Chrome to mark non-secure websites

What is HTTP, HTTPS and what’s an SSL!?

HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol and is the foundation of communicating data on the World Wide Web (www). HTTPS is a secure adaptation of HTTP that uses encryption using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). Although HTTPS has been around for a decade many websites, particularly those that don’t have authenticated areas or don’t take credit card payments don’t use them.

So how is this impacting Google?

Based on mock-ups from Google and how chrome looks now, it’s likely to look something like this:

 

What is the impact likely to be if you don’t have HTTPS?

• Decreased user confidence
• Decreased conversions
• Reduction in site traffic
• Increase in bounce rates

So how to I make my site secure?

Securing your website isn’t as complicated or expensive as you might think and can be set-up by your hosting provider relatively in-expensively.

• Ensure your site is hosted on a static IP address
• Purchase an SSL certificate
• Install & configure the SSL
• Re-direct your website from http to https (so users don’t access the http version!)