Security best practices for your business website

If you run a business online, your website is more than a shop window. It’s your front door, your brand, and often your busiest team member. And when it goes down or gets breached, the impact can be immediate: lost trust, missed revenue and a scramble to put things right.

Big-name security breaches might grab all the headlines, but small businesses are just as likely to be targeted. The difference is, they’re often hit harder. It’s not just the financial fallout, it’s the time spent recovering, the reputational damage and the stress of not knowing what’s been compromised.

But here’s the good news: you don’t need to be a cybersecurity expert to protect your site. With a quality hosting provider and a few smart practices, you can prevent most threats before they ever reach your door.

You’re the general. We’re your front line.

At Krystal, we think of security as a shared responsibility. You set the direction while we provide the defences. Our job is to keep your infrastructure protected, patched and resilient, so you can focus on running your business with confidence.

Here’s how to secure your business website, and where your host should be stepping up to help.

1. SSL: protect your visitors (and your rankings)

SSL encryption secures the connection between your website and its visitors. It’s the digital equivalent of sealing an envelope to keep the contents secret and safe from prying eyes. For any business site, it’s essential.

That little padlock icon in the browser bar doesn’t just signify security. It reassures visitors, boosts your SEO and prevents browsers from throwing up scary warnings. If you’re collecting logins, processing payments or even just handling contact forms, SSL is a must-have.

Krystal’s business hosting includes free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates on every plan. They’re simple to activate and auto-renew behind the scenes, so you can set them up once and stay secure without lifting a finger.

2. Backups: your safety net when things go wrong

No matter how careful you are, things can still go wrong. A plugin update might break your site. A file could get accidentally deleted. Or something more serious, like a security breach, might knock you offline.

That’s where backups come in. But to be effective, they need to be frequent, stored separately from your live environment, and easy to restore.

With our Business Hosting plans, you get automated backups every four hours, securely stored off-site. If something does go wrong, it takes just a few clicks to roll your site back to a working version – no stress, no drama.

3. Firewalls and DDoS protection: built-in defences that matter

Cyber attacks come in many forms. Some are subtle, probing for vulnerabilities. Others are loud and aggressive – like Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, which flood your site with fake traffic to knock it offline.

A good hosting provider will protect against both.

Every Krystal hosting plan includes built-in firewalls that act as intelligent gatekeepers, filtering out malicious requests before they reach your site. Our platform also includes 2,000Gbps of DDoS mitigation and real-time traffic analysis to detect and neutralise suspicious behaviour before it becomes a threat.

It’s all designed to work quietly in the background so your site stays online, your data stays safe, and you can carry on doing what you do best.

4. Software: keep it updated and scanned

Outdated software is one of the easiest ways for hackers to gain access to your site. Old plugins, unpatched themes and unsupported CMS versions create openings that can be exploited in seconds.

The solution is simple but essential: keep everything updated. Enable auto-updates for your CMS and plugins wherever possible, remove anything you no longer use, and run regular malware scans to catch issues early.

If you’re running a WordPress site, Krystal's Managed WordPress Hosting takes care of all of this for you. We handle updates, patching and proactive scanning – so your site stays secure and you stay focused on growing your business.

5. Logins: lock them all down

Strong security on the server side is crucial, but it can easily be for nothing if your login credentials are weak. A compromised admin password is an open door to your entire site, so you need to keep it well guarded.

Two-factor authentication (2FA) helps close the door. It adds an extra layer of protection by requiring a second form of verification – like a code from your phone – before granting access.

With Krystal, you can set up 2FA across your hosting account and services through our Krystal Identity platform. It’s quick to enable, easy to use and highly effective at stopping unauthorised access.

6. Logs: keep a careful eye on activity

Prevention is key, but so is detection. Monitoring your site’s activity logs can help you spot unusual or unexpected things like multiple failed login attempts or unauthorised changes early enough to stop them causing damage.

In your Krystal control panel, it’s easy to view logs and check for red flags. You can see who logged in, where they logged in from, and what actions they took.

Not sure what to look for? Our expert support team is always here to help.

7. Hosting: choose someone that takes security seriously

We’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: not all hosts are created equal. Anyone can claim to be secure, but real protection comes from meeting strict, independently verified standards.

At Krystal, we’re certified to the most up-to-date ISO/IEC 27001:2022 standard, which covers everything from data handling to incident response. Our UK-based data centres are PCI compliant, physically secure and built for resilience. And our business hosting plans include these protections as standard.

If your host can’t offer that level of transparency and rigour, it might be time to reconsider who’s guarding your gates.

Security should be proactive, not reactive

Great security doesn’t wait for things to go wrong. It’s baked into the foundations, all the way from the hardware and infrastructure to the people and processes behind it.

We take your security very seriously, so we build our platform to anticipate threats, not just react to them. That means continual monitoring, rapid patching and a team of talented technologists that stay on top of emerging risks. And if something ever does go wrong, we don’t just fix it, we fix it fast, communicate clearly and help you recover with confidence.

Because that’s what proper security looks like.

Ready to protect your site?

Whether you’re launching something new or improving what you’ve already built, we’re here to help you do it securely and safely.

Explore our secure hosting plans to find the right fit for your business, or talk to our team for advice tailored to your needs.

Remember: Good hosting keeps your site online. Great hosting helps protect your whole business.