Secure your website or lose your traffic – Google is serious about security

https secured websites

What’s changing?

From Googles web blog

For the past several years, we’ve moved toward a more secure web by strongly advocating that sites adopt HTTPS encryption. And within the last year, we’ve also helped users understand that HTTP sites are not secure by gradually marking a larger subset of HTTP pages as “not secure”. Beginning in July 2018 with the release of Chrome 68, Chrome will mark all HTTP sites as “not secure”.

Stop what you’re doing.

If you’re on chrome – look up at the URL bar – to the left of the bar where the URL address is entered – you should see that this website is secure!

https secured bar

 

Depending on your knowledge of HTTPS vs HTTP, whether you have an account you log in with or pay with then it might give you some added trust & faith in the website and brand that follows the padlock. Of course, HTTPs isn’t the be all of what makes your website secure – but it plays a huge part.

Starting in July this year – if your website is not secured with HTTPS – your website will be displayed as being NOT SECURE to your users who use Google Chrome. You can see this in action in Googles demonstration of this below.

Google treatment of http pages

Currently, the user can find out more information about the page by clicking on the information symbol, though most users are unaware or likely don’t use this feature.

If I don’t use HTTPS what then?

  • After July 2018 users will find your website/brand to be less trustworthy.
  • Websites that require login / eCommerce methods will suffer the most
  • Your website is already being penalized in search rankings for not being secure.