Why HTTPS Is Necessary for Your Website

You may have come across an HTTPS or HTTP prefix when browsing the internet. Usually, they will be at the beginning of a URL.

What does HTTPS stand for, what does it do, and how is it different from the standard HTTP protocol? Here, in this blog post, you’ll learn all you need to know about HTTPS and why it’s crucial for your website.

What Is HTTPS?

HTTPS is an acronym for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure, whereas HTTP is the generic name for the protocol. Payment card details, personal information, usernames, and passwords are just a few examples of the kinds of data that a website receives from a browser.

But the main distinction between the two is that HTTPS provides website security with SSL certificate encryption.

Secure websites use HTTPS, which encrypts all user-provided sensitive data. No one other than the sender and the recipient website can view data sent over networks.

As a result, cybercriminals are less likely to steal or hijack user data for fraudulent purposes. Sending and receiving sensitive data through HTTPS ensures that it has not been tampered with and that a genuine person transmitted it.

Why HTTPS Is So Important for Your Website

In the digital world, HTTPS is equivalent to gateway security. It’s no surprise that HTTPS security is symbolized by a padlock next to the URL. As with any form of protection, HTTPS is critical to a website’s general well-being, safety, and financial well-being.

The following are some of the most significant advantages that your website will enjoy after it switches to HTTPS.

Search Engine Optimization

Any website administrator’s goal is to improve their site’s search engine rankings and reach the top of the results page. Website security is an essential factor in search engine optimization.

As a result, Google and other search engines have incorporated website security as a ranking factor into their algorithms.

The use of HTTPS has been considered a ranking factor by Google since 2014. HTTPS is increasingly the deciding factor for websites on Google.

As a result, if two websites are otherwise identical, Google will prefer the one that uses HTTPS. HTTPS may not be as important to search engine rankings as other elements such as keywords. However, it is still something that every website owner should consider.

Trust and Safety for Website Visitors

There are millions of deceptive websites on the internet. Due to these websites’ scams and information theft, customers are highly cautious while placing their personal information online.

If your website is secured with HTTPS, your customers can trust your website’s content and identity.

Sensitive Data Protection

Providing products and services requires collecting Personally Identifiable Information (PII) from website visitors. It might be anything from a credit card number to an address and mobile number.

Sometimes, you’ll have to utilize usernames and passwords to access the websites. HTTPS is used to safeguard these sensitive data from cybercriminals or third-party access.

Improved Web Browsing Experience

HTTPS improves the speed of web browsing. Modern browsers are designed to detect unsecured websites automatically. When this occurs, users’ connections are slowed, and a confirmation message asks if they still want to visit the website.

As a result, your bounce rate may be considerably higher.

HTTPS-enabled web pages load faster and provide a better user experience. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transfer Layer Security (TLS) certificates are used by HTTPS to protect and encrypt data.

These certificates are widely used to speed up the loading time of a website. At Rovity, we offer you the latest TLS certificates by default for free. It is highly secured, and A+ graded.

Generating and Converting Leads

Lead generation and conversion are common goals for many website owners. In essence, these websites are designed to tempt users to buy products and services. HTTPS plays a critical part in reaching this goal, and you should not ignore its importance.

Customers are more likely to stay and make transactions when your website is encrypted with HTTPS. This is because HTTPS ensures the security of your content and the trustworthiness of the chain of transmission.

How to Use HTTPS to Improve the Security of Your Website

It’s good to know how important HTTPS is to your website, but it’s even better to know how to configure your website to use HTTPS properly. Here are seven ways to improve your website’s performance after implementing HTTPS.

1 – Choose a website builder that enables HTTPS as a first step in setting up an HTTPS-enabled website.

2 – Secure your HTTPS website by installing an SSL/TLS certificate. Your database is protected by an SSL certificate when it receives data from your website. When a person enters your website using HTTPS, the data is protected from unauthorized access until it reaches your database with SSL certificates.

3 – Build a firewall. A firewall reviews the data and traffic entering your website. As a result, malicious intruders are identified, and their access to your website will be denied immediately. The Cloudflare HTTPS configuration is a fantastic example of a firewall network that provides comprehensive protection for your website.

4 – You should host the domain name for your website on a secure server. Additional protection provided by a web host enhances the performance of your HTTPS.

5 – You should always have a copy of your website’s backups. Make sure your website’s security data is backed up. In the event of an incident, you’ll be able to access your website’s data this way.

6 – Know how your website’s web server is configured. A web server configuration is a set of guidelines for setting up HTTPS on your website. You may set up HTTPS on your web server by configuring several files.

For example, Apache web servers employ the .htacess files for website security, but Nginx web servers use the nginx.conf files for security purposes.

7 – Raise the security of your network. You can do many things to improve your network security. Inactive logins on your website, for example, can be made to expire after a certain number of minutes. You can also run a virus or malware scan on all connected devices.

How to Enable HTTPS on WordPress

Let’s Encrypt is the best and entirely free option to secure your WordPress site with an HTTPS certificate. As of January 2022, the non-profit group had issued certificates to more than 260 million websites.

ZeroSSL is a popular alternative to Let’s Encrypt and offers the equivalent quality SSL/TLS certificates.

Start using HTTPS right away by following these simple instructions. Using HTTP over HTTPS is safer and more secure.

Suppose your website is hosted on Rovity’s cutting-edge cloud servers. In that case, you don’t need to install SSL certificates and configure HTTPS yourself. Our system will automatically install an A+ graded SSL certificate and configure HTTPS by default on all of your websites.

Conclusion

An HTTPS-enabled website is essential when building and maintaining client loyalty and trust. Additionally, HTTPS provides many other advantages, like better SEO and faster page loading.

Using HTTPS to encrypt data on your website is essential, whether you’re starting from scratch or updating an existing one.

You don’t need to install SSL certificates and configure HTTPS by yourself. Rovity’s system automatically installs an A+ graded SSL certificate and configures HTTPS by default on all of your websites.