Why is HTTPS important?
Firstly, we’ll quickly sum things up for those of you in a rush. Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure HTTPS is important for your website for three reasons:
- It helps your site rank higher on search engines
- Builds customer trust
- Protects sensitive data
Intrigued? You should be. We’ll cover these in more detail below.
Read More: Tips To Boost Ecommerce Website Traffic
Customer trust
For any brand or business to be successful in the long term, the customers need to feel like they’re being looked after. For example, If you owned a brick and mortar shop, you would want people to feel safe, welcome and comfortable, right? The same goes for websites.
Google Chrome has begun to label non-HTTPS websites as ‘not secure’ in red font. And, like anything in life, first impressions count. That’s why, when Chrome introduced this ‘warning’, non secure websites saw a huge increase in bounce rates.
SEO
As you know, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is important for any website to be successful. You can have the most beautiful site in the world, but if people can’t find it, it’s worthless.
Improving your website’s ranking can be done in many ways. The most common method is using keywords, using online tools like Google Analytics. You add these words to your title, paragraphs, images, and more.
Website builders and HTTPS
You now know why Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure is important – it keeps online visitors’ data safe, builds trust, and helps your website rank higher on Google. But how do you actually get it? In other words, what should you be looking out for? The answer is three letters: SSL.
Most website builders come with a free SSL certificate, these include::
- Wix
- Squarespace
- Weebly
- Site123
- GoDaddy
- 1&1
Ecommerce Platforms and HTTPS
For online stores, SSL certificates are a must-have, and it comes free with these platforms:
- Shopify
- BigCommerce
- Wix
- Weebly
- Squarespace
- Big Cartel
It’s worth noting that Weebly requires you to manually turn on the security function.
Keep Information Safe
You should now have an idea of how HTTPS keeps information safe, but we will go over the main points.
As we’ve mentioned, HTTPS keeps the data sent between a web browser and website secure by encrypting it. This is particularly important for ecommerce stores, with all those credit card details and delivery addresses being used.
HTTPS also makes it much harder for hackers to build impostor websites. Like identity fraud, this is when someone builds a fake website in order to steal customer data.
Why your site needs HTTPS
You should now have a good understanding of how HTTPS can help your website or online store. We’ve covered the positive impacts, and how you actually go about protecting your site.
Let’s quickly recap the three main functions of HTTPS:
- Improves your site’s ranking on Google
- Builds trust
- Protects data
Need more information related to Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure? Contact us!
