Having a business without compromising its reputation is one of the hardest things to achieve. In a digital world, everything leaves a trace and this means that any scandal or mistake you make online will follow you forever. If you are thinking that your business is small enough or so unimportant that nobody would bother attacking your website, then think again. When it comes to business, first impressions are everything and the attack on your site could have a lasting impact on your bottom line as well as your team members who may lose their trust in you because of this. This article will give insight into how an attack on your website could have devastating consequences for your business and what steps you can take to protect yourself.
The loss of reputation is not just a blow to your business’s ego, but also your bottom line. A study by the Reputation Institute found that when businesses experience a negative reputation crisis, it can lead to a 20 percent drop in revenue.
Companies with a positive reputation, on the other hand, see their sales increase by as much as 12 percent. Your small business’s reputation directly impacts how potential customers view your company and whether they are likely to trust you or not. If you currently own or operate a business and want to avoid potential pitfalls that lead to negative public perception, read on for some helpful tips about maintaining a good reputation from your customers and stakeholders.
What is Reputation Loss?
When a website attack occurs, the target website is defaced. The term defacement simply means to cover the site with a message or images. Defacement is usually carried out to coerce or intimidate the website’s visitors. It is not an online vandalism. It is an abusive act that is carried out to cause damage. A defaced website loses its reputation faster than any other kind of online attack. The new visitors to your website are cautious about the website after seeing its reputation has become a victim of a defacement attack. They will be worried about what is being said about your business on the internet.
Why is Reputation Loss so Important?
If your website reputation is affected, your business reputation would also be affected. That would mean that your customers would think less of you and would stop buying from you. That would be a disaster for your business, wouldn’t it? If a potential customer finds out that your business was affected by a website attack and lost its reputation, you can be sure that he or she would never give you a second chance to redeem yourself. It’s very important that if you have any issue with your business’ reputation online, you should address it right away before it gets out of hand and affects your revenue. A company who is having a bad reputation online is like a ship that is sailing into dangerous waters. As soon as the storm is on its way, the company’s revenue and reputation is greatly at risk of being damaged.
Website Attack: Why it Could be Devastating for Your Business?
A website defacement leads to loss in revenue. You lose trust from the online community, new clients and customers would be hesitant to buy from you. The traffic to your website will be affected due to the loss of trust from your online community. If a client trusts your brand, he or she would be hesitant to buy from a company who has lost its reputation. The loss of traffic due to a website attack will also affect your productivity and you would feel like working on your best. Every minute that you are not productive is a minute that you are losing money.
3 Worst Case Scenarios that could happen due to a Website Attack
Customers would stop trusting your brand online. New clients and customers would be hesitant to buy from you. Your team members would feel distressed and distracted. You would lose time because of the defacement. Your productivity would be affected. You would feel like working and be unproductive.
Why is your business' reputation so important?
Businesses need to think about reputation loss as a bigger threat than it seems. Even if you think your reputation loss is a small incident and cannot fathom why anyone would do it to you, you must consider the fact that your business reputation could get affected if you have no control over it. It is not a big deal if someone writes a bad review about your company on a review website, but the damage that is inflicted when your reputation is attacked could be devastating. If your online reputation is tarnished, you will lose new clients, current customers would be hesitant to buy from you and your employees would feel distressed and distracted. A bad reputation can affect your productivity and you would feel like working and be unproductive.
Conclusion
If you want to protect your business online, it is important to address the issue of reputation loss immediately. You don’t want someone’s hack website of your company to stand, you want to correct the issue right away. If your reputation loss is bad enough, you may even have to pay for the website restoration services in order to make the site presentable again. There are many things that you can do to protect yourself from a reputation loss, and it only takes a little effort on your part to prevent damage from being done to your business’ reputation. All you have to do is avoid making mistakes online and you’ll be sure to keep your business’ reputation intact.