Google warned webmasters that the next round of shaming is coming. Any site that sends any form of data to a visitor needs to be using https. It’s not just if a site takes credit card payments anymore. Most websites have a contact form. This is when most website owners are going to see a major shift to using https.
“Beginning in October 2017, Chrome will show the ‘Not secure’ warning in two additional situations: when users enter data on an HTTP page, and on all HTTP pages visited in Incognito mode.”
This is all a part of the plan to start labeling sites as insecure (shaming). It rolls out in future Chrome updates and where you are going to see it the most is on the cell phone’s address bar. Google also said https is a ranking factor for search. If your site has a contact form of some kind, nows the time to talk to your web person about setting up a secure certificate (SSL).
The certificate is free depending on your web hosting company. Some companies use Let’s Encrypt which is a free ssl certificate. There are some things to put in place if you want to use it and most web professionals can tell you about Let’s Encrypt. WP Engine and A2 Hosting (our preferred hosts) both offer Let’s Encrypt for free. We can help install this on your website.
If your on another web host like Goaddy, Bluehost, Host Gator, Network Solutions, etc you might have to buy their certificates and it ranges from 40.00 to 99.00 a year. These more traditional certificates need to be installed by the host. Then we can help setup your website to use the full https url.
