Kahl Consultants Small business web services

Google wants to make the web more secure. So they have decided to warn website visitors when your site is not using the more secure HTTPS protocol instead of HTTP.

Anyone concerned with site security should upgrade their site to HTTPS now.

You probably know that your full website address starts with http://www....

If it's secure it will start with https://www...

Yes HTTPS is the secure version of HTTP. That extra "S" at the end stands for "secure". Without HTTPS, sensitive information can be stolen.

In the past HTTPS was primarily used by shopping websites to ensure privacy and provide secure financial transactions.

How can you tell if a site is using HTTPS? Look in your browser address bar for a padlock symbol right next to the URL. Click on the padlock - you will see that an HTTPS site is classified as secure.

Here are some more reasons to upgrade your site to HTTPS:

• HTTPS provides additional privacy for normal web browsing.
• HTTPS increases confidence in your website because it makes your site more secure for users. It’s more secure when a user is entering any sort of information especially personal details on your site.
• HTTPS can improve your ranking. Google rewards HTTPS pages with a small ranking bonus. So HTTPS can help you give your website a small boost in the search results. For more information click here
• HTTPS pages load faster than HTTP.  A secure connection allows the use of HTTP / 2 that allows your websites to load much faster. See for yourself here.
• Starting October 2017 Google Chrome will display the words “not secure” in the browser’s address bar if your site is not using HTTPS.

Are you convinced that you need HTTPS now? To upgrade your site to HTTPS you will need a SSL certificate. SSL certificates are small data files which bind a key to a specific organization’s details. When installed it activates the HTTPS protocol, allowing secure connections between a web browser and the server. You can get SSL certificates here.

Need help to upgrade to HTTPS? Give Kahl a call.