What Does Having a Hacked Website Cost You?

The Cost of Having a Developer Fix Your Site

The most obvious cost is getting the website fixed after a hacking event takes place. Hiring a web development firm to fix and recovery your site ASAP can add up quickly. Depending on the firm’s hourly rate and how long it takes, this can be very costly process.

The Cost of Sensitive Data Loss

Sensitive data be breached when a hacker gets into your site. Things like email addresses, customer data and more can become exposed. These vulnerabilities can cost you big if delicate sales and marketing data is compromised.

Disruption to Your Business

For most businesses, a website is a primary marketing tool. The disruption to this valuable tool can mean lost sales leads and a downturn in sales. Imagine a potential customer searches for you on Google, only to not find the information they were seeking. They will quickly move on to your competitor’s site.

Loss of Customer Confidence and Perception

In certain industries, the appearance of a hacked website can spell trouble with clients. The loss of client confidence can be crippling, and the hit you may take in your client’s perception of you can far outweigh any monetary costs.

Blacklisting on Google

Google obviously doesn’t want to funnel traffic to a hacked site and put its users at risk themselves. Quite often sites that are compromised for a period of time will become ‘blacklisted’ by search engines. It’s estimated that being ‘blacklisted’ can result in a decrease of 95% of the traffic it would normally receive.

How to Prevent It

#1 — Work with a web developer that understands the need to have a secure website. A vigilant web site designer will use current best practices to ensure that your site is built with security in mind. Turbocharged Design keeps up with current technology, and has safeguards baked into the web design process.
#2 — Have and keep current backup of your site, or ensure that your web developer does (Turbocharged always keeps a backup on hand for it’s clients.)