Unlock the Benefits of HTTPS and Boost Your Online Security
A few years ago, it was common for websites to only use HTTP. However, in today’s online world, it is more important than ever to use HTTPS. Why? Because using HTTPS can help improve your online security and unlock a variety of other benefits. In this blog post, we will discuss the importance of HTTPS and how you can make the switch for your website.
It seems that the digital marketers were not that eager to use the ranking benefits offered by HTTPS. Google has always been encouraging the site owners to rely on HTTPS for making web a way safer place. Analyzing the popularity of HTTPS, web masters have discovered that the usage trend of it is not on an upswing among the top organizations around the world. According to Alexa data, by June 2016, only 10.2% of top 1 million companies chose HTTPS by default for their sites.
HTTPS usage among industries
According to SEMrush, around 41% of the sites belonging to 25 different industries are using HTTPS in 2017. Among all others the Art & Entertainment industry has the maximum number of websites secured by HTTPS (316 of the 5000 top sites considered). It is closely followed by Finance with 77%, Internet & Telecom with 63.91% and Business & Industrials with 62%. The lowest percentage of HTTPS using was recorded by the News and Sports industries with 11.25% and 15.95% respectively.
HTTPS usage among the Fortune 500 companies
Analyzing some of the largest US organizations in the Fortune 500 list, it has been discovered that there is a strong trend of using HTTPS among them. The list of Fortune 500 companies using it to the maximum level includes in the Financial (70%) and Business Services (74%) sectors. The Fortune 500 companies from Chemical industries and the Aerospace & Defense register the lowest use of secure domain with 9% and 8% respectively.
Effect of HTTPS on Google ranking:
From a list of 100,000 random keywords used as samples to check the SERP effect of HTTPS, 45% resulted in the first position while 50% landed in the second position.
What does HTTPS do?
HTTPS is the secured version of Hyper Text Transfer Protocol, the standard one used for communication on the web. Any unprotected HTTP domain is exposed to potential danger of revealing information about the user. Such information is often vulnerable to spying, interception, manipulation by hackers. The secured HTTP domain was created to protect the confidentiality of information on a particular domain.
HTTPS is an encryption to keep the data of site visitors safe. Earlier, this encryption used only for payment transactions on websites. Gradually websites with different industries started using it. In attempt to secure their users’ accounts and keeping their identity private, they use this encryption with TLS (Transport Layer Security) or SSL (Secure Sockets Layer protocols for encrypted communications. Clients and server communicate with each other over a secure TLS or SSL HTTP with encrypted requests. This makes it difficult for hackers to steal information over internet.
Have a closer look at the benefits of moving to HTTPS
- Privacy & Security: HTTPS is of great help for domains on which, important transactions are done and the users need to divulge sensitive information like, card details for online payment/ transaction. Your site visitors deserve a private and secure space for online transactions.
- Trustworthiness: You would surely not like your users to receive a security warning right after landing on your site. If a server claims to be HTTPS and its certificates do not match the claim, the browser will display a warning message. Such a condition is surely going to make the user doubt the safety measures offered by the website. The reputation of that website will be at stake. HTTPS consolidates the trust factor from user’s end.
- Referral: For an HTTPS site Google Analytics becomes more useful. Unlike HTTP, the security data related to the site that referred you the user is saved with HTTPS.
HTTPS provides better security for your website
HTTPS is the secure version of HTTP, the protocol over which data is sent between your browser and the website that you are connected to. HTTPS uses SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) to encrypt the data that is being transferred. This makes it much more difficult for anyone to intercept the data and read it.
When you are visiting a website, you can usually tell if it is using HTTPS by looking at the URL. The URL will start with “https://” instead of just “http://”. You may also see a lock icon next to the URL, which indicates that the connection is secure.
If a website is not using HTTPS, you should avoid entering any sensitive information on that site, such as your credit card number or password. Even if a site does not seem to be asking for sensitive information, it is possible that someone could be intercepting your data and reading it.
HTTPS provides better security for your website because it makes it much more difficult for anyone to intercept and read the data that you are sending or receiving. If you are entering any sensitive information on a website, make sure that the site is using HTTPS. You can usually tell by looking at the URL – if it starts with “https://”, then the connection is secure.
HTTPS can help improve your website’s ranking in search engines
When it comes to SEO, HTTPS can be a valuable asset for your website. Here’s why:
Google has stated that HTTPS is a ranking factor in their search algorithm, which means that websites that use HTTPS can potentially rank higher than those that don’t. In addition, HTTPS can also help to improve your website’s click-through rate from organic search results.
