SSL, Google, and Your Website — What You Should Know

What is happening?

For some time now, Google has been pushing efforts to help make the web more secure. In the latest step they are taking, starting in early July, Google will begin marking all non-SSL sites as “Not Secure”. Consequently, and understandably so, this is causing many website owners to take action.

What is SSL?

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), and the more updated standard, Transport Layer Security (TLS), are standards for allowing encrypted transmissions between your web browser and the website you are visiting. When a SSL certificate is installed, your URL in your browser will show “https://” at the beginning of your domain name. If you do not have a properly installed certificate your browser will show “http://”.

Who is affected?

There are two questions to answer:

1. Does your website have any form of text input integrated in it? ex. login panels, contact forms, search bars, etc.
2. Is your website on HTTP://?

If you answered YES to both questions, you will need to have an SSL/TLS certificate installed on your website.

Why is this important?

Security
Using these security standards keeps your site safe and secure,  hence protecting you from criminals and serving to help prevent future legal issues.

Customer Trust and Strength of Brand.
Your customers will begin seeing “Not Secure” in their browser’s location bar when visiting websites that have not taken these steps. This can severely impact your perceived credibility and the trust your customers have in using your online services. As a result, it is important to give this the attention it deserves.  After all, in this day and age of the internet, anything which is seems to indicate a risk will send users scurrying away in fear.

Google Search Ranking.
Additionally, Google has already begun and will continue to impact their search rankings based on the security of websites with “Secured” sites outranking “Not Secured” sites. Consequently, this will impact your SEO and all other online marketing efforts.

What to do?

In conclusion, if you require more information or assistance regarding your website and SSL, contact Keenan-Nagle Advertising.  We can help you determine the most appropriate next steps for your unique situation. In the world wide web, credibility and security are everything hence why this is such an important topic to understand. Keenan-Nagle can help you to maintain the trust and confidence your customers have in you.