Google and SSL: HTTP sites are flagged as insecure

Written by Jelmer van der Linden on January 03, 2017

Webshop owners who have not yet installed an SSL certificate are making a smart move to secure their online store with the certificate as soon as possible. The reason behind this? Google is going to mark websites without SSL ("http sites") as unsafe in the coming month. These are websites that ask for data such as passwords and credit card information. And since every online store practically does this, online retailers can't really do without SSL.

Chrome 56

The latest version of Google Chrome (Chrome 56) is rolling out worldwide this month. The update of the browser will display a warning that websites that do not use encryption are unsafe. Google points out that "users are blinded by security notifications and therefore will show when a website is not. In the not too distant future, Google is expected to expand the warning with a red triangle, where at the time of launch it would be a more neutral symbol.

If you, as a merchant, do not want to have a warning that your website is insecure, it is advisable to purchase an SSL certificate.

No SSL = Conversion killer

We can take the Chrome browser update seriously. With a market share of over 41.66, Google Chrome is in fact the most used browser and this increase only seems to continue. If your website gets the message that it is "insecure" it would scare off most of your visitors. And that's not surprising, because who would want to place an order with a store that has a big red bar with 'unsafe'. SSL is also attractive for several reasons. For example, websites with SSL security arepreferred in searchengineresults. This means that if you do not have SSL installed on your website, it will most likely rank lower. Of course, Google's algorithm consists of more components, but SSL is part of it.

Conclusion

Although at this time we have only included SSL as an advice point in our code of conduct, it is definitely a wise step to install SSL on your web store. If you don't then you will miss out on a large portion of your orders with the rollout of Chrome 56. Not convinced yet? Then know that the SSL certificate is alsolegallyconsidered mandatory. As a serious party you cannot do without SSL.This article was also published on the website of Tickles B.V.