HTTPS provides several security and performance benefits that can help to improve your website. For example, HTTPS encrypts communication between your website and visitors’ browsers, which can protect against third-party eavesdropping and man-in-the-middle attacks. HTTPS also helps to prevent content from being modified in transit, ensuring that visitors receive the exact content that you intended them to see.
Overall, using HTTPS can help to improve your website’s ranking in search engines and click-through rate from organic search results. Additionally, HTTPS provides security and performance benefits that can help to improve your website overall.
HTTPS can help you avoid data breaches
When it comes to data security, HTTPS is often heralded as a key defence against breaches. And while HTTPS encryption is certainly important, it’s not the be-all and end-all of data security. In fact, there are a number of ways that HTTPS can help you avoid data breaches.
For starters, HTTPS encryption can help to mask sensitive data from would-be attackers. If an attacker were to intercept an encrypted communication, they would only see garbled text that is difficult to make sense of. This makes it much more difficult for attackers to steal sensitive information like credit card numbers or login credentials.
Secondly, HTTPS can help to verify the identity of the party you’re communicating with. When you connect to a website over HTTPS, your browser will verify the site’s identity using a certificate issued by a trusted third party. This helps to ensure that you’re actually communicating with the website you think you are, and not an imposter site set up to steal your information.
Lastly, HTTPS can help to prevent so-called “man-in-the-middle” attacks. In these types of attacks, an attacker intercepts communications between two parties and impersonates one of them in order to gain access to sensitive information. By encrypting communications with HTTPS, it becomes much more difficult for attackers to carry out this type of attack successfully.
While HTTPS is certainly a valuable tool in the fight against data breaches, it’s important to remember that it is not a panacea. Data security is a complex issue, and there is no single solution that will work in all cases. However, by using HTTPS encryption and taking other steps to protect your data, you can greatly reduce your risk of falling victim to a breach.
HTTPS can help you protect your customers’ data
HTTPS is a protocol that helps protect your customers’ data. When you visit a website over HTTPS, your connection to that site is encrypted, making it more difficult for someone to intercept and read your data. This is especially important when you’re entering sensitive information, like credit card numbers or passwords.
HTTPS is becoming more common, but not all websites support it yet. You can usually tell if a site supports HTTPS by looking at the URL: if it starts with “https://”, then the site supports HTTPS. Many browsers also display a padlock icon next to the URL to indicate that a site is using HTTPS.
If you’re concerned about your privacy and security online, you should look for sites that support HTTPS. By using HTTPS, you can help keep your data safe from prying eyes.
Switching to HTTPS is easy and there are many resources available to help you
One of the best ways to ensure that your website is secure and that your visitors can browse with confidence is to switch to HTTPS. Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is the standard security protocol used on the internet. It encrypts communication between a website and a web browser, ensuring that sensitive data cannot be intercepted by third parties.
Despite the benefits of HTTPS, many website owners have yet to make the switch. Some may be unaware of the benefits of HTTPS or how to implement it on their site. Others may believe that HTTPS is only necessary for sites that handle sensitive information, such as e-commerce sites. However, this is not the case – any site can benefit from switching to HTTPS.
There are many resources available to help website owners switch to HTTPS. For example, the Mozilla Foundation has created an easy-to-follow guide that covers everything from obtaining an SSL certificate to configuring your server. Google also offers detailed instructions on switching to HTTPS.
Making the switch to HTTPS is a simple way to improve the security of your website and give your visitors peace of mind. With so many resources available, there’s no excuse not to make the switch today.
Summary
As you can see, there are many benefits to switching your website to HTTPS. Not only does it provide better security for your site and your customers, but it can also help improve your ranking in search engines. And with so many resources available to help you make the switch, there’s no reason not to do it. So if you’re looking to boost your website’s security and performance, HTTPS is the way to go.
When traffic reaches the HTTP site, the analytics report shows it to be ‘direct’ and that is not quite helpful. On the other hand, as traffic moves through an HTTPS site, referral traffic data is saved. You will perfectly understand exactly where your traffic is coming from.
You have multiple reasons to migrate to HTTPS if your website is still an HTTP one. With the SEO benefits available from the move, it is important to make your website search engine friendly to help it getting better SERP while it keeps up with the changes. Moving to HTTP secured is one essential move in helping it rank better on search engines.
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