We’re in the process of reviewing industry websites in the Leeds area, for a series of digital marketing reports which will be coming out over 2019. One of the surprising things we kept coming across was the number of websites, from well established businesses, who don’t have a secure website.
So, why is it important to secure your website?
Making sure your website is secure is important for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and customer service. Of the websites we reviewed so far in Law and Financial Services, 25% aren’t secure.
This is bad for two reasons:
1. Google wants to show secure websites
Google wants all sites to be secure. For those which aren’t, the Chrome browser will show “Not Secure” in the navigation bar. Not being secure is a bad Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) signal for your website. Fixing it will give your site a massive boost.
2. Customers won’t trust an unsecured website
Not having a secure site is a bad signal to your customers. If you’re in a sensitive, trust based industry, like finance or law, visiting a site which isn’t secure doesn’t build trust with your customers. SSL certificates aren’t just for e-commerce websites anymore.
Depending on the complexity of your website, this is a relatively simple problem to solve.
Since Google updated the Chrome Browser to highlight unsecured sites in September 2018, we’ve fixed quite a few sites and seen a marked increase in ranking and website traffic, just from this one change. Of course, this one change won’t fix a site that’s not ranking well overnight but, it is a very important component of your overall SEO strategy.
