HTTPS This Connection is Untrusted – Get me out of here!

HTTP websites are considered untrusted

HTTPS This Connection is Untrusted – Get me out of here! Have you seen this message before, worst still is your website displaying this message when visitors try to visit it? From a Brand reputation point of view this is extremely damaging. Not only that, your bounce rate will be through-the-roof, and it needs addressing as soon as possible. The good news is it’s easy to fix.

The difference between HTTP and HTTPS

This issue arises because the website you’re visiting (or your own website) is HTTP and not secure. The additional ‘S’ on HTTP stands for ‘secure’. You need to buy an SSL certificate and have your webmaster install it correctly. It shouldn’t take long for them to install it and an SSL is approximately £50 – £90.

Reltonassociates.co.uk is a good example for a HTTPS secured website

How HTTPS effects your Search Engine Ranking Position (SERP)

Currently other websites will be deemed more secure and this is therefore reflected positively in SERPs over websites that are not deemed secure. Better SERP means greater organic visits and almost always a higher goal conversion rate.

But there’s more…from July 2018 Google and other search engines will punish you in the search results if you’re website is not secure. Until this time we can only speculate how harsh any punishment will be, but I would expect it would mean you may drop off the search results completely.

HTTPS and GDPR

The World Wide Web is vast and often unsecure. Sadly, data breaches are becoming far too regular. With the likes of even Yahoo!, Facebook and Twitter falling foul. The European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) embraces ‘Security by Design’ and having the HTTPS padlock is one more step towards being GDPR compliant.

HTTPS Summary

Ultimately your website needs to be HTTPS. If you are visiting someone else’s website and it is showing as not secure, then you really should ‘get out of there’! Whatever you do, you shouldn’t click on ‘understand the risks’ and never don’t hand over any data on an unsecure website.