1. Avoid Being Shamed By Google Chrome & Mozilla Firefox
Google has been warning website owners for years that it would start shaming non-SSL websites, and in January 2017 it started making good on those promises. Google is also very clear about its end goal: “We intend to mark all HTTP pages as non-secure in the long term. There may be more intermediate phases before the following final state:
Emily Schechter, Product Manager of Chrome Security Team said in April 2017 “don’t wait to get started moving to HTTPS!” FireFox, another major web browser is implementing similar warnings for non-secure websites:
2. Get A Bump In SEO
Way back in August 2014 Google’s Webmaster Central Blog announced “we’ve been running tests taking into account whether sites use secure, encrypted connections as a signal in our search ranking algorithms. We’ve seen positive results, so we’re starting to use HTTPS as a ranking signal.”
In other words, between two sites that are otherwise equal, the one with the secure connection (SSL certificate) is going to rank higher than the one without.
3. Get Full WordPress Functionality
In the December 2016 post Moving Toward SSL WordPress announced: “we’re going to see features in WordPress which require hosts to have HTTPS available.”
The company will assess which features would benefit most from SSL, and only make them available when SSL is present on a website. One of the features being considered is API authentication.
4. Trust Factor
As more and more websites move to HTTPS, it’s adoption has grown to become a trust factor for users, signaling to them the site they’re on cares about protecting their privacy. For users who know nothing about SSL, seeing a red “not secure” warning is enough to make them hesitant about using the site. No one wants to have their identity stolen or see the computer infected with viruses.
Need an SSL?
Bottom of the barrel hosts such as GoDaddy will charge $75 a year for an SSL certificate and leave it up to you to get it installed properly. We provide and install them free for all our clients. To learn more, fill out the form and I’ll give you a call!