Important Notice to Chicago Business Owners and Website Managers Nationwide
Google is making a big change to the Chrome browser (the current top browser) that you need to be aware of. You can potentially lose a lot of revenue if you do not take action on this.
1 – If you do not have an SSL certificate installed on your website by October (2017), Google will begin labeling your website with a “Not Secure” warning at the top of Google Chrome, which will heavily discourage vistors from staying on your website and contacting your business.
What your URL will look like in Chrome in October:
2 – Also, Google has announced previously that they rank websites that have an SSL certificate higher than those who do not. This is another clear reason to jump on this as soon as possible. Note: You may have already lost rankings to your competitors over the past 2 years because they already installed an SSL. Ideally, install one as soon as possible, so you don’t continue losing rankings to your competitors.
What’s the solution to these two major problems?
All website owners (not just eCommerce) need to make sure their website has an SSL certificate (https:// vs http://) installed by their web hosting company.
How do you get an SSL certificate properly installed?
This can be solved by contacting either your web host directly and scheduling the installation, or you can contact us so we can solve it for you. Note, that if you hire us (or another Chicago qualified SEO firm of your choice), you will also make sure that you are following Google’s guidelines with proper 301 redirects so you don’t loose your current Google rankings for all your pages.
Here’s Google’s announcement about the harsh, and new business deterring, “Not Secure” warning in Google Chrome:
Here’s the announcement about Google ranking websites with SSL (HTTPS://) higher than those without:
Read the article below if you want to know what an SSL certificate is, and what it does for your website (by Google):
Contact us today for a free website consultation or to schedule your SSL certificate installation (with all Google guidelines followed for best Google SEO).