It has never been more important to keep on top of the updates from Google. As well as having implications for your website, many of the changes can have much wider implications on your business – and the latest update is no exception.
During October 2017, Chrome version 62 will be released and websites with any kind of text input will require an SSL certificate if they want to avoid a “Not Secure” warning being displayed in the address bar.
An SSL certificate allows websites to be accessed over HTTPS by securely encrypting information sent between the visitor and the web server. Websites viewed on the Chrome browser that are not SSL-protected will feature highly visible warnings and security messages to alert people visiting the site that it is not secure. Google want to ensure that when they provide search results, the sites featured in the list are the correct ones. Given that Chrome is currently the most popular web browser – attracting over 50 percent of all searches – it is extremely important that an SSL certificate is put in place.
When viewed in Chrome, any website that continues to use HTTP will feature security warnings, potentially putting visitors off engaging with your website. Without an SSL certificate, not only does it put the information contained on your website at risk, but those of visitors being asked to enter their personal details onto the site. If your site is labelled as not secure, it will inevitably result in a drop in confidence with both existing and potential clients accessing the site. This also has wider implications on the overall image of your brand, not to mention SEO.
Websites using the SSL certificate have received an SEO boost since it became a confirmed ranking signal in 2014. In recent months, Google has also started to blacklist non-HTTPS websites which require password fields and/or credit card details to be completed. Once an SSL certificate is in place, it offers a significant SEO opportunity assisting with your site’s Google rankings. The fact that you have moved to HTTPS encourages Googlebot to re-crawl most of your URLs. Whilst having its own mechanism for deciding which URLs to crawl and in which order, detecting a move to HTTPS temporarily increases the crawl rate to cover as many URLs as possible in a short period of time. This process alone offers a unique opportunity to improve where your website appears in Google searches. Given that there can be a delay in Googlebot picking up on new SEO signals, there couldn’t be a better time to fine-tune your SEO before moving across to HTTPS and prompting your entire site to be re-crawled.
Don’t Panic – Next Steps
Whilst we would strongly recommend speaking to your webmaster about moving to secure SSL hosting as soon as possible, it is important to remember that there will be a period of time that many websites – some of which will be much bigger than your own – will display these warning signs. Don’t panic – if you know that you have an effective strategy in place and plan to implement these changes by the end of the year, you should be in the best possible position to reap the rewards.
If iMarketing are responsible for hosting your website then you will have already heard from us. The cost of moving across to HTTPS is relatively inexpensive and we will manage this process from start to finish.
If you are not an iMarketing client, speak to your webmaster or the company responsible for hosting your site. They should be able to provide some guidance regarding what this involves and a quotation for putting this change in place on your behalf.
For further information regarding this or any other Website, Social Media, Search or Digital Marketing contact us on telephone 01473 598899 or email info@imarketing.co.uk.
