What is https, and does my website need it?

Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is the secure version of HTTP, the protocol over which data is sent between your browser and the website that you are connected to. The 'S' at the end of HTTPS stands for 'Secure'. It means all communications between your browser and the website are encrypted. HTTPS is often used to protect highly confidential online transactions like online banking and online shopping order forms.

My no means does it solve all your security concerns online, but it’s the first step for encrypting traffic between the user’s browser and the website server.

Google has been pushing HTTPS Everywhere, which aims to softly push website owners to use https on their website. Since 2014 they’ve even been saying that they use https as a ranking factor in their search engine algorithm. So, that could mean that websites using https may rank higher in Google.

In April 2016 a new online service was launched called Let’s Encrypt, which allows anyone to create free SSL certificates. Having an SSL certificate becomes accessible to everyone now.

Let’s Encrypt is fantastic, but if you’re really concerned about security we’d recommend a service such as DigiCert, Comodo, NameCheap or GeoTrust.


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