In recent weeks we’ve had a number of clients who have been worried about their websites getting hacked. It can be a very worrying time for a business owner and it usually happens in one of these ways:
- One of your customers will tell you that your website has been hacked. Either they get weird popups when they load the website or error messages. Chances are you’ve lost a sale..
- You open your website one morning to find pop-ups or blogs or errors that shouldn’t be there. Cue another wasted day trying to fix it all..
- You get an email telling you that all of your data has been compromised and the hackers want all your Bitcoin. Your blood pressure instantly goes up..
So based on these conversations with our clients we’ve started telling them about Cloudflare.
If you’ve never heard of Cloudflare it’s a massively popular content delivery network (CDN) that provides website owners with a range of security and speed benefits.
These include protection against online threats, and improved website performance and optimisations.
A large chunk of businesses do not take security as important as they should. However we believe that prevention is better than cure so we strongly recommend you think about using Cloudflare on your own website.
What is Cloudflare?
Cloudflare is a content delivery network (CDN) that acts as a proxy between a website and its visitors.
One of the things it does is help speed up website performance by caching content and distributing it across multiple servers around the world.
Additionally, Cloudflare offers a range of security features, such as protection against DDoS attacks and malicious bots, as well as SSL encryption for secure data transfer.
It’s a powerful tool for website owners looking to improve their website’s performance and security – an area which many business owners don’t really think enough about.
What are the benefits of using Cloudflare?
The first benefit of using Cloudflare is protection against online attacks such as DDoS attacks, SQL injections, and spam comments.
This helps to keep your website secure and prevent downtime.
Things like spam or bots can seriously degrade website performance and system security, so anything that helps prevent them is vital.
Cloudflare’s caching and Railgun features help to improve website performance, resulting in faster page load times and a better user experience.
Another thing Cloudflare offers is analytics and insights into website traffic and performance, allowing your business to make data-driven decisions to improve your website.
With these enhancements added to your website it gives you extra peace of mind that your website is protected 24/7.
How does it protect websites from online threats?
Cloudflare uses advanced algorithms to detect and block malicious traffic before it reaches your website.
Effectively it acts as a barrier between a user and your website, screening traffic for harmful bots or code injections.
This barrier, or proxy, is the extra layer of protection your website needs to ensure your website doesn’t get hacked and your business doesn’t lose customers.
Of course it doesn’t mean your website could never be hacked – this can never be 100% guaranteed – but think about what you are currently doing to ensure the security of your business and customers.
If the answer is ‘very little’ then you really should think about using Cloudflare as soon as you can – there is no benefit in putting it off.
How does it speed up website performance?
Speed and website performance is hugely important for business websites.
Website loading times are a key aspect of SEO and a ranking factor in search engines.
Therefore, making your website as fast as it can be should always be a priority for you.
In addition to its security features, Cloudflare also helps to speed up website performance.
This is achieved through a process called caching, where frequently accessed website content is stored on Cloudflare’s servers and delivered to users from the closest server location.
This reduces the amount of time it takes for website content to load, resulting in much faster page load times and a better user experience for your customer.
The Railgun add-on further improves website performance by compressing website content and delivering it more efficiently to your browser.
Combined with efficient website server hosting and the right caching plugins you can really boost your website speed loading times.
Is it right for my website?
Yes, absolutely.
No matter what kind of website you have, Cloudflare will help to improve and strengthen it.
Infact, it’s a no-brainer. Examples of people who can benefit from Cloudflare:
- If you have an ecommerce site and sales are important to you then you need Cloudflare to ensure top security for you and your customers.
- If your website suffers from slow loading times and you’re thinking about how to speed it up and boost performance.
- You have a WordPress website and need to secure it further from hackers, as well as deliver much better page loading times.
- You are doing SEO on your site or you are looking into better ranking.
- You’ve had issues with your site being hacked, or security breaches, and you want to really boster security.
How can you set up Cloudflare for your website?
If you want to integrate Cloudflare into your website then you need to sign up and then update your domain’s DNS settings to point to Cloudflare’s servers.
One this has updated Cloudflare will begin protecting your website and improving the sites performance.
There are different pricing plans for Cloudflare ranging from a free option to a more advanced option for business and Enterprise.
How to get Enterprise tier Cloudflare for your website
If you really want to protect your website and want to investigate Cloudflare further then please get in touch with us.
We can help guide you on integrating Cloudflare into your website, along with other security and speed enhancements and custom suggestions for your business.
As a StudioRav customer we can offer you enterprise-level Cloudflare at a hugely discounted rate!
This will give you advanced security features that otherwise you could end up paying hundreds of pounds a month for you.
Let us handle the entire integration for you and get that extra peace of mind to protect your business!