For months now, Google has been warning website owners that 23 July (tomorrow) is D-Day.
Google Chrome users will now be confronted with a great big warning notice, on any site that is not secure (ie does not have an SSL certificate, and a URL beginning with “https” instead of “http”).
That extra “s” in the URL stands for “secure”, and while it might look small and insignificant, it’s about to change things on the internet in a big way.
Are Visitors to Your Website Welcomed – or Warned?
If you are a website owner, all this can seem like a real nuisance and something you’d rather ignore. However, take a moment to think about your own behaviours when browsing online, to understand just how it could negatively impact your business:
- How would you feel about landing on a site and receiving a warning, rather than a welcome?
- Would you complete a transaction on a site with a warning?
- Would you enter your data into their contact form, or sign up for their mailing list?
- Would you even stick around to check the site out?
Previously, you probably didn’t even notice whether an address bar showed a tiny green padlock and “https” or not, although in recent months you may have encountered the occasional warning on non-secure sites as Google prepared for D-Day.
Now however there is no more ducking under the radar for sites that are not website secure.
Why You Need Your Website Secure Now
We’ve known for a while that having an SSL certificate can be of benefit in several ways, such as better performance in search engine results, as Google gently tried to persuade website owners to upgrade their security.
With D-Day and the launch of Google Chrome 68, they’ve stopped pussy-footing around – and with the dominance of Google Chrome (used by over 60% of browsers), they are in the position to employ strong arm tactics to ensure a safer experience for their users.
Most merchants will require an SSL Certificate before they will allow you to process their credit card online, which is reason enough!
And, I’ve already mentioned the vulnerability of your customer’s data, but I have to be clear: that comprises everything collected by your site, including payment details, bank account numbers, passwords, email addresses, names and dates of birth.
An SSL Certificate helps you build a brand with a reputation for safety by giving your visitors that guarantee of website secure information and security.
The time to upgrade is now. Although these changes currently only affect Google Chrome, it’s only a matter of time before Firefox, Safari, Apple and other browsers follow suit.
Feeling overwhelmed by the need to change to https? I can make the process a whole lot easier for you, by not only upgrading your site but also redirecting each webpage – so you won’t lose the rankings and web traffic you’ve worked so hard for.