Why Move to SSL?
- Security – SSL protects your website’s data and also the visitors coming to your website. It encrypts the data transferred over the internet for example, form submissions & credit card transactions.
- E-Commerce – If you are taking payments online through your website SSL is vital and non-negotiable. SSL is an absolute must for all e-commerce and membership websites.
- Affordability – SSL use to be very expensive and hard, but now the rapidly transforming web landscape has made the switch to SSL affordable and practical.
- SEO – Google are pushing websites to upgrade to HTTPS. They are also giving a search ranking boost to secured websites which basically means you’ll be ranked better with an HTTPS website.
What is SSL and HTTPS?
SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer. This is an encryption that provides a ton of benefits for both your website and your customers. When you add SSL to a Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) you get HTTPS or Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure.
In addition to the new address showing your secure status browsers also show a padlock icon to inform their data is being protected.
There are different levels of SSL Certificates which offer the same level of encryption. The highest level of SSL includes a thorough background check on your company.
Most businesses will only need to protect a single website. Some may need to cover sub-domains for example if your website was mywebsite.co.uk a sub-domain would be shop.mywebsite.co.uk. You can obtain a certificate to cover up to 100 domains if you are running a large company or web design agency.
Why Does Your Business Need To move To HTTPS?
Some of the main reasons include better security protecting customers data and reducing the risk of information being seen or changed after it has been sent. Google are also give a search ranking boost to secured domains ranking your website higher up in search results.
From January 2017 the Google Chrome Browser will show a warning if your website collects payment data or passwords that doesn’t have an SSL Certificate properly in place. Chrome is the most used browser and a core part of the Android mobile system. With more and more traffic coming from mobile users this could damage your growth in 2017.
Google has also stated that they plan to mark all http sites as non secure.
So even if you aren’t accepting payments or require and users to register with your website, you will find yourself marked on Google as a non-secure website.
The image shown is how your website will show in the address bar which won’t be a great look to new visitors on your website.
Why You Should Move to HTTPS As Soon As Possible?
It’s easy to avoid switching to an SSL Certificate until you really need to. You’ll need to cover off SEO tasks to ensure everything works as it should be.Google is heavily promoting websites to make the switch from HTTP to HTTPS by making the switch you will ensure your visitors are safe as well as help promote your business growing your business.
Some of the great advantages to HTTPS are:
More Trust From Visitors:
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- Not everyone is aware of how important the padlock icon is. But companys like banks, anti-virus softwares and Google are keen on spreading the security awarenes.
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A Faster Website:
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- Enabling HTTP/2 means you’ll have the most modern protocol for speeding up websites. Site speeds make a big difference in converting visitors to customers.
The Latest Features:
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- Services like Google Maps will continue to improve. Do you want to potentially miss out on their latest features or even worse lose access entirely?
Better Data:
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- No more losing referral data from HTTPS websites in Google Analytics. No more trying to use time-consuming workarounds to try and find what is sending visitors to your website.
SEO Advantage:
- Google will give you an advantage over other websites that haven’t made the switch yet but act fast before your competitors catch up!