HTTP vs HTTPS
Before we get into the reasons why you need to enable HTTPS on your website, let’s define just what HTTPS is. The “HTTP” part of a web address stands for “Hypertext Transfer Protocol”. Basically, this is a protocol through which information is sent from your browser to a website you visit and vice versa. When visiting a website using “HTTP”, the data that is sent back and forth between the website and a browser is sent using plain text. Since the data is sent using plain text and is not encrypted, if someone were able to intercept your connection to the website, they would be able to view the data exchanged during your visit to the website.
The “s” in HTTPS stands for Secure Sockets Layer or Transport Layer Security, encryption technologies that protect your connection to the website so that others cannot intercept your data. Basically, using “HTTPS” ensures that the information that you exchange with a website travels through a safe tunnel to the website and is encrypted so that it is difficult to crack if intercepted. Using HTTPS has always been a good idea for businesses and, while we are all used to expecting and double checking for “HTTPS” when entering credit card information on e-commerce websites, it is now becoming more commonplace for businesses to implement HTTPS for their whole websites (whether they use e-commerce or not).
Is your website HTTPS enabled? If not, here are a few reasons why you need to change it to HTTPS as soon as possible.
Google likes HTTPS
Google has announced that it has begun using HTTPS as a ranking factor in its search results. While this may help your website to obtain some better Google rankings now, it will almost certainly help more in the future. Google sees HTTPS as the way of the future and the sooner your get your site on board, the better. HTTPS is good for your SEO.
Users won’t see a “Not Sure” browser bar in Chrome
Starting in January 2017, Google Chrome (which is the most popular web browser, by far) started displaying “not secure” in the browser bar for any page using HTTP. By implementing HTTPS on your website, your website won’t be viewed as “insecure”. HTTPS protects the integrity of your website.
It’s potentially faster
HTTPS benefits users with faster connection speeds than HTTP because websites using HTTPS have already been certified as secure and are simply tunneling information to users.
HTTPS is the future of the web
There are a growing number of web features and APIs that require HTTPS to work.
Need help converting your website from HTTP to HTTPS? Contact us and we’ll be glad to help!