Your website needs an SSL certificate. MindSEO tells you why.
Your website needs an SSL certificate. Do you know why?
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) allows websites to be accessed through HTTPS (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure), which protects and encrypts information online and makes communication secure between consumer and website. If your website is HTTP only, it is possible for any network user to read and modify the data that is exchanged between websites and users.
Treatment of HTTP Pages. Source: MindSEO: “Your website needs an SSL certificate. MindSEO tells you why”
Google Chrome, from a few months to now, has been presenting a “Not Secure” warning to visitors of all websites that haven’t implemented an SSL certificate and have password fields or collect credit card data. However, starting in October 2017, with the release of version 62 of Google Chrome, this browser will proceed to show the “Not Secure” warning (in the address bar) on all HTTP pages without SSL certificate and with any kind of text input field – from contact forms to search bars – and on all HTTP websites visited through Incognito mode.
The implementation of an SSL certificate is a recommendation for website owners to protect their information and even their websites, because SSL adds a layer of security, preventing the sending of data to the servers.
This warning started by being sent to website owners, with an announcement by Emily Schechter, a member of the Chrome Security team. However, Google Chrome doesn’t plan to stop there, because it expects soon to mark all HTTP websites as not secure in both anonymous and normal mode.
Treatment of HTTP pages with user-entered data in Chrome 62. Source: Google Security Blog
In August 2014, Google announced that websites with secure and encrypted connections would become part of Google´s SEO ranking criteria. This means that HTTPS not only ensures visitor privacy and security, ut also helps boost website SEO, helping to get a better ranking in the Google search engine, because it privileges links with the SSL protocol.
How do I know if my website has SSL?
If your website has some kind of text input – contact forms, search bars, login spaces, and more – and it displays HTTP:// (instead of HTTPS://) in the address bar, then you need to implement an SSL certificate, in order to avoid the presentation of the “Not Secure” notice to your visitors.
Google Chrome HTTPS validation. Source: MindSEO: “Your website needs an SSL certificate. MindSEO tells you why”
It is also necessary to pay attention to situations in which the website presents itself through both protocols. Check if you can access the website through HTTPS (which means you have SSL) and HTTP (without SSL). If this happens additional settings are required on the website or server, for the website to be presented in only one of the versions, which should ideally be HTTPS.
How to obtain SSL?
To obtain an SSL certificate, you should consult the technical support for your website, or your web hosting service provider, and verify that your hosting plan allows the implementation of an SSL certificate. If so, then you should search for the SSL certificate that best suits your website. If your hosting plan doesn’t enable the implementation of an SSL certificate, you should look for a plan that will allow it, and then search for an SSL certificate that fits your needs.
If you want MindSEO to plan and streamline the process of transitioning from HTTP to HTTPS of your website, mediating the entire process between you and your web hosting provider, contact our team.
