Secure Your Real Estate Website From Hackers

Is Your Property Website Secure?

In an effort to improve website security, Prop Data will be rolling out SSL certificates to all client websites - an upgrade that will see each website integrated with enhanced security that will better protect your online information, heighten customer trust, improve website functionality and boost your visibility on the search engines.

What is an SSL certificate?

SSL stands for “secure sockets layer” and is ultimately the foundation for a secure internet connection between your website visitors’ browser (e.g. Chrome, Internet Explorer etc…) and the servers that host your website and data, thereby protecting all sensitive information submitted or served between the two.

How does it work?

The importance of a secure connection can be appreciated once you consider the risks of an unsecure website. The exclusion of an SSL certificate leaves data sent between browsers and web servers vulnerable to unauthorised access by third parties. Such access enables perpetrators to view and use all sensitive information sent from the browsers to servers, and vice versa.

To avoid this scenario, an SSL certificate promotes security by creating an encrypted link between a server and a web browser that can only be read by the intended parties. In other words, it establishes a secure connection between a visitor’s web browser and the server of the company it is interacting with. A secure website with an SSL certificate can typically be identified by the display of a small padlock in the address bar (usually on the left), while the web address begins with HTTPS://, in which the “S” stands for secure.

What does this mean for your property website?

1. Ultimate protection through encrypted information 

The most imperative function an SSL certificate provides is encrypting all information served by the Prop Data servers and submitted by your website visitors from their browsers. All data that is served or submitted is encrypted into a unique code that cannot be read or decrypted by any third party thereby ensuring that all information on your Prop Data website is secure.

2. Heightened customer trust

The benefit of a secure connection is that it instills confidence with your customers and builds trust in your property website and brand. Since you are providing a platform whereby all their information will be protected, this will allow your customers to feel safe to share their information openly without fear and risk of outside interference, thus improving their communication and interaction with your business.

3. Advanced user-experience

A secure property website also provides your visitors with a superior property search experience as it enables the use of location-based search technology without compromising the safety of your visitors’ data, across both mobile and desktop platforms. An SSL certificate enables visitors to safely share their location data with the Prop Data servers and thereby activate functionality on your website that presents relevant properties to your visitors based on their current geographic location. You will also be able to activate the “Property Near Me” and “On Show Near Me” features on the mobile version of your website.

4. Enhanced search engine rankings

Google values secure websites and has called on webmasters from around the globe to make their websites secure. Google’s aim has always been to provide users with the most relevant search results and one of the criteria it uses to determine relevancy is the security of the website. Google believes that secure websites are better trusted and as a result they are preferred over unsecured websites in their search results pages. So just by incorporating an SSL certificate your website will rank better in the Google search results and greatly improve your website’s visibility.

Prop Data will be rolling out SSL certificates to all our real estate websites, thus improving security and taking the risk out of conducting business online for all our clients and their website visitors. This will ensure that your property website and data are fully protected online, which will build confidence and trust with your website visitors, provide them with a more customised property search experience, and ultimately boost your website’s visibility and rankings on Google.