For a while now we’ve been talking about the benefit of using https on your website, not only for increased security but also because Google has been indicating through their webmaster’s blog that site security may become (or already is) a ranking Factor. Additionally, updates from Chrome and other browsers have indicated that they will gradually get more alarming with their user warnings if a website is not secure. When we say not secure we mean the web address begins with http and there is no SSL certificate installed. This is how your website address should look with “secure” and https at the start:
For about a year now WordJack has been upgrading our client’s websites to https and the majority of our sites have that additional security. But RIGHT NOW is a really good time to upgrade to https because Google will be implementing a change through their Chrome browser in the next couple of months. This visual is taken from the Google Chrome blog from earlier this year it shows how currently insecure websites have a small warning indicator to denote not-secure.
From October we will start to see pages without SSL security getting flagged with the words “not secure” in the browser address bar if they have any sort of input box. Then eventually, Chrome have indicated these warnings will become more conspicuous and potentially more concerning for your website visitors:
There might just be a search box or email subscribe, or contact form – but if you have one in the footer or sidebar, that’s every page of your site! This may seem alarmist and if you are only talking about a “contact us” form on your contact page, but it shows how serious Google is becoming about security!
Is that security warning going to discourage potential customers from contacting you?
Do you want to take that risk?
