July 2018 Google will flag your site if it is not secure. Are you ready? Do you even know if your website is secure? While it may sound complicated – understanding and securing your website is more important than ever. On top of that, it’s also easier than ever.
What’s happening?
On February 8th, Google announced their plans to take action in creating a secure web. For the past few years, Google Chrome has been adamant on the importance of web safety, which resulted in a push for users to ensure that their websites are protected. Google will mark unprotected websites as “not secure”.
The difference between HTTP and HTTPS:
To have a “secure” site, you will have to transition your site from Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS). This ensures that all traffic between your browser and the website are encrypted.
While HTTP and HTTPS may seem similar, HTTPS has an added layer of security called Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) used to transport data safely from point A to point B while preventing unauthorized access to the information. SSL is a certificate that legitimizes your website’s identity. Essentially, the HTTPS site will be recognized by Google, as a trusted and certified site while the HTTP site will be flagged and non-secure.
Basically, at the end of the day, HTTP is like having a house without a front door. HTTPS is like having a house with a front door and you’re the only one with the key.
What does getting SSL certification mean for my business?
Higher ranking by Google
Because of Google’s new algorithm, unsecured websites will be faced with penalties. Starting in July – any HTTPS URLs will be prioritized by Google over HTTP URLS. If a site is secure, Google will give it a bump in the rankings, making it more likely to show up in search results than its HTTP competitors.
Reassurance for your visitors
In most cases, your website is your first chance of make a good impression on your visitors.
A secured site is easy to spot for anyone visiting the webpage. Your visitors will feel comfortable sharing information and exploring with an authenticated website. The padlock in the address bar is becoming a common mark that not only consumers are hoping to see, but expecting to see. Unsecured websites can drive traffic towards competitors simply because they don’t trust your server. While not every visitor will be up to date on the recent security updates of Google, the security padlock will make even the least tech-savvy guests know that they are on a legitimate website.
Protected sensitive information
An unsecured connection can leave your site vulnerable to online attacks or information theft. With E-Commerce growing faster than ever and more and more businesses opting for online forms and subscriptions, your website could potentially hold a lot of personal information about your visitors. Having an encrypted site ensures that there is no third party shopping from the information you are collecting from your customers.
Secure your website and client emails, appointment information, credit card information, passwords, and any other personal information is confidentially held between the website and the user’s browser.
In a nutshell:
Secure your site and:
-Improve customer confidence
-Safely accept online payments and credit card information
-Higher Google ranking
-Protect sensitive information
-SEO Benefits
A safe and secure web is a goal we can all agree is worth changing for. Securing your site is an easy precaution you can take to yield your businesses online (and offline) potential.
If you want to learn the next steps on how you can get a FREE SSL Certification from CastleCS send an email to speak with our security specialist today.