Domain Security: 5 Strategies to Protect Your Website

Unfortunately, phishing websites and the impersonation of online businesses are common issues for domain owners. Therefore, domain security is essential for every site. Without strategies to protect your website, you could end up falling victim to cyber attacks.

Luckily, there are plenty of simple domain security tactics you can employ to protect your website. For instance, you can get domain privacy protection, enable an SSL certificate, and make sure to renew your domain before it expires.

In this post, we’ll start by discussing the importance of domain security. Then, we’ll share five ways you can protect your website. Let’s get to it!

What Is Domain Security? (And Why It’s Important)

To put it simply, domain security refers to any measures you take to safeguard your website against cyber attacks. In particular, these security strategies aim to reduce the chances of domain-based threats, such as:

• Website spoofing. This is when nefarious actors try to create a fake website impersonating yours. In this scenario, they may want to steal your customers or harvest their data.
• DNS poisoning. Hackers can also try to gain access to your Domain Name System (DNS) cache in order to redirect your website’s traffic to another location. In this case, they might also be looking to collect data for malicious purposes.
• DDoS attacks. In a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, hackers attempt to overwhelm a website’s network or infrastructure. Their goal is to interrupt the domain’s regular traffic and make the site unavailable.

These are just a few examples of what can happen to an unsecured website domain.

If your domain becomes compromised or your online business is the victim of such an attack, there can be a lot of negative repercussions. For instance, in the case of a DDoS attack, your ecommerce site could experience downtime, interfering with your sales funnel and resulting in lost conversions.

What’s more, any domain-based hack or scamming incident your website experiences can harm your online reputation and damage customer trust. Depending on the severity of the attack, it can also lead to severe financial losses.

With all of this in mind, securing your domain should be a top priority. This way, you can prevent any serious attempts by malicious actors to compromise your data and destroy your reputation.

Domain Security: 5 Strategies to Protect Your Website

Now, let’s take a look at five ways you can secure your domain name against cyber attacks. As you’ll see, these measures are quite straightforward, but they can be very effective in protecting your business.

1. Choose a Reputable Domain Registrar

One of the easiest ways you can protect your domain name is by choosing a reputable registrar. If you’re looking for a secure domain registrar, NameHero is a top-quality option:

You can start by using the free domain name search tool to explore your options:

When you’re ready to register your domain with NameHero, you’ll just need to click on the Add To Cart button:

After that, go to Checkout. On the following page, you’ll be able to purchase a few add-ons, including ID protection (more on this in a moment).

If you already have a domain with a less reputable registrar, you can always move it to a better service provider. NameHero offers free migration services to help you do this.

2. Get Domain Privacy Protection

If you want to secure your domain, privacy protection is an excellent option, as this will hide your personal details from the public WHOIS directory. This can make it more difficult for cyber criminals to create fake websites impersonating your business.

At the same time, it can protect you from identity theft, phishing scams, and other threats. You can get domain privacy protection as an add-on when you register your domain with NameHero:

This will protect your personal information and help stop spam from reaching your inbox.

Note that some NameHero web hosting plans include free domain registrations. So, if you haven’t launched your website yet, bundling these two services may be your best option. This can simplify website management for you and save money.

If you’re not sure whether your current registrar or hosting provider offers domain privacy, you can reach out to your customer support team to learn more.

3. Promptly Renew Your Domain

As you may already know, you can’t permanently purchase any domain name. You’ll need to pay for a subscription, which you usually renew on a yearly basis.

When your domain registration expires, it becomes available to the public again. So, if you’re not careful, someone can virtually “steal” your domain name. Then, they can use it for identity theft or to impersonate your business.

With this in mind, one of the best protection strategies is to immediately renew your domain when it expires. To do this, you may want to start with a domain expiration check.

Once you know your domain’s expiration date, it’s best to proactively manage your domain renewals.

With some registrars (including NameHero) you’ll have the option to use an auto-renewal feature. This way, you can rest assured that your domain registration will remain intact.

4. Enable an SSL Certificate

A Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate allows websites to send data using HTTPS, which is an encryption protocol. Using HTTPS is crucial because it can help protect your visitors’ data in case your site becomes compromised.

There are several ways you can get SSL certificates. For instance, you can use a free service such as Let’s Encrypt:

While you don’t typically need to purchase an SSL certificate, you may need to install it yourself. You’ll also need to make sure your SSL certificates don’t expire.

So, if you’re a busy domain owner, you may want to opt for a web hosting plan that includes SSLs by default. With all of NameHero’s web hosting plans, you’ll get free and unlimited SSL certificates that are automatically installed for you.

5. Set Up Two Factor Authentication

When you register your domain name, you’ll automatically gain access to the user dashboard for your registrar or web host. That’s the account where you manage all your domains.

In order to safeguard this account from hackers, it’s best to access your privacy settings and set up Two-Factor Authentication (2FA). This means that, aside from entering your username and password, you’ll also need to submit a code that is sent to you by email or SMS to log into your account.

This security strategy may sound simple, but it can help prevent cyber criminals from accessing your domains. If you don’t have 2FA as an option in your account settings, you might want to consider switching to a more secure provider.

Conclusion

When you run an online business, domain security is crucial. Cyber criminals can impersonate your website and steal your your data. These attacks can lead to lost conversions and damage your reputation.

As a domain owner, you can easily protect your website by implementing the following strategies:

1. Choose a reputable domain registrar, like NameHero.
2. Get domain privacy protection.
3. Promptly renew your domain.
4. Enable an SSL certificate.
5. Set up two-factor authentication for your domain accounts.

Do you have any questions about how to strengthen your website’s domain security? Let us know in the comments section below!