Google Sets Deadline for HTTPS and Warns Publishers to Upgrade Soon

Vivek Sharma -


Google has announced a deadline of July 2018 as the date for when Chrome will begin explicitly warning users if a site is insecure.   Over 50% of Internet browsers worldwide are Chrome,
meaning this change may have a significant impact on web publishers. A prominent warning may affect how secure users feel and may cause some visitors to leave a site, which will negatively impacting a sites bounce rate, advertising impressions, affiliate clicks and eCommerce sales.

How Will Chrome Warn Users of Insecure Pages?

A prominent warning will be shown in Chrome’s address bar (also known as the Omnibox), indicating that an insecure website is “Not secure.” This warning will show for all http websites. Google’s announcement was firm about their goal to warn users of insecure sites, with the intent of  further shepherding more web publishers into upgrading to HTTPS.
“Chrome’s new interface will help users understand that all HTTP sites are not secure, and continue to move the web towards a secure HTTPS web by
default.”
Image showing an example of what the security warning will look like in Chrome's browser address bar.Google’s announcement provided an example of how the “omnibox” address bar security warning will appear.

Will Chrome Display a Warning on Mixed Content Pages?

Google’s announcement did not explicitly address whether mixed secure/insecure web pages will trigger the warning. But it may be safe to assume that these kinds of pages that display a mix of secure and insecure content will trigger a warning.
According to Google, Chrome’s Lighthouse web page auditing tool can identify what web page elements are triggering a mixed content warning:
“Mixed content audits are now available  to help developers migrate their sites to HTTPS in the *latest Node CLI*  version of Lighthouse, an automated tool for improving web pages. The new audit in Lighthouse helps developers find which resources a site loads using HTTP, and which of those are ready to be upgraded to HTTPS simply by changing the subresource reference to the HTTPS version.”

Worldwide Impact of Chrome HTTPS Security Warning

The impact will be felt more keenly in some countries than in others. But even in countries where the use of Chrome is low, this still represents 39% of Internet browsers. The need to update to HTTPS is especially important in regions such as South America, where Chrome use is as high as 74.04% and Israel, where 66.77% of Internet traffic is on Chrome.
The following is a partial listing of 12 countries, indicating how severely this will impact users worldwide:
Cover Your Entire Backlink Workflow
Analyze, clean, earn, and track backlinks from one tab. Manage your link profile easily with SEMrush!.
Get a Free Trial
ADVERTISEMENT
  1. Chrome use in South America is 74.04%
  2. Chrome use in Mexico is 68.15%
  3. Chrome use in Israel is 66.77%
  4. Chrome use in Spain is 63.49
  5. Chrome use in Asia is 50.42%
  6. Chrome use in Russia is 44.84%
  7. Chrome use in Africa is 43.7%
  8. Chrome use in the USA is 42.63%
  9. Chrome use in Canada is 41.98%
  10. Chrome use in India is 41.38
  11. Chrome use in the UK is 40.75
  12. Chrome use in Australia is 39.2%

Should You Upgrade to HTTPS?

Google’s Lighthouse Developer Recommendations page recommends Let’s Encrypt as a low cost alternative for those who run their own servers. Most web hosting providers already provide free HTTPS certificates as well as low cost certificates. The monetary cost for upgrading should no longer be an excuse for waiting.
Perhaps the most valid reason for waiting are technical issues.  Among the considerations for upgrading to HTTPS are the mixed content issues, where a secure web page links to a web page asset such as JavaScript or CSS using an insecure URL. These are issues that a site publisher needs to consider against possibly losing traffic and revenue. For those who have been sitting on the fence, there is now a date set, July 2018.
Nevertheless, the clear answer is that all web publishers should at least consider upgrading to HTTPS. This is no longer a consideration limited to eCommerce sites. The warnings may cause site visitors to begin negatively reacting to warnings on sites that have not upgraded, which may affect advertising impressions, lead generation, sales and so on.  July 2018 is the deadline for when prominent warnings will begin to show to Chrome users. The clock is ticking.

Images by Shutterstock, modified & screenshot by author Roger Montti
Original Blog Source: 

Popular Posts

A Complete Guide for SEO in 2019

Vivek Sharma -
Image
The Definitive Guide To SEO In 2019 This is the ultimate guide to SEO in 2019. And let me be clear about something: This is NOT a lame “SEO in 2019” predictions post. Instead, you’re going to see tested strategies that are working right now… and will work even better in 2019. So if you’re looking to up your SEO game this year, you’ll love this guide. Let’s dive right in. CHAPTER 1: RankBrain & UX Signals RankBrian and User Experience Signals User experience signals were HUGE this year. And I expect them to be even more important in 2019. In fact, Google previously announced that RankBrain was their third most important ranking factor: “In the few months it has been deployed, RankBrain has become the third-most important signal contributing to the result of a search query.” The question is: What is RankBrain, exactly? And how can you optimize for it? Google RankBrain: a Dead-Simple Explanation RankBrain  is a machine
Read full blog »

104 Helpful SEO Questions & Answers for Interview

Vivek Sharma -
Image
Discover all you need to know with these latest SEO questions and answers and embark on a successful SEO journey! Keep digging! 1. What is SEO & why is it so important? Ans.  In simple words, SEO or Search Engine Optimization denotes to any activity performed for the improvement of Search Engine rankings of websites, products, services or other content. It shows unpaid results which is also referred to as “free”, “organic”, “natural” or “earned” results. The importance of SEO starts with the desire of the companies to gain more traffic for their websites. The ranking over search engines matter because users pay more heed to the first 5 searches on Google. Moreover, the users tend to trust Google’s refined search results because they consider these searches to be more authentic and specific. 2. What is a Search Engine? Ans.  A search engine is a web-based software system which is developed to search and locate relevant information on the World Wide Web. Search engi
Read full blog »

How To Add Schema Markup To Your Wix Website?

Vivek Sharma -
Image
Adding Schema.org Markup Schema.org creates a structured data markup schema, which is supported by most major search engines. Adding schema markup can help search engines display a richer snippet of your pages in search results. It does so by providing search engines with additional information about the page content, which is then displayed beneath the page title in search results.  Click  here  to read more about Schema.org. Step 1 | Generate your schema markup Some of your site's content already contains schema markup, such as blog posts and your Wix Stores pages. To generate schema markup for other pages of your site we recommend using  this tool . You may also choose to use  Google's markup generator .  Step 2 | Add your schema markup to your Wix site 1  Sign in to your Wix account. 2  Go to your  Site Manager .  3  Click Tracking & Analytics.  4  Click + New Tool and select Custom from the dropdown.  5  Set up your Schema.org code: 5  Ente
Read full blog »