Why SSL Is A Must For Your Small Business Website

When you load a website over plain HTTP, your connection is not secure or encrypted (no green lock). Since the newest version of Chrome was released, the web browser is now notifying visitors to a website without SSL (https) that the site is “Not secure”. Google’s latest announcement regarding the release of Chrome 68 confirms they are just trying to make the Internet safer. But that also means a potential of a great amount of traffic and leads in your site is not secured with SSL.

There is nothing worse for a small business website owner who primarily survives on new business from Google search results that their site is telling visitors that it is not a safe place to be. In this case it is not the site telling the visitor this, it is the web browser the visitor is using to browse the website. Well, that is the reality now and we would not be surprised in all other major browsers followed and delivered the same message to sites without SSL installed.

If you sell items on your website, not only should you already have SSL installed, but most likely your website will eventually break without SSL installed as most payment processors will not function much longer without a SSL connection for secure checkout.

But the scary fact is that most sites still do not have SSL installed. This is going to cause a lot of problems for a lot of website owners, similar to the problems that were caused for site owners when Google decided mobile enabled sites were better for their search results than non-mobile sites.

Next time you do a search, notice the top sites coming up nowadays are ONLY the https: SSL enabled sites.

SSL or Security Sockets Layer is an essential feature of every website that is loaded with HTTP. This security protocol maintains a safe encrypted link between the server and the browser on the internet. This latest SSL technology ensure that the information loaded on that website remains encrypted only between the server and browser used by the visitors to that site. Therefore, only the users can see their information that remains completely secure from hacking. So now Google has issued a resolution that they will warn the users about every website that does not have SSL certificate.

Reasons for having an SSL certificate in a small business website:

Encryption of confidential information – A SSL certified website maintains the security of the information uploaded there and thus, there is hardly any chance of unethical hacking of the site. It is more important for the commercial websites where the customers enter their personal and financial details for buying products of that company. In case of website that is not encrypted with SSL certificate, the private information may be hacked while passing from customer’s computer to the seller’s computer through the server.

Provides proof of authenticity – If a website has SSL certification, it ensures that the uploaded information truly reaches the server and does not stray off to any other computer. An unprotected website may be subjected to fraud and its customers also likely to suffer due to the leaking out of their sensitive information. So a website with SSL certificate can be fully trusted, as it verifies that the website is connected only to a reliable web browser that is safe for use.

Build up a relationship of trust – The websites that have installed SSL certificate of security can be easily identified by the users. Google have marked all these websites by turning HTTP into HTTPS, where ‘S’ stands for SSL certification. Moreover, there will be a lock icon on the domain name and the address bar will be green in color, denoting that this website is perfectly secure for the users and no outsider can steal information from that site. Hence, common people have their faith on such marked websites.

Pass audits for PCI compliance – As the customers enter their credit card numbers and other confidential financial information, the commercial websites often undergo audits for ensuring financial security of the people. When a website contain SSL certificate, it is sure to pass such standards set by Payment Card Industry (PCI) and the website is declared to be secure for use.

So it is essential for every website to install SSL certificate and make the site secure for the users all over the world.

How To Get An SSL Certificate Installed on my site:

In the past few years as SSL certificates gained popularity among small business websites, they were previously very expensive and very difficult to get installed. You would have to go back and forth with your host on their support ticket system being the middle man in between the SSL issuer and the host generating CSR’s and other very confusing steps required to implement the SSL.

There are still many third party services that you can buy an SSL certificate from and then with the assistance of your host can be installed on your site, but most likely your host offers SSL and you save one extra step by simply purchasing through your host, it will be much less painful this way.

Does the Not Secure Alert Negatively Affect Organic Rankings?
It has been confirmed that Google as well as other search engines use SSL security as one of the ranking factors, so not having a SSL certificate installed can hurt your organic placement in search engines. But not having a SSL certificate installed can affect your traffic totals as well as some users simply will click the X and close your site when they see the insecure message. So not only will you be getting less clicks as you fall deeper in the search engines without SSL, but some of the clicks simply won’t stay once prompted with the security warning.

Maintaining an online presence can be tough and staying relevant and on top of the search engines even tougher, so make your site more secure and make the browsers your visitors come in from happy so they do not display messages and warnings about your site not being secure. If you don’t already have an SSL installed and configured on your website, NOW is the time to do so, it is cheaper than you think. At Internet Solutions For Less, we offer very affordable website maintenance services and can easily assist in getting an SSL certificate installed on your site, giving you a boost in the search engines and not scaring your existing and potential customers away with a “Not secure” warning.