Importance
Difficulty of Task

Update JUNE 2018 – SSL Vital for SEO & Customer Trust

From July 2018 Google with its new release of Chrome will warning your web visitor that your website is not secure with a message next to your web url!

A quick update since my last blog in the importance of installing an SSL certificate for both SEO and for not losing visitors in search results.

Approx 3 years ago, Google’s search engine began boosting websites that use encrypted HTTPS connections to a greater extent than those without.

Websites that secure their content with HTTPS get an SEO advantage over websites that used the now obsolete insecure HTTP protocol. in effect Google were trying to positively incentivise web owners to make the change.

This positive nudge is changing to a “punishment” this summer, Google will mark non-HTTPS websites as insecure in its Chrome browser, finalising their secure browsing plan they started in September 2016.

Make the change now, get ahead of the competition and avoid losing visitors / customers and google ranking!

What is an SSL Certificate?

This is the function that shows your website visitors they can send information to you securely via forms, logins and payment information etc.
It is the little green padlock you get to the left of your website URL and gives you the https:// at the start.

Why Change Now?

Up until recently you really only needed https if you were an online shop taking payments and storing payment details.

Things have now changed with Google starting to warn visitors to your website that it might not be safe, but there are many reasons for changing now. They are critical and you should make the change as soon as possible.

Having an SSL certificate on your website is the new standard for ALL websites, not an optional extra.

  • Your competitors will be ahead of you in the search engine rankings race. In Google’s constantly changing algorithm for search engine rankings, one of the latest is the inclusion of websites using SSL certificates as a factor of their ‘trustworthiness’.
  • You will look more professional with an SSL.
  • You will be offering your visitors a secure experience when interacting with your website
  • They have recently become free. Yep, for most websites they are free! You may need to pay a small one-off fee to your web developer to install the certificate but this shouldn’t be more than £50.
  • If storing credit card info and you need a high grade SSL Certificate then you shouldn’t be paying any more than £200/year but for these websites you will have that anyway.

Finally….. Don’t Forget

When you update your website to https you will need to update your Google and Bing Analytics accounts for the change of URL address.

You should do this when you have time to also update the links you have on other websites and business directories and other connected accounts.

Whilst this may seem like hard work, the sooner you do it the sooner you get ahead of your competition. The longer you leave, the harder it becomes!