There is a great deal to consider when setting up a web hosting account for a new site, and sometimes one of the more important items slips to the wayside in the midst of configuring your sites, uploading content, trying to drive traffic and more.

Let’s look at some of the issues you’ll want to keep in mind when setting up web hosting security for a new site.

Price Isn’t Everything! It can be very tempting to sign on the dotted virtual line for a cheap web hosting account. Just know that there are several trade-offs at work here. First, very likely that inexpensive account is going to be on a shared server, along with many other sites that you have absolutely no idea about. They could be offering up spam, porn, malware and all sorts of other less than wonderful items, and you could find yourself guilty by association. Google is very mindful of “bad neighborhoods”, and will sometimes penalize the entire IP address for activity of this sort.

What Does Your Host Promise? While it is clearly in the web host’s best interest to do so, it definitely behooves you to inquire as to the security protocols they have in place for their shared hosting platforms. If they are not properly protected, you may be subject to a whole slew of vermin, such as DdoS attacks, malware, MySQL injection, and cross site scripting. You don’t even want to know what any of that is (in case you don’t!) and when the hosting environment is vulnerable, a lot of havoc can happen.

Updates and Clean Code You should definitely ask whether or not their software is up to date, and that security patches are taken seriously and applied judiciously. Having clean code on the sites for you to use is paramount in ensuring you have a safe environment in which to work. A great many exploits originate in outdated code, resulting in problems for you. Make sure the web host has the latest versions of PHP, MySQL, ASP or whichever applications you are working in installed.

Secure Payment Connections Most certainly if you conduct any transactions through your website, make sure that your customers’ (and yours!) financial information is securely protected by SSL support. Nothing could be more damaging to your business than an intrusion here!

Taking care to ensure that security measures are in place on your web hosting account will give you the peace of mind and time to move forward in your business!