Having a secured website, a website with a secured socket layer certificate (SSL) installed on your hosting server, is an internet marketing best practice.
A secured website is a good reflection on your business, creates visitor trust, and is also an important part of a successful search engine optimization (SEO) strategy.
Technically speaking, a SSL connection encrypts the data being exchanged between a website hosting server and a visitor’s internet browser.
Google recommends https:// and without a SSL certificate securing your website you may find it harder to get your website well ranked at Google.
Websites without a SSL certificate https:// session also show up with a warning message in most browsers as “unsecure.”
In some cases, a website may be blocked entirely if it doesn’t have a https:// SSL connection.
Action Items
- Check to see that your website is currently and properly using a SSL secured connection (https://)
- If not, talk to your webmaster or website hosting company about getting one installed for your website hosting ASAP
Here’s what a website without secured SSL hosting looks like in a visitor’s browser. Note the “Not Secure” warning/error message.
