Why Your Website MUST Have An SSL Certificate
Due to be released in 2018, the Google web browser Chrome 68 will be warning users about HTTP websites. Now is the time for all websites to make sure they are migrated over to HTTPS. Everyone has until the end of this year when Chrome 68 is scheduled to be released.
If you are a regular reader of ours, then you will be aware of the fact that we have been discussing this for some time now. Google has pushed the date back a few times in an attempt to avoid the huge disruption that will take place when websites start being labeled as being “Not Secure.”
If Your Website Is Not On SSL – Expect To Lose Customers & Revenue
Google and the major browsers have been working on the issue a very long time. Mozilla and Google last year started the movement towards universal encryption when they changed their browser’s UI. Along with the padlock icon, all website that has SSL are marked as “Secure.”
The concept here was that SSL would be gradually adopted by website owners as an increasing number of features continued to be taken away.
Also, the browsers started to mark HTTP sites as being “Not Secure.” That was done on a more gradual basis. The warnings began as simply warning users whenever they were being to enter a password into an unencrypted field. They started to turn the volume up in the fall even more and began marking any HTTP page that had text field as being “Not Secure.” With Chrome 68 being released in 2018, Google is cranking things up even more. Any website being served via HTTP will be marked as “Not Secure.”
What Google Is Showing Today For Non SSL Sites
What Google Will Be Showing In The Coming Months
What Google Will Be Showing When The Rollout Is Complete
What would you do if you came to a website that was displaying this WARNING? You would run the other direction ASAP! The same goes for your customers. If they come to your website and see this message, they will leave immediately for your competitors. If you don’t fix this now, you could stand to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in new customer revenue. Don’t let this happen to your business! Contact us immediately to get this resolved.
So Why Is HTTPS Such A Big Deal?
By computer standards, HTTP is ancient. It is a protocol for communicating and for a while it worked just fine. Unfortunately, HTTP isn’t secure. Whenever you connect with a website via HTTP, it is in no way a secure connection. That means that anybody can eavesdrop on this connection and manipulate or steal any data that gets passed as part of the process.
On the other hand, HTTPS is secure. Whenever a connection is made with a website using HTTPS, the data that is being transferred is 100% encrypted. Essentially that makes it worthless for anybody that doesn’t have the corresponding key. In addition to security, ISPs are blocked by HTTPS from injecting ads onto your website, it performs better and is faster than HTTP, and you need to have encryption to use HTTP2, which increasingly is become more widely used.
What Do I Have To Do?
You must get an SSL certificate installed on your website and migrate it to HTTPS. However, before you order one, take account of what needs to be secured. You might only have one domain, or you might have multiple domains or sub-domains. If that is the case, you will need to locate the right certificate for your situation. However, you don’t need to worry since there are various offerings that are available that cover almost every user’s situation.
No matter what, you will need to migrate over to HTTPS. That can be done by changing your URLs’ protocol to HTTPS, and then use 301 redirects of all your old pages to your new pages. You may also want to add your website to the HSTS preload list.
The end of 2018 will be here before you know it, so don’t delay and get your site switched over ASAP so you don’t get the dreaded NOT SECURE message that will drive your customers to your competitors. That can result in you losing thousands of dollars a day as your website visitors abandon your site for those that are marked secure. Don’t let that happen to your business!
Contact us today to get your business website switched over to HTTPS.
