The Advantages of HTTPS for Your Website

Data breaches jumped 29% in 2017. This led to record numbers of compromised user data.

The internet is becoming increasingly sophisticated to manage consumer demand. So too are the methods hackers are using to intercept people’s vital information.

In this age of cyber threats and online uncertainty, consumers are losing confidence. Fortunately for businesses, there are ways to protect customers and make sure that your relationship with them is not likely to be undermined by a security breach.

One of the best methods to instill confidence in your customers is by switching your old HTTP website to HTTPS.

HTTPS tells customers that you’re utilizing an SSL certificate. That means that your website got verified and that their information is being handled safely.

Our team at Databerry have put together a quick list of the top advantages of HTTPS and why it will give you a marketplace advantage!

1) User Data is Encrypted

Perhaps the most important advantage to HTTPS is that the SSL certificate you’re required to carry ensures that customer data is encrypted.

Did you know that the average cost to a company when a data breach occurs is 3.6 million dollars?

Encryption can help you avoid steep expenses like that. For those not familiar with encryption, it basically makes it so customer data is scrambled in a way that intercepted data cannot be decoded.

Most bank cards require that your website be SSL secured. To stay in compliance, be sure you’re using an SSL certificate if you’re handing payment information or make sure that your user’s transactions are being handled by an external payment gateway.

2) You’ll Enjoy Better SEO

SEO or search engine optimization is incredibly important to your online visibility. Google by itself parses over 3 billion searches every single day. If you want your website to be at the top of user search queries, you need to take SEO seriously.

Google and other search engines put additional weight on HTTPS sites which is one of the largest advantages of HTTPS. To that end, over half of the results Google serves on their first results page are HTTPS secured.

3) Your Website Will Look More Authoritative

Most every major company has an HTTPS website. This is mostly because of the practical implications surrounding encrypting user data. It’s also because HTTPS comes off as more professional.

If you’ve been on a non-HTTPS website recently, you may have noticed next to the website’s address a note saying “not secure”. Depending on your browser you may also have seen a yield symbol.

Seeing something like “not secured” in your browser shatters consumer’s confidence. Even if they’re not entering payment data, most people don’t understand the difference between HTTP, HTTPS and what the implications are. Because of that, they will probably figure that they’re better safe than sorry and head to another site.

Alternatively, with HTTPS, next to your web address you’ll see a green lock which is synonymous with security.

That green lock makes consumers feel safe, makes your brand look like it’s knowledgeable and tells people you take your online presence seriously.

4) Consumer Confidence Means More Conversions

Instilling confidence in consumers in regard to your brand means more action taken on your site and more revenue.

For example, a security company called Verisign decided to display a badge on their checkout page reminding users that their site was SSL secured. Even though most payment providers require this, Verisign’s simple restating of their security created a 30% boost in conversions.

That example gives credence to the point that people take their online security seriously. If you can show them that you have a secure site and take their personal information as seriously as they do, they will be more willing to join your mailing lists, buy your products and more.

5) Having an HTTPS Site is Future Forward

There are a lot of advantages to having HTTPS (some of which you just read about) and many disadvantages to not having it (like search engine penalties). It’s important to know that in the future, the advantages of HTTPS are going to increase.

As HTTPS becomes easier to acquire and more website like yours choose to implement it, non-HTTPS sites will be in the minority. This will allow search engines to be even stricter on their recommendation of using SSL certificates to protect users. As a result of that, you can expect they’ll penalize non-HTTPS sites more severely.

Having a secure site now will let you get ahead of the curve and your competition as HTTPS becomes more important.

Bottom Line – There’s no time like the present to get the secure benefits HTTPS can give you and start using it today!

Wrapping up the Advantages of HTTPS

Whenever you go online the threat of having your information stolen is in effect. Stolen information can lead to loss of money, damaged credit and irreparable identity theft. If a customer has their information stolen as a result of doing business with you, it can be extremely costly.

To bolster consumer confidence, protect their information, reduce your expenses and boost your revenue, protect your website with HTTPS.

HTTPS encrypts customer information. It also lets your website enjoy search engine ranking benefits and can make your business’ web presence feel more authoritative.

If you’re a business who wants to have a secure website via one of the many advantages of HTTPS, our team at Databerry can help.

Databerry is an end to end web services and marketing firm. We can help you maximize your web design and security to increase your revenue. We can also help you optimize your SEO efforts to increase the amount of traffic you get and scale your customer base.

To find out more about what we can do for you, check out our website service plans today!