Non https://www. Websites To Be Labelled By Google As Non-Secure

Non https://www. websites to soon be labelled by Google Chrome’s browser as “Not secure”

If you have a website that has pages with a password form or credit card field (e.g. an online shop) then make sure you read on. Also if you have a WordPress login.

Some time on or around January 31st of this month, version 56 of the Google’s Chrome web browser will be released. As a result, any page on your website that is non-HTTPS (i.e. no padlock secure symbol etc) will be labelled by Google Chrome’s browser as “Not secure”.

This warning may confuse site visitors who sign in to your website, who interpret it as a message from Google saying your site has been hacked.

If you’re the only person that signs in to your site then, for now, it’s not really a problem. However, if customers sign in to your site then you need to rectify this by setting your website up with an SSL certificate, which gives the secure https web address in your browser.

N.B. in the long-term it’s expected that Google Chrome will label all plain HTTP pages as “Not secure”. Basically this means all websites will need an https://www. secure web address, instead of http://www.

In August 2014 Google announced that using SSL would give your website a minor ranking boost, but that they might give secure sites more than a minor boost in the future.

Google also said it is calling for “HTTPS everywhere”, and want to “encourage all website owners to switch from HTTP to HTTPS to keep everyone safe on the web”.