Today is an important transfer deadline day for SEO’s and digital marketers of the world. Chrome 68 is out, and from now on, all HTTP sites will be marked as “Not Secure”.
After 23rd July 2018, Google Chrome will flag your website as “Not Secure” if you’ve not transferred to a HTTPS domain.
Google will begin rolling out the stable version of Chrome 68, but not every user will be on 68 right away as these updates tend to get rolled out over a week or two.
So, are you ready and prepped for this change?
Installing an SSL certificate is the only way to prevent your site from being marked as insecure. SSL certificates enable you to secure the connection between your website and your website visitor’s browser. As a result of this, the important information transmitted through the site such a personal data, or credit card details are all secured.
The SSL certificate is especially important for a website that deals with critical customer data, and also that relies on trust when acquiring a new customer.
Why is Google making HTTPS mandatory?
It all comes down to the overall security of internet users. While HTTP has served its purpose, its key flaw is in the lack of security it has. Specifically, the lack of connection security.
When an internet user’s web browser arrives at a HTTP website, all of their communication with that site is sent in plain text – which can easily be intercepted and stolen. This is less than ideal in a number of contexts, from social media to online banking, which is why Google is pushing to make better connection security a default.
When you install an SSL certificate and migrate your website to HTTPS, it facilitates “encrypted connections”, which prevent the data being sent from being stolen and manipulated.
Unfortunately, up until now, a number of site owners have been too busy to think about migrating to HTTPS – not grasping how important the move is to their site’s security. Others are more concerned that the migration could impact their organic rankings and traffic, or complicate inbound links. However, it’s a pretty well-known fact Google’s search algorithm actually favours HTTPS over HTTP, which means that migrating to HTTPS may actually improve organic visibility and site traffic in the long run.
What happens if you don’t install an SSL?
Visitors to your website will get this pop-up message :
Effectively the Chrome browser will mark non-HTTPS as “Not secure”, which could be a potentially huge determent to existing traffic coming to your website from Chrome – and with over 40% of internet users using a Chrome browser, it could be a big hit to unsecured websites.
This is what we’re after :
Want help with making the switch? Call our digital team! We’re more than happy to help you through the process.