Google is now recommending all sites move from http to https. What does this mean? As a website owner your website on the web uses, in most cases, http (hyper text transfer protocol) which is a protocol that defines how messages are transmitted over the internet.


Https on the other hand is a secure way of transmitting information over http, in other words all traffic going to your website will be encrypted.

Any websites using e-commerce, or storing sensitive data will generally have https, if they don’t you probably shouldn’t be shopping there. For standard websites that do not provide any kind of payments or store sensitive information it is not required, however, Google is pushing to change this so all website use the more secure https by rewarding those sites with better search results.

Google hopes the lure of better ranking in its search engine index will entice website developers to switch away from the unencrypted http.

The security of a website will carry less weight in ranking compared with other factors such as high-quality content, but its importance might increase over time, Google said.

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How do I get an SSL certificate

Website owners will need to purchase an SSL certificate from their hosting company or third party provider to move from http to https. Once a certificate has been purchased your hosting company or web developer will have to install it, alternatively you can install it yourself if you feel confident by following the instructions provided on purchase of the certificate.

How to identify if a website is using HTTP or HTTPS.

Sites using https will generally have a certificate placed on their website stating the site is verified and protected by https, generally on the home page of the site. Another indicator is the address bar. If you look in the address bar you will see the address of the website has https, where the 's' in https indicates secure.