In their latest Google Security Blog the search engine giant and maker of the worlds most popular web browser has announced that from July the Google Chrome web browser will highlight any web pages that do not have an SSL certificate as being insecure.
This means that if your website does not have an SSL certificate (show a padlock in the address bar) then the vast majority of internet users, 77% as of January 2018 that visit your website will see a warning that suggests that your website is “not secure”. This is obviously going to be off putting, in particularly to less tech savvy users who might nor really understand what it means.
So what can you do about it? and more importantly what will it cost? Well the good news is it doesn’t need to cost you a penny. Many web host have no integrated with services such as letsencrypt.org which offer free SSL certificates so there is a good chance you might already have one. Try visiting your website with the https prefix and see what happens. You will most likely see one of three outcomes.
You have an SSL Certificate. No need to do anything
You have an SSL Certificate, but some of your web page is not secure. Most likely you are using iframes or some of your images at still linked to the non secure version of the site, if this doesn’t mean anything to you then talk to your friendly local web developer.
You do not have an SSL Certificate, have a look in your hosted control panel for an SSL option, it could just be a case of turning it on, instructions differ from one web host to the next so this might take a bit of exploring to find the options, or just ask your hosting provider.
As always, if you need any help or some pointers with any of the above, don’t hesitate to get in touch.