Picture this: you get into your Uber, headed to an event or appointment. This car is your ticket there. As you get settled in, you go to put on your seatbelt … only to find there isn’t one. What do you do? The car is functional. It can still get you to where you need to be. You just aren’t as secure as you should be. Do you shut the car door and cross your fingers? Or do you get back out and call another car?
This same scenario could be happening to your website every day if you don’t have an SSL certificate installed. Visitors who click on your site and don’t see the little lock icon or green address bar might be very quickly swayed to go find another, more secure site. And no one wants that!
What is an SSL certificate?
HTTPS is “the secure version of HTTP, the protocol over which data is sent between your browser and the website that you are connected to.” (source) In order to earn the HTTPS label, your website must have an SSL certificate. If active on your website, this certificate will interact with your visitor’s browser to verify that your website is secure and will encrypt all data exchanged between your customer and the website.
Why do you need one?
Probably the biggest reason to install an SSL certificate on your site is because of Google’s recent decision to start flagging sites as “non-secure” if they don’t have an HTTPS connection. Not only will this make it blatantly obvious to site visitors that their interactions with your site aren’t safe, but it will also hurt your site’s Google rankings, a huge SEO blow you do not want!
Websites without an SSL certificate are also significantly more susceptible to cyber attacks, which will affect both your customers and you. Customers will lose valuable information and assets, and you and your company will face bitter backlash and potential loss of business.
Adding an SSL certificate to your site and gaining that all-important HTTPS connection will give you a boost of confidence that your site’s visitors will have a more secure and appealing visit to your site. For your visitors, seeing that indication that their interaction with your site is secure will build their trust in you and your company. Also, sites with an HTTPS connection have been shown to load significantly faster than site’s with HTTP connections, which your site visitors will also love!
How do you get your site secure?
Convinced it’s time to add an SSL certificate to your website? We hope so! The process to add the certificate involves a few steps and the effort is well worth the reward. First, you must obtain an SSL certificate. Once you have that approved and ready to go, you must back up your site and then update all links on and to your site.
Not sure it’s something you want to tackle on your own? Then let us help you! Our web team can handle the purchasing and installing of the SSL certificate onto your site, and we can also make sure you renew your SSL certificate when the time comes. It’s a pretty easy and cheap thing to do. If you’d like to make your site secure, contact us today at group@marburycreativegroup.com and we will take care of the rest!
