There are 2 connection protocols for your computer, smartphone, or any other device to a website: HTTP and HTTPS.

Let me explain in simple terms.

HTTP is the standard, while the one with an “s” ensures the security of user data, that is, your data when interacting with a website. For example, when you enter your personal information into forms: name, phone number, home address, or credit card information.
Data security is ensured by encrypting them based on an SSL certificate.

Considering that practically every commercial website collects personal data from users (for example, a simple news subscription form or a feedback form is considered a tool for such collection), Google has decided to encourage website owners to take better care of their users’ data. To do this, they have made changes to the operation of their main products.

Google AdWords

Websites that do not have a secure https connection, all else being equal, will rank lower in advertising results than websites that have data security at the highest level.

For example, in running contextual advertising, you bid $1 for a “click,” but your site is not “https.” Your competitor’s site has “https,” and they also bid $1. In this situation, your competitor’s ads will always be higher than yours, and to “beat” them, you will have to increase your bid to $1.1, $1.2, and so on.

So, because of the absence of one small letter in your site’s protocol name, your advertising budget will significantly increase.

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Google Chrome

Google’s development browser, which, according to LifeInternet data, is used by more than 51% of the internet audience in the CIS. Well, in the upcoming updates of this product, there will be a feature to inform the user that the site does not use a secure connection.

Moreover, as usual, given the “complexities of translation” of Google products, this phrase will probably sound ominous: “this is not a secure resource.”

Imagine such a message above your site…

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Google Search

Here’s the simple part: if your website has the HTTP protocol instead of HTTPS, despite all the efforts and budgets you invest in SEO, your site will lose positions in Google’s search results.

The same trend is observed among all major players on the internet. Perhaps similar rules will soon be introduced for advertisers on Yandex, Facebook, VKontakte, and others.

Why is HTTPS so strict about this?

google HTTPS - a new mandatory standard for websites

The question naturally arises: “Why have all these big companies turned against website owners?”

Here’s the logical part:
Google’s task is to show its users high-quality, interesting, relevant, and safe websites. If any of these requirements are not met, users will simply stop using the system.
And if a website has an https connection protocol, accordingly:

  • User data will be secure. When you send forms with your data, they are encrypted in a special way.
  • The site owner is a real company or individual, as providing this protocol requires obtaining an SSL certificate. The certificate issuer verifies the contact phone, address, and other data of the site owner for whom this certificate is made.
  • The SSL certificate, or rather its issuance, is a paid service. Despite the fact that its cost starts from $10, in the eyes of the search engine, a site whose owner has spent even this insignificant amount inspires more trust than a site that has spent nothing.

How to switch from HTTP to HTTPS?

The transition to HTTPS itself is not a very difficult procedure, but it is very important to do it correctly and in a clear sequence.

  1. Purchase an SSL certificate and activate it for your domain, which can be done directly with issuers like COMODO or through intermediary companies.
  2. Activate the certificate on your hosting. This procedure involves active correspondence with the technical support of your hosting, if there is one and they are willing to respond to your emails.
  3. Set up the correct redirection from HTTP to HTTPS. For search engines, a site on HTTP and HTTPS is considered two different resources. So it’s important to “connect” all the pages of your site under the new protocol.
  4. Change the paths on the site for JavaScript, CSS, site fonts, and images, and most importantly, the canonical tag, as all of this will disappear immediately after the transition.
  5. Inform search engines that the site has moved to HTTPS in the webmaster panels of Search Console and Yandex Webmasters.
  6. Change the settings of Google Analytics and Yandex Metrica.
  7. If you have active advertising campaigns on the site, you also need to specify new links to pages in their settings.
All of these manipulations must be done within a few hours so that your site is not indexed at the moment of transition to HTTPS. Otherwise, there may be problems with indexing your site and a drop in positions in search results.

How to choose an SSL certificate?

As mentioned earlier, an SSL certificate is a mandatory requirement for implementing the HTTPS protocol on your website. There are both free and paid methods to obtain it:

  1. Let’s Encrypt – this is a certification authority that issues SSL certificates completely free of charge, with a validity period of 3 months and automatic renewal. The advantage is that the certificate is issued and activated automatically.
  2. Paid SSL certificate – you can purchase it from providers like COMODO, GeoTrust, and others. The price ranges from $10 to $500, depending on the level of protection and the size of the insurance payout to the user.
  3. You can write a certificate yourself. I have no idea how to do it, but I just know that such a possibility exists.

As we can see, there are three options for obtaining a certificate. If you are not a commercial bank or a payment system, then a free certificate from Let’s Encrypt is quite sufficient.

On the other hand, if you purchase a certificate for the purpose of internal SEO optimization of your site, then you just need to be slightly better than your competitors.

If all the websites in the TOP-10 in your niche have free certificates or none at all, then buy one for $10, and you’ll be ahead. However, if most of them have paid certificates, and being in the TOP rankings is important for your business, consider more expensive solutions.

Professional HTTPS

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Website development with HTTPS is the new standard at Business Site web studio. For all websites from 2017, we include the use of the HTTPS protocol.

Additionally, our company offers a separate service for transitioning your website from HTTP to HTTPS, implementing the entire set of works with quality assurance.
The cost of the service depends on:

  • The cost of the SSL certificate.
  • Your hosting provider.
  • Your website’s CMS.
  • The number of pages and the complexity of the site’s structure.
  • The number of connected analytics systems.

Average price of transitioning to HTTPS for:

 

The cost of the services themselves is a one-time expense. In the future, you will only need to renew the certificate annually at the rates of the issuing company.

Considering the universal trend of websites transitioning to the HTTPS protocol, this is a procedure that sooner or later you will have to carry out to avoid increasing advertising costs, to ensure your site has a decent reputation, and maintains high positions in Google.

What’s also important is that not all your competitors are aware of this information yet, and the sooner you switch to the HTTPS protocol, the further ahead you will be compared to them.

Contact our office and ask the manager to prepare an offer for your website!