#https encryption

Secure Your Site: The SSL Imperative

Imagine a customer ready to order from your website. As they start to enter their payment details, their browser flashes a warning: "Not Secure." In that moment, trust evaporates. That abandoned cart isn't just a lost sale—it's damage to your reputation that could have been easily prevented.

An SSL certificate creates that crucial padlock icon and "https://" in the address bar. This isn't just technical jargon—it's your first line of defense and your strongest trust signal. It encrypts all data passing between your customer's device and your website, protecting personal and payment information from interception.

Why Every Restaurant Website Needs SSL

Protects Customer Data: Encrypts names, addresses, and credit card numbers during transmission

Builds Immediate Trust: The padlock icon signals security and professionalism

Google Requires It: Sites without SSL get marked as "Not Secure" and rank lower in search results

PCI Compliance: Essential for safely processing online payments

The Cost of Inaction

Beyond lost sales, an unsecured website:

Appears in search results with security warnings

Fails basic privacy compliance standards

Damages your brand's credibility

Increases cart abandonment rates

Check Your Security Now Visit your website and look for the padlock icon next to your URL. If you see "Not Secure" or a warning triangle, you need immediate action.

The average user visits around 130 pages a month, and there is no guarantee that all of them would be safe. In addition, there is a chance that most of them were lead to these sites through search engine results. To avoid leading users to these unsafe pages, Google thought of a way for people to minimise visiting these sites. The search engine giant recently announced that it would include encryption as one of the ranking factors. The company also plans to use its browser to notify users of unsecure HTTPS.

What does this update mean for webmasters?

Google implemented this update in their search engine back in 2014. The company will take it a step further with Chrome. Starting January 2017, the latest browser (Chrome 56) will start putting indicators before the HTTP URLs. The message Google is sending is that safety is a priority. This means that the search engine giant wants webmasters to also look out for visitors. But how does Google notify its users which sites are safe and unsafe? Beside each of the search results, one of three icons would appear. When a white page icon appears, that means the site is not secured with HTTPS. A green padlock shows up when Google deems it safe. Lastly, a red “x” signifies that there is something wrong with a site’s HTTPS.

What is the big deal with HTTPS encryption?

HTTPS is an HTTP protocol that is integrated with extra layers of SSL/TLS encryption. The added layer serves two purposes:

1.It verifies that visitors are communicating directly to the designated server.2.It serves as confirmation that the server has received the visitor’s transmission.

This kind of system keeps passwords, credit card details, and messages safe from prying eyes. This secure method of exchange would not be possible without SSL certificates. There are several types and each one used for a specific function, namely:

•

Domain Validated Certificate

This is the cheapest of all the certificates. It validates (usually through email) when a domain is registered. Whoever has admin rights is informed and must then approve the request of the certificate. This kind of certificate should not be used for commercial purposes. It should only be used when security not that big of an issue.

•

Organisation Validated Certificates

This second type of SSL certificate is for validating domain ownership and other necessary organisation data (e.g. name, city, state, country). Similar to domain validated certificate, the validation could be conducted through email. The difference is organisation validated certificates require more documents for identification.

•

Extended Validation (EV) Certificates

This is widely considered as the most trusted type of SSL certificate. This is because it also validates the legal existence of a company. With some additional checks, the validation process takes longer because it has stricter guidelines. This is ideal for websites dealing with sensitive information, such as credit card details.

Aside from added security, there are other benefits with using SSL certificates. The right HTTPS protocol could actually minimise load time by 20 to 30%. So really, there is no reason not to get SSL certificates. With our help, you can pick the right certificate for your website. Click here to find to find out your SSL packages.

Have You Made the Switch? 5 Reasons to HTTPS Encrypt Your Website Now

Have you secured your website with HTTPS encryption yet? We first published a post about securing your website in September 2014. That’s when Google announced it’s indexing priority for HTTPS websites and gave websites a window of two years to migrate to HTTPS encryption.

According to MozCast–which looks at changes in major Search Engine Results Page (SERP) features over time–there’s a slow…

Exploiting Browser Cookies to Bypass HTTPS and Steal Private Information

A newly discovered critical flaw in the implementation of web cookies by major browsers could open secured (HTTPS) browsing to Man-in-the-middle attacks. The US Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) has revealed that all the main browser vendors have improperly implemented the RFC 6265 Standard, also referred to as “Browser Cookies,” allowing… …remote attackers to bypass secure HTTPS protocol…

Let’s Encrypt Project issues its First Free SSL/TLS Certificate

Last fall the non-profit foundation EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) launched an initiative called Let’s Encryptthat aimed at providing Free Digital Cryptographic Certificates (TLS) to any website that needs them. Today, Let’s Encrypt – a free automated Open-source Certificate Authority (CA) – has signed its first certificate, hitting what it calls a major milestone to encrypt all of the Web.…

For those that have yet to create a website for their company, then you better have it in HTTPS encryption.

From Google Webmaster Central blog post, they will now treat websites in HTTPS as a ranking signal. They have also stated that for now this signal is only very lightweight affecting only 1% of global queries. But they said that they might decide to strengthen this signal.