{"id":1091,"date":"2019-08-16T07:44:58","date_gmt":"2019-08-16T14:44:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/blog\/?p=1091"},"modified":"2023-09-27T14:05:16","modified_gmt":"2023-09-27T21:05:16","slug":"why-does-google-label-some-websites-not-secure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/blog\/why-does-google-label-some-websites-not-secure\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Does Google Label Some Websites \u2018Not Secure\u2019?"},"content":{"rendered":"You may have noticed that some websites are flagged as \u2018Not Secure\u2019 when you type their domain name into your browser. Since 2017, there have been rumbles about Google doing this.\n\nThen in February 2018 they made an official announcement about \u201cstrongly advocating\u201d HTTPS encryption. Let\u2019s look at what this is all about.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

What is HTTPS Encryption?<\/h2>\nThis is a very techie way of saying SSL Certificate<\/a>, which is something most people will have heard about when setting up any kind of website.\n\nThe way HTTPS encryption<\/a> works is whenever you visit a website online, it kicks in to protect you. An SSL makes sure that any interaction between you and the website owner is kept private. No hackers or other shady types can cut in on the connection.\n\nThis is especially important for ecommerce websites, where customers are supplying personal details like their address, phone number and credit card number. You really don\u2019t want that kind of info getting into the hands of people you don\u2019t know or trust, right?!\n\nSo you can think of SSL Certificates<\/a> as warriors guarding a door. They\u2019re the muscle that makes sure bad types don\u2019t get in to steal stuff. We can also say that HTTPS encryption is what an SSL Certificate does. They\u2019re one and the same.\n\nFor the techie-minded, SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer. It\u2019s a security<\/a> authentication technology that creates a safe connection between a web server (website) and client (browser).\n\nAnother thing to point out is: don\u2019t let marketers fool you. All SSLs from legitimate providers (called Certificate Authorities) have the same level of encryption protection. But they do differ in other ways, which is why you\u2019ll find a range to choose from in the online marketplace.\n

Why Are SSL Certificates Important?<\/h2>\nThe encryption that comes with an SSL boils down to security protection and trust. If customers don\u2019t feel they\u2019re safe on your website, they won\u2019t want to spend time there, let alone give you their personal information to make purchases. This is why HTTPS encryption is super important for ecommerce sites.\n\nAnd when it comes to trust, there\u2019s another key factor that gives rise to the different types of SSL Certificates. It\u2019s called Validation, and it could cover an article or more all on its own. But to sum it up, Validation is about the checks that the Certificate Authority carries out before issuing your SSL.\n\nThese checks range from the basic called Domain Validation (DV), to Organization (OV) and Extended Validation (EV) where they look at your official business data on public directories. Large ecommerce sites tend to buy OV or EV because it lets customers know they\u2019re dealing with a serious, legit business.\n

Why Does Google Care about HTTPS Encryption?<\/h3>\nGoogle wants to keep the Internet safe for people, so they keep doing their thing online. This is why they made the decision, beginning July 2018, that with the release of Chrome 68 they will mark all HTTP sites (meaning sites without HTTPS encryption or SSL Certificates) as \u2018Not Secure\u2019.\n\nHere\u2019s Google\u2019s full post on their Forum: A secure web is here to stay<\/a>. You\u2019ll also see in the post that while many people are moving to the secure HTTPS, there are those that haven\u2019t gotten looped in yet. This is probably because some people don\u2019t yet fully understand what SSL encryption is or why it matters.\n\nIt\u2019s also important to know that Google ranks sites they flag as \u2018Not Secure\u2019 lower than secured sites. The difference in ranking isn\u2019t huge, but even a small margin can make a dent in your pocket in terms of losing customers to your competitors.\n

Take Away<\/h3>\nCall it HTTPS Encryption or SSL Certificate. The main thing to understand is that this security technology keeps your website safe for visitors. And with ecommerce sites, SSLs also give you a trust boost with customers. Especially OV or EV Certificates, because they let people know your business is completely legit.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You may have noticed that some websites are flagged as \u2018Not Secure\u2019 when you type their domain name into your browser. Since 2017, there have been rumbles about Google doing this. Then in February 2018 they made an official announcement about \u201cstrongly advocating\u201d HTTPS encryption. Let\u2019s look at what this is all about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1091"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2681,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091\/revisions\/2681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}