HTTP Security Warnings Coming in October

If your website still hasn’t migrated to HTTPS, visitors using the Chrome browser will soon begin seeing security warnings that label your page as “Not Secure”. This new feature, arriving in October of 2016 with Chrome Version 62, will be shown based on the browser’s detection of a few different website components that could potentially cause security threats including password fields, payment fields and other text fields the browser believes could be susceptible, even while in Incognito mode. With around 76% of web traffic coming from Google’s Chrome Browser, this could substantially impact your website’s search ranking if not corrected prior to the deadline.

When Does The Security Warning Appear?

As users interact with your HTTP based website, certain behaviors will trigger the warning to appear in the search bar next to the current URL. As soon as a visitor to your website begins typing or interacting with a text field on your website, the warning will appear. This can potentially occur when visitors attempt to search for information on your website, subscribe to a mailing list, make a payment, submit a contact request or type anything into a text field on your HTTP based website.

Why is HTTPS Important?

When using HTTP at your home or on an open wireless network, it can be fairly easy for anyone to access the information you are inserting into a text field without looking over your shoulder to see what you are typing. In fact, anyone on the same Wi-Fi network with another device can easily extract this information with little effort. This happens because the information packets that are going from your device to the router are easily accessible by other devices connected to the same network. To counteract this growing problem, many webmasters are making the push to migrate their websites to HTTPS to provide greater security and boost user confidence for visitors to their websites. HTTPS, or HTTP Secure, encrypts the data that is entered into a website to ensure information that you provide isn’t grabbed from the Wi-Fi network and read by other users of that same network. This can ensure an extra level of security and privacy is available for any visitors that are interacting with your website.

Will Not Transferring to HTTPS Affect Search Rankings?

In the past, Google has made it clear that security is a top priority. While HTTPS encryption has been revealed as a minor ranking signal in the past, the new Google Chrome warning is a likely indicator that HTTPS encryption will be weighted more heavily in search engine rankings in the upcoming months and beyond. Additional SEO benefits achieved by migrating to HTTPS also include accurate referral data and increased security and privacy for visitors to your website.

Skynet Solutions Provides HTTP to HTTPS Migration Services

If you are ready to migrate your website to HTTPS without risking your existing SEO, Skynet Solutions can help. We offer HTTPS migration services to meet the growing needs of small businesses, large websites and everything in between. Let our experience migrating websites to HTTPS help save you from costly mistakes and unneeded headaches and prepare your website for Google Chrome’s pending update! You can fill out our contact form to get started today. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn!