Effective July 2018, Google started to mark all websites that hadn’t went to HTTPS as “not secure”. The goal of this is to make the Internet safer for everyone not just to secure websites that accept personal data such as credit card information or social security numbers.

What is HTTPs and SSL Certificate?

Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is the secure version of HTTP, the protocol over which data is sent between your browser and the website that you are visiting. The “S” in HTTPS stands for “Secure”. It means that all communications between your browser and the website are encrypted.

Secure Socket Layer Certificate is a trusted digital certificate, which contains the public key needed to begin the secure session (HTTPS). Your brоwѕеr and the website then initiate the “SSL handshake”. The SSL handshake involves the generation of shared secret key to establish a uniquely secure connection between yourself and the website.

When a trusted SSL Certificate is used during a connection, users will see HTTPS instead of HTTP and a padlock icon in the browser address bar.

Why is a SSL Certificated required?

All communications sent over regular HTTP connections are in plain text and can be read by any hacker that manages to break into the connection between your browser and the website. With a HTTPS connection, all communications are securely encrypted. This means that even if somebody managed to break in the connection, they would not be able to decrypt any of the data which passes between you and the website.

Benefits of a SSL Certificate:

• Website Security: Information such as login details, forms, addresses, payment and personal information is encrypted and cannot be intercepted
• Credibility and Trust: Your website will display a security padlock in the address bar letting your customers know they can trust your website. Without it your website will display the dreaded “Not Secure” warning sign, deterring users from continuing on your website.
• SEO Advantages: To promote their initiative of making the web secure, Google gives websites with HTTPS connections a slight ranking boost.

As you can see there really aren’t any disadvantages to adding a SSL Certificate to your website. The good news is that we offer SSL certificates here at Evielutions Design. Let us help secure your website and protect your investment.