Web Development | The Importance of SSL And HTTPS

Recently, Google announced that they would be tracking down the sites without an SSL certificate and mark them as “not secure.” In case you didn’t know what SSL is, it is an identifier which allows visitors to know that their personal information is safe on a particular site. For this reason, web development companies all around the globe are building SSL certified websites to ensure the safety of user information.

Websites with SSL certificate usually display ‘HTTPS’ with a green lock next to the word ‘Secure’ in the URL tab.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) tells users that their personal information is safe on a site and helps improve your web ranking.

What is an SSL Certificate?

SSL – Secure Socket Layer – establishes an encrypted communication between server and the visitor using an encryption key. It typically includes:

• Name of the certificate holder
• Serial # and expiration date of certificate
• Duplicate of the owners’ public key
• Signature by the certificate-issuing authority

How Does it Work?

When a visitor lands on an SSL certified website, it sends the SSL certificate key to the visitor’s browser and starts a secure session, enabling the secure transfer of information between browser and your website.

What is HTTPS?

HTTPS is the advanced and securer version of HTTP, a protocol that establishes secure communication between visitor’s browser and your website.

It encrypts all the communication taking place between a visitor’s browser and your website for user privacy.

Websites that are SSL certified will display HTTPS in URLs.

Why Should You Switch to HTTPS?

Websites normally switch to HTTPS due to the following three reasons:

Verified Ownership

The first key advantage of HTTPS is that it provides authentication which helps verify the ownership of a website. Having a verified ownership is of great importance because, without it, your website can be easily replicated.

Believe it or not, there are scammers out there with extraordinary web app development skills who can easily create replicas of your website and steal traffic from it. However, with an SSL certificate, creating replicas becomes downright impossible.

Data Integrity

Data integrity is about checking whether or not the data on your site is being tampered with. SSL certified websites offer a great ease of checking the tempering. On the other hand, non-SSL sites are not so good in this regard. If someone knows that your website is non-SSL, they can tamper with the data coming in from your server to the client side. A potential security loophole of such websites lies in contact forms where the information of a client who just filled out the form could go straight to a hacker without notifying you.

Encryption

Encryption is a form of securing data which no one can read apart from client and the server. This is particularly useful for personal as well as commercial websites where data is submitted using forms.

Why HTTPS and SSL So Important?

HTTPS plays a very important part in your website’s search engine rankings. Google uses it to determine the credibility of a site when showing search results. This makes HTTPS very valuable for your business as it gives you a competitive edge over those market rivals who do not have an SSL certified website.

Lastly, How to Switch From HTTP to HTTPS?

Making the switch is a tricky process. But your web development services provider could make it simpler for you. Generally, following are the steps required to make the switch happen:

• Finding a credible SSL certificate
• Installation of certificate on your site
• Updating the configuration of your website from HTTP to HTTPS
• Redirecting all your previous HTTP pages to the newly identified HTTPS locations
• Reverifying your ownership of the website
• Updating the sitemap location
• Updating your website’s property configuration in Google analytics
• Testing whether the switch was successful

Remember that having a secure website is a must if you want to establish your brand identity. The sooner you make the switch, the better it will be for your business as it will allow your site to rank higher.