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Imagine that as you enter a building there is a greeter there telling you:
“We have no security.”
Without the proper protocol, this will happen to your website.
Over the past year, Google has been ramping up its crusade to ensure that the websites it sends users to are safe and secure. Last December, our SEO Specialist Jeremy Bradley produced the article “HTTPS & Site Security: Why it Should Matter to You” which explained the perks and business results that can be associated with migrating to a secure site. From here on out; however, site security will become less of a “nice-to-have” and more of a “do-it-or-get-penalized” scenario.
The Essentials
In short, here is an overview of what HTTPS is and why it should matter to you.
- Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the system by which sensitive information like credit cards number, login credentials, and social security numbers are transferred from your website to your server for storage.
- HTTPS refers to a secure version of this system through the implementation of a certificate which ensures the protection of this information.
- Search engines like Google prefer to show websites which are secure, as it is a trust signal that consumers will have a safer and improved experience.
- We have seen websites that shifted from HTTP to HTTPS gain a 20% to 100% increase in their search result visibility.
This business saw a 60% increase in visibility in just 6 weeks.
Meanwhile, this company experienced a 90% ranking increase in 6 weeks.
The Change
October 2017
Google Chrome (the browser of choice for over 55% of web users) introduced a “Not secure” warning on pages which held a form and/or collected any consumer information within an HTTP website.
If a user was in Chrome’s incognito mode, this “Not secure” warning appeared on every page of an HTTP website.
July 2018
Google Chrome now says “Not secure” on every page of an HTTP website, regardless of mode or form.
September 2018
The “Not secure” sign on HTTP websites will change to a BRIGHT RED WARNING telling consumers that they are on a site which may not be safe.
The Impact
If your website still operates as HTTP, all of your visitors will be warned that your website is not secure. The majority of the general public will not understand what this means. Although this does not inherently say that you will “steal from your customers” or “give away their information”, uneducated consumers will create their own ideas about how it could impact them.
Again, imagine that as you enter a building there is a greeter telling you:
“We have no security.”
What would you do?
The Action
If you have not yet adopted HTTPS, we would recommend that you immediately seek out a digital agency to help you make the transition. Moving your site to a secure system requires numerous technical actions, which when done incorrectly can cause severe penalties from search engines like Google.
Ready to make the move? Give us a call now at 1 (866) 899-4063 and we will walk you through our HTTPS migration package.