Google has always been very keen to make websites more secure and their new policy will actively mark your website with a message stating if it is secure or not.
Around 50% of all users are currently using the Chrome browser so there is a pretty good chance that if you aren’t using an SSL certificate on your website, your users will start noticing this.
What is an SSL Certificate?
An SSL certificate allows a secure connection between your website and the visitor’s browser. If the site has an SSL Certificate, it will also usually display a padlock making it obvious that it is a secure site, like so in the image below. You can also see this in the address bar in your browser.
Who needs an SSL Certificate?
Well there is only one answer to that, all websites need an SSL certificate.
In the past it was only really online shops that used them or sites that transacted money, but with Googles new changes to their Chrome browser and how this could affect your position on a search engine, it’s pretty important to get an SSL certificate.
How much is an SSL Certificate?
Well this used to be the issue in the past, they used to cost between £80 – £500 a year depending on what type you wanted, which is a lot of money. Recently however, a new type of SSL certificate has been created by a company called “Let’s Encrypt” and this is a FREE annually renewing SSL certificate, designed to give everyone access to an SSL certificate.
We do however charge a one-off fee £100 + VAT for setting up the certificate on our server and then making sure that the website is SSL ready and only accessible under HTTPS://. From then on as long as you are hosting your website on our server you will have an SSL certificate and be marked as secure on Google Chrome and other browsers.