Probably you have noticed that a lot of websites are labeled as not secure over the few months. From the October 2017, the search giant Google started labeling the websites as not secure. But do you know what does it mean and how this can affect you?

What does this not secure mean?

When you visit any website, the browser communicates with the site and verify the validity of the certificate provided by the website and at the same time, the browser checks that the encryption is strong enough or not to protect your privacy.

If the browser can validate the certificate as well as verifies that the site is using encryption then it will notify the user that the site is secure.

On the other hand, if the browser cannot validate the certificate and find out that the site is not using encryption then it will notify the user that the site is “not secure”. And not secure means someone except the user and the website can intercept the communication between the user and the website. In simple term, not secure means the unauthorized access that can break your privacy.

How will it affect you?

Well, if you are a user then there is a chance of unauthorized access to your privacy that I am sure you don’t want.

On contrary, if you are an owner of the site and the browser notifies the user that your site is not secure then it is quite possible that your user will not stay on the site. Why? Let me explain.

When a user notice that your site is flagged as not secure, he might think that your site is harmful to him. Or, he might think that the site is under attack. And if the user has some knowledge about this then he will understand that you are not using encryption and his privacy is not secure. So he will leave instantly for sure.

So you can easily understand that how it will affect you if you are an owner. You will lose your potential customers. Is that all? No.

This has a tremendous effect on Google ranking. From the last year, the sites that are flagged as not secure have dropped their rank in the search page of Google. That means if you are the owner you will drop your rank and thus lose a huge number of customer.

How to fix this HTTPS not secure error?

The only way to solve this problem is to add the SSL certificate from your hosting provider and transfer your site from HTTP to HTTPS. Add it as soon as you notice the problem. If you start a new website then you should take the SSL certificate with the hosting.

The process

Here the complete process you need to migrate your site.

First of all, back up your site. It is always a wise decision to run a complete backup when you make any changes in your website.

Then take the SSL certificate from your hosting provider. Maybe you have heard that it takes a little cost while taking SSL certificate. That was true. But now you will get the SSL certificate in free from any reputable provider. We offer a free SSL certificate as well with the hosting.

After taking the SSL, install it to your hosting account and activate it.

Now make it sure that all the embedded site links are transformed from http://www.example.com to https://www.examnple.com so that those links are not broken after the changed over to the https.

Create 301 redirects from current HTTP to HTTPS. It will notify Google of your change and as a result, the people who have bookmarked your site will redirect automatically to your new address. You know, no one like to click on a broken or dead link. This will drop your site link for sure if you do not set up the 301 redirects.

Lastly, update the robot.txt and the Google analytics as well search console and submit the XML sitemap.

You are done.

Try to migrate your entire site. But if not possible, then at least migrate one page where the customer will provide their information.

Something you need to keep in your mind while migrating

When you migrate your site from HTTP to HTTPS, the Google will take it as site change. As a result, you might see a ranking drop for a short time.

Moreover, you can end up with a bunch of broken links if you can’t set up 301 redirect properly. I am sure by now you have understood that HTTP and HTTPS are completely different links. So without 301 redirects, the previous links won’t work.

And lastly, if you can’t set up the https in a correct way, you might lose all of your data. That is why I have mentioned above to create a backup of your website before starting the migration.

But don’t worry, these steps I mean migration steps are not so tough. You can easily do it without any harm to your site.

Final thoughts

With the recent change of Google rank brain, it has become a mandatory thing for all website owner to transfer their site from HTTP to HTTPS in order to not be flagged as “not secure”. This flag will decrease your visitor amount and make your site an untrusted site for your user. So try to migrate your site as soon as possible in the way I have mentioned above.