Webmaster Tools Now Warns Of Website Security Issues

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

If you log into Webmaster Tools and you are running an older edition of WordPress on your blog or maybe even an older version of a CMS then you’ll see a warning sign telling you that you may have website security issues. I like that.

What this tells me is that Google believes website security is important. Not only is it important from a webmaster’s point of view, where if you don’t upgrade to the newest software, the fact that Google Webmaster Tools is now warning webmasters of potential security holes means that it is possible that weaker security could affect your authority rating, search rankings, or PageRank. Do I have proof of this? No. But I’m just speculating that if Google deems it important enough to warn you of potential dangers then it’s possible that they deem it important enough to have it affect your search engine ranking and optimization or PageRank.

Think I’m insane? Then explain load time for PPC quality score. Or how about the authority of sites linking to yours.

Google has become an expert in nuanced website authority issues. Over the course of its lifetime the search engine has made some tough choices that indicate its commitment to ensuring that searchers see the best and most relevant sites for their queries. If your website has security issues then it is subject to hacker attacks and the more vulnerable it is in terms of security the less benefit it will be to searchers looking for the information you provide. Google may reason that unsecure sites pose a potential scar to their search results pages and therefore a pre-emptive strike on keeping those results clean are in order. Keep your website secure, for your good and the good of the entire Internet community.