It is getting on towards three years since Google instigated the NOT SECURE warning on websites that did not have SSL certification. Initially, it wasn’t very important…but times have changed
both for security and ranking. Let’s take a look at what exactly HTTPS is and how you go about implementing HTTPS on your website.
First Question – Is https important or not!
Let’s start with an article from QUICKSPROUT which is a site all about getting website traffic and growing your site.
The idea of HTTPS has always been a good one, and most leading businesses implemented it a long time ago. However, somewhat recently, Google announced that HTTPS is a ranking factor.
Obviously, that got SEOs talking about and debating the subject.
At the time, it was a very small ranking factor, affecting less than 1% of global searches. Even now, it’s not a big factor. However, security is something that Google takes very seriously, and it’s likely to become more important in the future. Some SEOs jumped right on it and made the switch.
While their didn’t seem to be a major jump in rankings there were some recorded improvements.
You also get a pretty “lock” symbol in Google and Firefox who account for over 75% of all searches which is missing if you do not have the https:// certification.
WIRED.COM added more warnings to this.
‘The move flips the convention of how Chrome displays the security of sites on its head. Previously, pages that deployed HTTPS-enabled encrypted connections featured a green lock icon and the word “Secure” in the URL bar. HTTP sites had a small icon that you could click for more information; if you did, it read “Your connection to this site is not secure. You should not enter any sensitive information on this site (for example, passwords or credit cards), because it could be stolen by attackers.”
It’s a warning worth heeding. Under an unencrypted HTTP connection, any information that you send across the web can be intercepted by a hacker or other bad actor. In extreme cases, like in what are called man-in-the-middle attacks, someone could pose as a destination site—tricking you into handing over your credentials, credit card info, or other sensitive information.
“Encryption is something that web users should expect by default,” says Chrome security product manager Emily Schechter.
The use of HTTP has privacy implications as well. If you’re browsing on an unsecured connection, your internet provider and any bad actors can hypothetically see not just which site you’re on, but what specific pages.’
If a website has the https badge ALL of the information in it becomes secure. For example, as Marketing and Growth Hacking described it; if a villain comes to look at your site and you have no https, this is what they see…
If they DO have https it looks something like this…
The Need For Speed
As the contribution of content on the website has a most crucial role in seo, we keep engaging the audience with long text, images and videos and visitors still expect sites to load quickly. To keep pace with these expectations, websites with TLS (SSL) enabled are now delivered faster through the HTTP/2 protocol. HTTP/2 is only available over HTTPS. Want to see this speed difference live? Check out here.
So with security for your customers as paramount, faster loading speeds available and improved SEO as a by-product to help with your rankings you can see the benefits in getting this simple task done. Now you can research it and do it yourself if you like…but if you want to get it done simply, inexpensively and with the minimum of fuss, Contact Us Today.
