Authored by Professor Ron, PhD, J.D.
Last updated: Saturday, April 27th 2024

How the new Google HTTPS Policy Affects Small Business Owners

Google HTTPS Policy: Google Cyber Security Initiative. My, the Internet is getting very particular. If you are a small business owner, you need to stay up-to-date on all the new initiatives. A year ago, Google Inc forwarded all webmasters and SEO pundits that it would institute a SECURE HTTPS Policy for all websites. In July of 2018, Google followed through.

Rightfully so, Google Inc. is requiring all websites to become secure, and use encrypted pages. Too many small business owners are trying to create or develop their own websites without adequate skill or training. They rely upon their brother, sister, wife, or teenage student.

Too many small business owners still rely upon social media pages to promote their pages instead of investing in individual websites. Non-Secure websites are not safe, and are not professional! Google HTTPS Policy will help curtail unprofessional-looking website, and non-secure websites.

What is HTTPS, why Does Google care about a HTTPS Policy

HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) and HTTPS (HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure) are both protocols, or languages, for passing information between web servers and clients.

When you visit a website, there needs to be a protocol or method in place for your computer to communicate with a URL address hosted by a third-party server. The long-standing method has been a generic protocol referred to as HTTP.

Under HyperText Transfer Protocol, once a person prefaces a website url with http then that is communication method to let the server know it must render a specific website associated with the domain you typed in.

For example, lets suppose you want to visit a website like amazon. You type in http://www.amazon.com. The http part is the protocol, and the URL is amazon.com.

With the http protocol, all the information that is rendered to your page is over a non-secure connection. If https were used, the protocol requires the connection to be secure. The new Google HTTPS Policy wants all websites to use the HTTPS protocol to help cut down on hacking, and to reduce passing sensitive informaion over non-secure servers.

The Google HTTPS Policy Requires a SSL Certificate

To implement a connection to HTTPS requires an SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificate. When you visit a website, or enter in sensitive information such as your name, address, credit-card data, you want to make sure the data is safe.

An HTTPS connection adds a blanket of security when a web page is rendered to view. In a nuthell, what happens is that the data you enter into a form is encrypted by the SSL certificate.

The HTTPS protocol connection encrypts data to prevent eavesdropping, protects the integrity of data to prevent corruption in transfer, and provides authentication to ensure communication only with the intended website. In short: HTTP is not secure, and you should never trust your sensitive information to such a site. HTTPS is secure and is now the new standard required by the Google HTTPS Policy.

Statistics and Examples of Websites that ARE NOT SECURE (as of the date of the screen shot)

According ti a Google Security Blog, over 68% of Chrome traffic on both Android and Windows is now protected. Over 78% of Chrome traffic on both Chrome OS and Mac is now protected
81 of the top 100 sites on the web use HTTPS by default

It is irresponsible for any professional compnany or organization in 2018 to be using a non-secure website and not be in compliance with the Google HTTPS Policy.

Even if the companies were to seek an SSL certificate and become compliant after the fact, there is no gurantee that a Hacker has not already stored a webflle, or a hacking tool onto the website. Professor Ron can examine your website and remove hacked files, images, and code.

Reputable Providers of SSL Serificates that allow websites to be compliant with Google HTTPS Policy

I have compiled this list of reputable providers of SSL Certificates that complies with the new Google HTTPS Policy.