If you’ve been a part of our services and have seen most of our recommendations, you’d be familiar with these two words: HTTP and HTTPS. Where, just like all SEO agencies (not just around Singapore, but the entire world) we urge you, our dear customers, to transfer to a more secure and more Google preferred HTTPS version.
But if you’re a smart discerning business person, you’d know that doing this requires you to set aside some spare cash just to buy the SSL certificate.
Business-wise, is it worth it to have your site on an HTTPS version? Today, we answer that question! Insert Vsauce background music ~
HTTP is an acronym for “hypertext transfer protocol.” And if you remember how to say that in public– like in parties — just keep it in your head up until everyone is already a bit tipsy. You’ll sound so cool and techy.
And to further your dorky coolness, you can say that this protocol is what allows the communication between two systems that are different. This is commonly used for transferring data from a web server, down to your browser so you can view the pages.
Now comes the more important part. More important than you having to know these terms so you’ll have punchlines at a party. HTTP has a fairly good problem: since an HTTP without at “S” isn’t “Secured”, the data it passes around will not be encrypted. This then can be intercepted by those darn third party vultures. Since we’re already living in the future, you should already be thinking about how advanced everything is. We can clone animals now (and of course we can clone people already too, it’s just that no one talks about it), we have tank stealth tech out of sci-fi films, we can visualize far out planets and star systems and the data your site passes from one place to another can also be taken.
Oh and one more thing. So you have a website. You use it to increase your sales in your business, right? The higher you rank in search, the more people see your brand and click on your site, more sales, more happiness. The website will still rank and do its thing if it’s in HTTP. But, since having a secure version is a definite ranking signal for Google, you and your business in the realm of the online world will be completely screwed. Don’t believe me? Read this.
Like mentioned above, not having your site in HTTPS doesn’t make it secure. A good example of sites that need this security is the ones that usually works like an e-commerce website. Payments fly online all the time in these sites, and the ones that can spy on these un-encrypted data can then steal all the customers’ credentials and data. Just imagine that whole scenario: you’ll fail to be a trustworthy website, your rankings drop, your business drops, your world, and dreams end.
And so with that, you may now be desperately checking your wallet and bank account to see if you still have some spare change to get yourself some good SSL certificate. Calm down. If you’re deeply intimate with your site (if so, congratulations.) switching that whole thing into HTTPS is very easy:
First is for you to get that coveted SSL certificate with a dedicated IP address from your hosting company. They should have it. If not, they suck.
Install and configure that certificate on your site. And by the way, try to fully back up your site just in case you do something that will make your site fall apart or implode into a black hole.
Configure all the hard internal links inside your site from the old and unsecure HTTP to the HTTPS.
All the java scripts, ajax, plug-ins and code libraries will also need to be updated.
Basically, you need to update everything from htaccess apps, internet service manager function, the content delivery network’s SSL settings, all the links you will use in your future link building, the links on your automated tools etc.
Then 301 redirect all those HTTP links to the HTTPS. And when all that is done, you update your site on Google search console. The cherry on top of this mid-life crisis panic episode.
Keep in mind though that if your site is small, all that will be fairly easy. If you have a giant money factory of a site, you will definitely need the help of battle-hardened webmasters. The kind that has done so many HTTP to HTTPS switches for years.
So, to answer our question. Yes, of course having your site on HTTPS is very much worth every penny you put out. Making your site secure makes it a safe place for all your target audience to share their information in it. This then makes your website more trustworthy. This then makes Google ease up on you more. Increasing your rankings and therefore your sales and your business.
If you’re the kind of business person that’s always trying to save just for the sake of having something to save and not looking out for the things you should put your money on, your business will not last long. So go get that SSL today and make your website secure! Seriously. There are so many websites out there that still aren’t secure. Don’t be one of them.
