Updates from Google happen frequently and there are a few updates happening in July 2018. One of them is the Speed Update, which Google announced page speed will officially be a ranking factor in mobile search results. The other big update happening in July is Google’s browser, Chrome, will be marking websites that are non-HTTPS as “not secure”.

What will a “not secure” website look like in Chrome?

How can you tell if a website is not secure? Google Chrome will make it pretty clear.

http vs https website

image via Chromium Blog

Google’s priorities are about providing quality results to its users. And over the years, Google has been encouraging websites to transition from HTTP to HTTPS.

Why is converting to HTTPS important?

Prior to Google’s HTTPS update, many e-commerce websites used HTTPS when a transaction was about to take place. HTTPS enforced security when a user put in sensitive information like addresses, phone numbers and billing information. Because Google is about providing quality and a good user experience, they decided web security was a factor that should be included in a good user experience.

While Google made the announcement encouraging webmasters to transition to HTTPS years ago, they also incentivized a small ranking boost to those who converted to HTTPS.

Reasons why converting to HTTPS is important

  • Encryption: Encrypting the exchanged data prevents “eavesdroppers” from gathering your data while you’re browsing a website.
  • Authentication: Authentication helps protect against the “middle man” attacks and proves the user is visiting and communicating with the intended website.
  • Data Integrity: Detection will occur if any data is trying to be modified or corrupted during a transfer.
  • Trust: Overall, converting to HTTPS builds trust with your website users as they are more protected.

How do I convert to HTTPS?

If you haven’t converted over to HTTPS, it’s important to make sure you have your ducks lined in a row to make sure the transition is seamless as to not hurt your rankings. Especially when the move should help your rankings, not hurt them. The scope of the transition can also determine how easy or difficult the change will be. Here is a more in-depth guide to converting to HTTPS.

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