If you have a website, you MUST have an SSL

by | May 1, 2018 | Madison Web Design Blog

Picture representing website security with a padlock illustrating the importance of https

If you have a website, you absolutely, positively need an SSL.

There is no easier way to say it.  If your website doesn’t have the little green lock from a trusted SSL certificate, Google Chrome will tag your site as Not Secure.

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Visual representing the importance of and SSL and how it looks in browsers when you do not have an SSL it is a http vs https representation

Google is making changes to their policies

Google is implementing a new policy that as of the end of October, 2018, they will be displaying UNSECURE next to the domain name if you don’t have an SSL certificate!

Without the SSL certificate, your website may not be indexed properly and ultimately, your Google SEO rankings may be affected.

With the release of Chrome v62 in less than 3 months, Google will begin marking non-HTTPS pages with text input fields—like contact forms and search bars—and all HTTP websites viewed in Incognito mode as “NOT SECURE” in the address bar.

Google Security Blog states:

Picture representing website security without a padlock and the warning sign you get when you do not have an SSL illustrating the importance of https

“Eventually, we plan to label all HTTP pages as non-secure, and change the HTTP security indicator to the red triangle that we use for broken HTTPS.”

In other words, the image to the right illustrates the kind of “warning” your visitors will get if you don’t have HTTPS (which you can achieve by getting an SSL Certificate.).

Would you click on a website that had a red warning icon and said not secure? 

Yeah, me neither.

Some basic rules of thumb:

For e-commerce sites, you absolutely need an SSL certificate!

As an online merchant, it is your responsibility to make sure the information you collect from your customers is protected. This will shield you and your customers by making sure that no one can intercept and misuse their credit card information.

If you have any kind of submission form on your website, you absolutely need an SSL certificate!

If your users enter a username and password to login to your site without an SSL certificate, an attacker can easily see their username and password in clear text.

Do you want your website to look as trustworthy and legitimate as possible?  Then you absolutely need an SSL certificate!

While the main purpose of SSL is encrypting information, it also increases how trustworthy your site looks because of the many web browser indications. Google has also said that having an SSL Certificate may increase your PageRank so you’re more likely to show up in their search results.

Suffice it to say, with technology moving forward the way it has been, it just makes more sense to have an SSL security certificate to protect your website and your visitors.

Where do you purchase an SSL certificate?

My best advice is to get in touch with your website developer to begin the process.

Installing and coding an SSL certificate can be tricky even for us seasoned coding geeks.  You’ll want to make sure it is installed correctly and unfortunately, there are some hoops you need to jump through.

As always, Accent Graphix Design Studio is here to help if you need it.  We’ve been around the block a few times with this kind of stuff.  Get in touch with us today if you have any questions!