Switching from Http to Https- Why I Bought An SSL for My Website

If you run a blog or website, switching from http to https is highly recommended for various reasons.

Now you may be wondering what a simple switch from http to https can do for your website and if it’s worth going through the effort to implement this.

Let’s just give a quick summary of what exactly this entails so you better understand the benefits of moving to https.

Switching from http to https means you would be buying what is called an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) Certificate through your web host or an external source.

Essentially an SSL makes sure that any and all information that is passed between the web server and browsers is both secure and private, which is not the case when your website is of http protocol.

Even though having an SSL installed is not required or mandatory by any means, it is highly recommended as it provides peace of mind to your visitors and can additionally help with the overall SEO of your website.

So the two key benefits here are:

1.) Security: It ensures all sensitive information is private and secure.

2.) SEO Benefit: It may give your website a slight boost in search rankings which in return will help with the overall SEO.

The third benefit is one that I wanted to put separately to give you a specific example using screenshots.

Google Chrome will soon be flagging any http website as “Not secure” in the very near future.  See screenshot below:

Alternatively, if you have an SSL installed and your site is now https, this is what it will look like in Google Chrome.

As you can see in the screenshots above, this could make a HUGE difference in people staying on your site versus leaving.

Most people when they see the “Not Secure” signal will immediately leave your website without a second thought.

This could mean all the difference in the world when it comes to running a successful blog or website.

Seriously, do not take this lightly.

301 Redirects!

Now I want to bring up one more critical point if you plan on making the switch from http to https.

You must ensure that all instances of http are 301 redirected to https.

Many SSL installations will automatically do this for you, however it’s vital that you make sure of this first and work with any support service you can to get this squared away.

If you do not have 301 redirects in place forcing http to the https protocol, you will ultimately have two versions of the website which causes a whole mess of duplicate content issues that can negatively impact your SEO.

Consider yourself warned and make sure 301 redirects are implemented.

I Switched From Http to Https on August 5th, 2017

I will be tracking my progress to see if I notice any significant increases in search rankings and organic traffic, as this is one of the main reasons I made the switch to begin with.

I even created an annotation in my Google Analytics account to represent this transition so I can accurately keep track of any improvements.

Although this blog is still fairly new, I suspect I will be able to make some conclusions as to whether or not this has helped my SEO for my blog.

At the very least I have a more secure website, and that’s okay with me.

I am a true advocate of testing your marketing constantly to see what works and what doesn’t (like switching to https for example).

This is something I will test over the next 6 months or so and report in on any successes I see going forward.

Little tweaks like these can help out big-time in the long run.

If you’re lazy with this kind of stuff, your competition will eat you alive.

I hope this post helped clarify any questions you had about SSL Certificates or maybe even gave you to motivation to go out and get this set up.

So let me ask…Is your website http or https currently?

If you’ve made the switch, what were your results?