A quick note to say "thanks" to everyone for the warm welcome back messages in my previous post. I never really left ActiveRain but I haven't posted in a really long time so here I am again and it's really nice to see so many familiar faces and new ones as well.
Before I get to the fun stuff, I wanted to explain why Google is forcing all websites to start using the HTTPS protocol. I'll try to explain this in plain English without getting "too techie" on you.
For the past few weeks I've been updating all of my client's websites over to HTTPS even if their site doesn't take credit card payments or collect personal data. Why?
In case you missed it, for the past few days a lot of news has been coming out about how Google's Chrome browser is essentially going to public shame you if your site is still using the HTTP prefix in it's URLs instead of HTTPS.
For more details check out...
Chrome now marks all unencrypted websites as ‘not secure’
Google Chrome WARNING: These websites are 'NOT SECURE'
What this means is that if your site is still using HTTP in the URL instead of HTTPS, the Chrome browser is going to give your site visitors a warning message that looks like this...
So as you can see, this is also a marketing problem. When people see a red warning telling them your website in NOT SECURE, they'll probably leave your site ASAP!
Also, having an HTTPS website is now an important factor in SEO so this is going to affect your search engine position and rankings!
I'm going to skip the technical details about HTTPS and SSL Certificates since that is way beyond the scope of a marketing blog and really not something you should be doing yourself unless your techs skills are seriously decent.
The quick, not-techie version is...
- When you visit HTTPS secured websites, your web browser checks the site’s security certificate(SSL) to verify that it's legitimate. When you send information over an HTTPS connection, no one can eavesdrop on the info in transit.
- SSL Certificates are small data files that use cryptography to digitally tie together a domain name or a server name with an organization's ID (i.e. your company name) and location.
- The SSL Certificate is installed on a web server and activates a digital "padlock" and the HTTPS protocol allows secure connections between a web server and a browser.
If you're a techie, really know your way around the back end of your website and have full access to your CPanel, you probably know what to do and don't need my help or advice.
If you're not a techie and haven't had your site updated to HTTPS you should...
- ask your webhosting company if they're going to provide you with and install an SSL certificate on your site. Some web hosting companies now include this in their hosting plans.
- if not, ask whoever maintains your site if thay can install an SSL Certificate for you and to enable HTTPS on your site
- once that is done, ask them to do a redirect so all of your site's posts and pages will automatically redirect your HTTP URLs to the new HTTPS URLs
- if you're using Google Analytics on your website, you will also have to update your analyitcs account with the new HTTPS prefix
- and if you're really a prefectionist, when you have time you should update your site's URL with the HTTPS prefix in all of your online profiles
If I've managed to scare, confuse or complicate your life, just leave your questions in the comments below and I'll try to clear up any confusion I may have caused. ;-) Later...
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