Google wants to make the internet more secure, so it’s making HTTPS the default for all websites. Find out how this will affect your website’s ranking in search engines. You need an amazing Kalamazoo business website to accurately represent your brand and company.
Google declared in July 2018 that all sites lacking an SSL certificate would be labeled as “not secure.” This identifier shows visitors to a website whether their personal information is safe and secure when they browse the web.
Basically, this means that if you don’t have an SSL your visitors will not easily find your website. Instead, they will be presented with a white screen that tells them to “go back to safety”. As you might expect this can be very alarming to some visitors.
When a site has an SSL certificate, the URL will display as ‘HTTPS”. A lock will appear next to the URL in the URL box.
HTTPS signifies that the site safeguards user data and that the user is linked to a legitimate site.
In the end, Google wants a more secure online, thus HTTPS will become the standard for all websites in the future.
What is the difference between an SSL Certificate and a regular certificate?
Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is an acronym for Secure Socket Layer (SSL). To encrypt data sent between a web server and a web browser you will need this security protocol. It uses an encryption key on the server to encrypt all data sent between the server and the user. An SSL certificate, in layman’s terms, ensures that the information sent between the web server and browser is only visible to the user and the website.
When someone visits your secure website, is sent a key that is required to start a secure connection. This starts the basically “handshake,” which allows for secure data flow between your website and your browser through the SSL.
The following information is included in SSL certificates:
- Name of the holder of the certificate
- The serial number and expiration date of the certificate
- A copy of the public key of the certificate holder
- The digital signature of the certificate-issuing authority
A secure connection cannot be established if your website does not have an SSL certificate. This means that the data being sent isn’t linked to a cryptographic key. This lowers a customer’s or visitor’s trust in your company and may even prohibit them from ordering from you (if you are an eCommerce site).
Furthermore, without an SSL certificate, ranking on Google is incredibly difficult.
You could be doing everything right in terms of SEO, but your chances of ranking are slim to none if you don’t have an SSL certificate.
What is HTTPS, and how does it work?
Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure is the acronym for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure. HTTPS is a secure form of HTTP, the protocol that communicates between your website and the visitor’s internet browser. If your website is safe, it will have “https://” instead of “http://” in front of the web address. HTTPS will show in your website’s URL once it has been secured with an SSL certificate.
HTTPS and SSL, according to Google, are “necessities.”
SSL certificates have been a ranking component since 2014, but their value has grown as Google strives toward a more secure internet. This is beneficial to your company since it gives you a competitive advantage over companies that do not have an SSL certificate on their website.
Google began displaying the security of the connection in the Chrome address bar on all website pages in July 2018, labeling all HTTP pages as “Not Secure.”
Three Important Reasons to Protect Your Website
There are three compelling reasons to make the move to HTTPS:
Authentication
Authentication aids in the verification of your website’s ownership. Believe it or not, there are people that create website duplicates and divert traffic in order to steal from you.
Most individuals are aware that before entering personal information into a website, they should look for a lock in the URL field. However, you can take it a step further by verifying the SSL certificate to ensure that your visitors’ information is secure on your site.
Integrity of Data
The integrity of your site’s data refers to whether or not it has been tampered with while in transit. If not secure, people who are technologically inclined have the capabilities to hijack your clients’ information in transit. That implies a potential client’s contact form on your website could end up in the hands of a hacker rather than you. This could certainly pose a privacy issue.
Encryption
Encryption refers to the security of communication between a client and a server, ensuring that no one else can read the data being sent. Because commercial and eCommerce websites frequently deal with a customer’s personal information, this is a critical point. While it is critical to encrypt communications, it is also critical to encrypt data submitted through forms.
An SSL Certificate’s Price
The cost of an SSL certificate is determined by your website’s hosting provider, the company through whom they purchase the certificate, and the type of certificate purchased. SSL certificates are divided into three categories:
This type of SSL certificate is only valid for a single domain URL.
Multi-Domain — Also known as a Universal Communication Certificate (UCC), a multi-domain certificate protects many domain names and hostnames inside a single domain name. In a single certificate, you can specify a primary domain and up to 99 additional Subject Alternative Names (SANs). For organizations with various subdomains and URLs for distinct services, product lines, or geographic locations, this is ideal.
Wildcard – This form of certificate is used to secure all of the subdomains that a single domain may have.
It’s advisable to talk with your web host, marketing agency, or IT department before choosing an SSL Certificate to ensure you’re choosing the proper option for your entire business.