Recently Google announced it was going to detect websites that have login pages that are not protected by SSL and mark those sites as 'not secure' in search engine results. We have noticed this is already occurring now and is also showing in Chrome.
?What this means is that if you have a website that has some form of login (eg. an ecommerce website or a website with a members only area), then eventually, if not already, your website may have 'not secure' written next to it in Google search results. On top of this, your site may also have 'not secure' shown prominently in the top address bar when people use Chrome as their browser.
It seems that Google wants the web to be secure and is encouraging this through these penalties for sites that are not secure. A couple of years ago it became clear that Google was giving rankings boosts to sites that were secure and it appears this recent activity is an extension of that.
The good news is, making your site secure is quite simple. It just involves changing your website to use a static IP address and installing an SSL certificate (and ensuring it is renewed each year). You also need to ensure that your site is set to default to using SSL and that 301 redirects are set up to ensure the old URL's on your site are redirected properly to the new secure versions of them.
If your site is hosted with Mantis Technologies, then there is a simple annual fee of $250 for this. If your site is not hosted with us then we recommend you contact your hosting provider to arrange this a.s.a.p.
Please feel free to contact Dave Mason at david@mantistech.com.au if you would like us to arrange this for you and ensure your site is secure.
