Important information about your website’s security
Did You Know that Google is focusing on security? Read below to ensure your website is secure and improve your SEO at the same time.
Ever notice how some websites have a padlock icon next to their URL? That indicates that the website is secure. Switching your site from HTTP to HTTPS will not only display the padlock icon on your site, it can improve your SEO rankings and improve your site’s security.
What is the change?
Google is now using HTTPS as a rankings indicator, meaning that it will favourably score and rank HTTPS sites over non-secure HTTP sites.
HTTP Secure (HTTPS) sites protect the information entered on that site by transferring it via an encrypted communication channel preventing anyone from intercepting and accessing that data.
When is this change going live?
Google will be making this change to Chrome from 1st July 2018. Firefox already made this change at the start of 2017.
That means that 71% of web users utilizing either Chrome or Firefox will now be greeted with a warning message when trying to access HTTP websites. This warning may prompt users to negatively react to unsecure sites and cause them to leave.
Why has Google made this change?
- Authentication prevents ‘man-in-the-middle’ attacks and provides a guarantee a user is communicating with the exact website
- Encryption provides privacy by encrypting the exchanged data. This ensures that conversations won’t be eavesdropped and the information won’t be stolen
- Data integrity prevents data from being unnoticeably modified or corrupted during the transfer
How can I migrate my site to HTTPS?
In order to have a HTTPS site, you will need to get an SSL certificate (digitally of course), install that certificate on your website’s hosting account then update and redirect links from HTTP to HTTPS.
There are lots of instructions on the web but you can find a step by guide here.
If your site is run on WordPress you can check out the Guide to Moving a WordPress website from HTTP to HTTPS here. Or check out the Ultimate Stress-Free Guide here.
How can we help?
If you don’t have a website, or you need help getting your digital exposure up to scratch please let me know how we can help. We have a vast network of recommended service providers who can help.