |
| Singapore | 1 | 2 |
| Australia | 1 | 2 |
| Malaysia | 1 | 1 |
| Belgium | 1 | 1 |
| France | 1 | 1 |
I receive these monthly for each site that Wordfence is protecting for me. This is the first month I have seen Iran at the top of the list. If you have a WordPress site that Social Cindy designed your you in the last 5 years, most likely your site is being protected by Wordfence already. If you have a WordPress site that Social Cindy did not build, we are available to install this protection for you as well. Please give us a call at (7729) 617 2499.
So until next time, sleep tight, and don’t let the hackers bite!
