SSL Security: Why your site should be SSL Secure

Does your website’s url start with HTTPS?

If you’ve answered no to the above 2 questions, it’s now or never to jump on the bandwagon or kiss your Google SERP (search engine results page) goodbye!

A website that is not secure means that the connection between the website and your web browser is NOT encrypted. This means that any information you enter on the website, such as passwords, credit card numbers, or personal information, could potentially be intercepted by a third party.

In 2014, Google officially announced https will be a significant factor in your Google SERP. Google has reiterated that security is a top priority and they want a secured experience for all users using Google Search, Gmail and Google Drive, to automatically have a secure connection to Google.

Have you noticed that you’re starting to see browsers such as Chrome, Firefox and Safari display the following messages when you’re on a page that is not SSL secure?

“Your connection to this site is not fully secure”

“Attackers might be able to see the images you’re looking at on this site and trick you by modifying them.”

That’s because Google announced that beginning in January 2017, Chrome 56 will start to mark HTTP pages that collect passwords or credit cards as non-secure, as part of a long-term plan to mark all HTTP sites as non-secure. The other major browsers have adopted a similar practice.

Transitioning to HTTPS

It is common practice here at AZENCE that we ensure that all AZENCE clients have to obtain SSL on their sites. This is non negotiable. We know all our commerce clients and sites that collect data already have SSL but from time to time, we still get outlier client and sites that have let their SSL lapse, or have yet to get SSL on their site.

SSL Certificate FREE with SiteGround Web Hosting

AZENCE is proud to announce that we’ve partnered with SiteGround to make the transition to HTTPS easy for you! If you host with AZENCE or SiteGround, you can automatically upgrade to a free SSL certificate (worth at least $85 USD per year). SSL certificate costs can vary significantly depending on your needs, see SSL costs comparison, these are typically on a per-year basis.

With AZENCE and SiteGround’s partnership, we can now install Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates for every domain that is hosted on any shared servers with SiteGround.

If you’re currently hosting with a different web hosting provider, no worries, SiteGround will provide a free site migration, AZENCE will do the rest. For more information on all the perks you’ll get by switching to AZENCE SiteGround hosting solutions, please click web hosting solutions.