For the past few years, we have seen Google sending clear messages through their blog and Google Search Console to switch from HTTP and implement the HTTPS encryption. It was their share in pushing to more secure browsing. Migrating to an HTTPS site is not something most companies consider easy, so they avoided to adopt this push and switch to HTTPS. Now, we have a deadline – as of July 2018, Chrome will begin explicitly warning users if a site is insecure.
How will Google Chrome display the warnings?
Google announces that a warning will begin to be shown with all insecure websites. Currently, there is an icon displaying for HTTP pages in the address bar, and starting from July, we will also see the “not secure” message. This would be in Chrome’s address bar (also known as the Omnibox), indicating the website is “Not secure.” This warning will show for all HTTP websites.
By this announcement we have seen that Google has a firm goal to warn users of insecure sites, directing more web publishers into upgrading to HTTPS. Google’s announcement provided an example of how the “Omnibox” address bar security warning will appear.
This kind of a warning most certainly affects user experience, causing many visitors to leave a site. This causes a bounce rate jump, and a significant drop in advertising impressions, affiliate clicks, and e-commerce sales.
A site that is not updated to HTTPS will most likely experience a loss of organic search rankings for their content within a Google search results page. With 92% of searches occurring on Google, this has the potential to greatly impact your sites organic SEO traffic.
Will Chrome display warnings for Mixed Content Pages?
This issue wasn`t explicitly mentioned in Google’s announcement. But we can expect that mixed (secure and insecure) webpages will eventually trigger the warning. This is safe to assume, having in mind Google`s long-term commitment to a more secure browsing.
Chrome’s Lighthouse web page auditing tool can identify what web page elements are triggering a mixed content warning. It states that mixed content audits can help developers migrate to HTTPS, with a help from an automated tool. The Lighthouse helps developers find which resources a site loads using HTTP, and which of those are ready to be upgraded to HTTPS simply by changing the subresource reference to the HTTPS version.
HTTPS speed issues
Despite many past controversies regarding SSL certificates and site speed, everywhere we implemented HTTPS we have seen speed improvements. We are running all procedure over HTTP/2, and this is important to pinpoint.
Our past experience teaches us that performance benefits with HTTP/2, noticing slight ranking and SEO benefit.
Security, as obviously is very important. Even WordPress blogs shouldn’t be passing login info in plain text. All information, and meaning no matter where it is passed should always be encrypted – just think of passwords, usernames and so. It involves trust and reliability, so the ‘green light” helps both ways.
We should also include the last but not least reason and it`s referral data. HTTPs to HTTP referral data is blocked in Google Analytics and usually ends up in the black hole of “direct traffic.” If someone is going from HTTP to HTTPS, the referrer is still passed.
What should you do?
Most web hosting providers already provide free HTTPS certificates as well as low-cost certificates. The budget for upgrading should no longer be an excuse for waiting. Perhaps the most valid reason for waiting is technical issues. Among the considerations for upgrading to HTTPS are the mixed content issues, where a secure webpage links to a webpage asset such as JavaScript or CSS using an insecure URL. There are issues a publisher needs to consider against possibly losing traffic and revenue.
No matter what, all web publishers should consider upgrading to HTTPS. This, by all means, is no longer an obligation limited to e-commerce sites.
Migration from HTTP to HTTPS is not a simple task, no matter the amount of information available on how to complete an HTTPS migration. Adding security to your site is now a crucial step in providing user confidence and improving the performance of your website.
PaprikArt has the skills and methodology to create a plan for your site if it is currently running on the non-secure HTTP encryption.
Now is the time to act. With Google placing a high priority around security for their users, all websites need to follow suit and do the same.
