Is Your Site Secure? (HTTPS)

The internet has come a long way in the last decade, from increases in the popularity of ecommerce sites to an alarming increase in cyber attacks such as DoS, DDoS, to outright hacking into a company’s server to expose information on their customers, the internet needs SSL now more than ever. SSL, or Secure Sockets Layer, is a type of encryption that keeps information sent on your site from being transmitted in plain text. It’s absolutely required for companies dealing with sensitive customer information, card details, and passwords, but thanks to a recent decision of Google, SSL is now a must for all site owners. Google has been using SSL are a ranking factor since mid-2104, and they continue to rank SSL higher than non-SSL websites.

Announced in early 2017, Google warned site owners that by the end of 2017, the Chrome browser (Version 56) will display non-SSL sites as “Not Secure.” Hoping this decision would encourage site owners to quickly adopt security in fear of losing customers, Google set out to try and enforce a safer and more secure web browsing experience.

Why Does It Matter?

Without a SSL certificate, Chrome will now show “Not Secure” by your URL in the address bar. This is mainly a warning for customers to not enter sensitive information such as card details, social security numbers, etc.; however, many customers, especially those not familiar with your brand will be immediately turned away by this warning and may decide to look elsewhere. This change and potential loss of customers can be easily avoided by switching to SSL.

So What Can I Do?

Avoiding any penalty imposed by Google is fairly easy. Just install a basic SSL and you’re done! Most hosts offer paid SSL certificates that range in both price and features (Green Bar, Warranties, Subdomain support, etc.). If your site was designed by Pixelized Designs, or you are hosted on our servers, we have started rolling out FREE SSL certificates to our clients. If you’re an existing client, SSL will be added to your account and your website will be optimized to fully support it.

Our clients enjoy the benefits of a COMODO PositiveSSL Cert provided by UbiquiTLS™ CA. This certificate will stay on your account for as long as you are hosted with us, just as our way of making sure our clients have the best experience possible.