It is 2018, and Google Says You Should Have Https

Sure your web site might have grown up with the http:// addressing convention.

But it is 2018, and Google says you should have https.

So, if you care at all what Google says – and you probably should, as it is most likely that the great majority of referral traffic to your web site comes from Google, you should get the SSL certificate.

Because Google Chrome is doing this now, starting with Version 68 that was released in July:

 

Which is basically telling the world that your site is not secure. That is not a positive message for marketplace.

In addition, Google is showing preference for HTTPS in the search engine results page (SERPs). Which means that if you don’t have an SSL certificate – if you don’t show https rather than http – you are going to rank lower in Google results.

Google’s goal is security and that’s great.

You also have the goal of site visibility, and no SSL means less of it for you. So don’t wait any longer – get your SSL certificate.

And you should have the goal of looking like you know what you are doing on the web. When we see http instead of https, we see a site where somebody isn’t committing either enough time or effort into their web site at this point. Hard to say how many other people see it the same way, but we’re not alone.