With data breaches and identity theft on the rise, more people than ever are heightening their security measures when they browse and shop online.

This includes choosing secured websites over unsecured websites. According to a recent Hubspot Consumer Survey, roughly 77% of Australian online shoppers and browsers avoid sites that aren’t secure, and this could have a significant impact on your business.

  • But, what is HTTPS and how does it differ from HTTP?
  • Why does it matter?

I’ll explain the differences below and give you five reasons why you should upgrade from HTTP to HTTPS, if you haven’t done so already.

A Brief Definition of HTTPS and the Difference Between HTTP and HTTPS

HTTP stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol, and HTTPS stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure. Basically, computers that use HTTPS get another layer of protection against data breaches because the two computers generate a code between them when you use the website.

This code scrambles any messages that pass between the websites so no third-party software or people can read it. HTTP websites don’t have this encryption, and it makes it easier to steal your information. You may also hear about an SSL Certificate. This certificate proves that you bought and installed the encryption layer for your website, and you went from HTTP to HTTPS as a result.

Five Reason You Should Upgrade to HTTPS

Now that you know the difference between secured and unsecured websites, here are our top five reasons why you should invest in a secured connection.

1. Google Favours Secured Sites over Unsecured Sites 

Everyone wants their page to rank high with Google. As of 2014, Google acknowledged that its ranking signals included securing your website. If you and a competitor are selling the same services or products, but they have a secured site and you don’t, they’ll rank higher with Google than your site will.

2. Improve Your Site’s Conversion Rate 

Your site’s conversion rate is the percentage of people who come to your site and perform a desired action (like purchasing your products) compared to the percentage of people who come to your site and leave quickly. A survey by Baymard showed that 18% of potential customers who dropped out of a purchase was due to concerns about the site’s security. Fixing these concerns can improve your conversion rate.

3. Increase the Overall Security of Your Website

You want your website to be safe and secure for your customers or potential customers to visit and use. This is extremely important because a study by the University of Maryland showed that there is an active cyber attack at the rate of one every 39 seconds. That’s roughly 100 cyber attacks every hour. Increasing your site’s security can help to prevent it from happening to your customers.

4. Boost Your Customers’ Confidence Levels 

As we mentioned earlier, the majority of people who visit and utilise websites expect to feel like their information is safe. According to an infographic from New Voice Media, roughly 49% of users will refuse to come back to a business if they have a negative experience. Therefore creating a website environment where they feel like they’re secure and confident that their data is safe is extremely important for businesses.

5. Present a Better Brand Image

Until recently Google used to earmark sites that use HTTP with a small, almost invisible, “not secure” warning.  As of October 2018, Google now highlights it in red with the words “not secure” to make it far more noticeable; not the first impression you want to present to your website visitors. Adding HTTPS to your site will turn the red warning into a green “secure” browser label. It’ll also provide you with the added benefit of improving your brand image, and the first impression, because your website looks more trustworthy.

What You Can Do to Increase Your Site’s Security Measures

If you’re ready to make the switch from a not secure HTTP to a secure and encrypted HTTPS, the first step is to chat with your current website hosting company to see how they can help you transition to HTTPS.

At Kicking Pixels, we offer our clients premium managed website hosting, on our Kicking Pixels dedicated WPEngine server.

Using WPEngine for your website hosting will give you a variety of important benefits including:

  • Extremely fast website hosting
  • A local data centre
  • SSL certification for HTTPS delivered websites
  • Page performance testing
  • 24/7 expert support, and more.

Check out our blog on the best hosting options including cloud hosting vs traditional hosting and which is the best option for your business. 

You can also contact us today for more information, or if you have questions, I’d love to hear from you!