Technology is changing and improving at a rapid pace, and it can be hard for small- to medium-sized businesses to keep up. Unless you have an IT team to keep you informed of the most important changes, your business can fall behind. In fact, a recent change Google made to how its Chrome browser treats secure and unsecured websites means there’s a chance your company may already be on the outside looking in.
The Importance of HTTPS: Why Your Company’s Site Needs to Be Secure
In July 2018, Google Chrome began its long-announced plan to single out non-secure websites. For the past few years, the search-engine giant has been encouraging webmasters to migrate their sites to the more secure HTTPS protocol. Now, it is set to identify any sites that still haven’t made this switch by displaying a label that shows any HTTP site as not secure.
Internet security is something most individuals and businesses take extremely seriously—so much so that some are avoiding HTTP sites altogether for fear their personal information could be compromised. Your company’s site potentially could be missing out on valuable traffic if you haven’t made the switch to the more secure protocol.
Securing your website helps protect both your company and site visitors from potentially malicious activity. Standard HTTP sites have proven to be easier to tamper with, so if communications between your browser and website are not encrypted there is an increased chance someone could inject malware into your site’s code. If this happens, hackers could potentially access all communication between your site and your visitors – leading to the compromise of users’ valuable information. This vulnerability is precisely why the more secure protocol is recommended for all sites, not just those that handle sensitive data.
Having a Secure Website Can Help with SEO and Search Rankings
Having that extra “S” in front of your domain address instead of the basic HTTP is also important for your website search engine rankings. Search engines like Google, Bing, and others always give higher priority to HTTPS over HTTP sites in search engine result pages. Switching to a more secure site can be a simple way to boost your business’ search ranking as well as improve the user experience.
How You Can Prepare
To keep your business’ website and overall IT network ahead of the curve, it is important to employ proactive IT solutions. In partnering with a managed IT services company, you give your business the ability to stay abreast of important updates without losing focus on your business functions. With a managed IT services partner, you can ensure your IT infrastructure is professionally managed and up to date no matter how the technological landscape evolves.
If you are looking for a managed IT services partner to provide proactive solutions for your company, Roebuck Technologies is here to help. Contact Roebuck Technologies today for more information on how our managed IT services can help support your business.
