The benefits of HTTPS over HTTP

Have you moved your website over to HTTPS yet?

If that’s all greek, worry not, you may have noticed that some websites show http:// in front of an internet address, while others show https://. The difference may not seem significant but that little ‘s’ represents a whole new layer of security for a website which can offer greater protection, not only for the site itself but for its visitors too. In addition, the omnipresent Google sees the https prefix as an indication of a well-managed secure site and ranks it accordingly. There are several other benefits of an HTTPS prefix over HTTP, let us enlighten you…

Website security and protection for your website and your users

The ‘s’ in ‘https’ literally stands for secure. HTTPS plays a role in saving your website from hackers and tracking attacks by providing a more secure connection between your computer and the site’s server. An HTTPS website uses an SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificate. These certificates work by encrypting information transmitted over the internet.

For example, should a website user fill in a form with information to make an online purchase or subscribe to a newsletter, this ensures that unauthorised users are unable to access this information. The website users’ personal data is kept safe. This is especially important should a user be giving out data such as passwords, emails addresses or bank account information.

If you own an e-commerce website, it is essential that you look into obtaining an SSL certificate in order to guarantee data protection for your customers when making online purchases. Customers are more likely to shop online with a company who offers security to their browsers than those that do not.

Secure DNS Infrastructure

Compared to HTTP, HTTPS can offer a much more secure Domain Name System (DNS) infrastructure.

Encryption in HTTPS ensures the integrity of your website. This protects against your information being altered without your permission. The lack of encryption in HTTP means that you will not benefit from integrity and essentially you are inadvertently allowing others to make changes without your knowledge.

HTTPS tells the user that the content on the website is authentic, straight from the source and hasn’t been tampered with.

Google Ranking

In order to attempt to establish a secure environment over the internet, Google has started to give a ranking advantage to secure HTTPS websites. Therefore, HTTPS is not only important for the security of your visitors, but is also for the promotion of your business.

We’ve made the change for our website www.mzuri.co.uk, it may be time to think about protecting your site too. If you have any questions regarding the security of your website then feel free to contact us at info@mzuri.co.uk.