Do you know if your website is secure?

It amazes me that whilst trolling the web I repeatedly keep coming across well-established websites without a security certificate (SSL or TLS). Gaining an SSL or TLS certificate is not difficult and it is not expensive. However, not having one could be costly to your business.

 

What is a Security Certificate?

A Secure site means that any personal, sensitive and financial information held on your site is secure. It encrypted and protected. A website with a security certificate tells your customers that they can trust your site. It also informs Google and other search engines that you are a trusted site.

 

What are the implications for not having one?

• If you do not have an SSL certificate then you are not favoured by Google in search engines. From July 2018 Google set about boosting sites with security certificates over those without. Your website is therefore not as optimised as it could be.

• If your customers and potential customers are using the Google Chrome browser, they will see the label 'Not Secure' next to your URL. This is not reassuring for any potential customer and certainly would put many off online purchases.

 

How can you tell if your site is secure or not?

Use the Google Chrome browser and put in your URL – if it is secure it will say SECURE and if it isn't it will say NOT SECURE. The URL is a giveaway too...

Http:// - is not secure

Https:// - is secure

 

What to do if your site is not secure?

Buying an SSL or TLS certificate for your website is relatively cheap and easy. You need to ask your web developer to do this for you. Any developer worth their salt would have advised you of this already. If you have lost contact with your web developer and need help with this please feel free to get in touch with us via email... heidi@spcmarinemarketing.com and we will advise and help where we can.