It has been talked about for months (if not years): sites
must use the https protocol to ensure secure data transmission. In this
article, we explain what https is and why it is important for sites to comply
with this secure protocol.
With a post from Chrome Security Product Manager Emily
Schechter last February, Google announced that as of July, sites still in HTTP
will be listed as "unsafe" on the new version of Chrome.
As you can see from the images, both Chrome and other
browsers already give a warning that is not as evident as it will be with the
new version of Chrome.
Making the user perceive a site as safe, by transmitting
trust , is already a good motivation to switch a site from http and https, but
it is not the only one. Let's see the other reasons together, starting from the
base: what are http, https, ssl and tls.
What are HTTP and
HTTPS?
Http and https are protocols, or a set of rules, through
which hypertext pages (of sites, blogs, portals, social networks ...) are
transferred to the World
Wide Web.
If you look at the bar where you enter the website address, you can
understand which protocol uses the site you are browsing by looking at the
wording before the site name.
All the most common browsers that we use to navigate between
web pages (Chrome, Mozilla, Intern Explorer, Safari ...) use these two
protocols. But what is the difference between http and https?
The communications with https are encrypted unlike those
passed with the http which are transmitted in the clear and therefore are
easily intercepted and readable .
To adopt the https protocol and pass information securely, a
site must be equipped with a certificate (SSL or TLS), which guarantees the
encrypted transmission of the data entered by the user. Thanks to this
certificate the data transmissions (for example the name and surname that we
insert in the contact forms or the credit card data when we pay online) that
take place between the site and the server are in a 'reserved' channel and not
accessible to third.
Why is it important
to adopt the HTTPS protocol?
Probably if you have read this far you have already
understood what are the reasons for adopting the http, but let's see them all:
1- Ensure the
security of the information transmitted
With the https protocol that guarantees the encryption of
information, you assure your users that their data, which you acquire through
your site, is transmitted securely.
Of course, the more sensitive the data and information you
collect , the more important the
certificate becomes to ensure safe navigation for your users.
2-Transmitting trust
and reliability
We said that soon Google Chrome will report http sites as
unsafe, a message that is not exactly positive for a user who is browsing your
site! An unreliable site hardly converts . On an unreliable site people will be
unwilling to leave their data or make a purchase.
3- Https as a ranking
factor
Google itself has confirmed that https is a ranking factor:
for the same factors, a site in https will be positioned first in the search
results compared to a site in http.
How to make the
passage of a site to HTTPS?
A correct migration from http to https requires: the
purchase of the certificate, the modification of the url, the redirects of the
pages from http to https, the control of all internal resources (images,
attachments…), the updating of the internal links, updating of analytics and
search console properties, references on social networks ...
In short, a series
of technical operations to be done carefully in order not to compromise the
site and the Search
engine positioning acquired over time.
