If you are on the internet and web browser, you would never miss this HTTPS or HTTP in the address bar. While typing the website address, we might have wondered what it is. We may have queries like the ones below.
- What is HTTP, and why do we need it?
- How to know if my website is HTTPS compatible, and what do I do if it’s not?
- What are the benefits of using HTTPS on my website?
- How can I tell if there are any errors with my HTTPS configuration file, and how do I fix them if any errors are found?
- What to do if I’m having problems with my website’s HTTPS certificate installation or renewal process?
- Are there any other things businesses should be aware of when implementing HTTPS on their websites?
In this blog, we will discuss HTTP & HTTPS in detail.
Introduction to HTTP & HTTPS
We make a large number of web searches daily. We can see two different results on the URL on creating a web search, one with HTTP and another with HTTPS.
HTTP and HTTPS are communication protocols between the client browser and the web server.
Fig: HTTPS VS HTTP
HTTP is an abbreviation of Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure, which helps transfer resources over the web in a secure manner. The data and content displayed in our browser are web pages.
During this flow of data and information, it can be extracted, modified, hacked, or altered. To cease these attacks, HTTP secures data flow via Transfer Layer Secure Protocol (TLS). HTTP utilizes a standard port when connecting to the server, whereas secure protocol uses TCP port 443.
Google uses different algorithms for page ranking. Among them, the most crucial factor is HTTP and HTTPS. Search engines prioritize web pages with HTTPS. HTTP is a lightweight ranking factor.
HTTPS secures the traversing procedure and maintains the privacy of credentials provided on the web page and URL. It is designed to prevent your site from man-in-the-middle-attack. Users expect a secure and private online experience when surfing your website.
We recommend you use HTTPS to protect your users’ connections to your website, regardless of the content on the site.
The average amount of encrypted internet traffic has transcended the average amount of unencrypted traffic. More than 30% of the top sites use the HTTPS method. Browsers like Chrome, Edge, Firefox, etc., use different visual means to display a site’s security information.
What are the benefits of using HTTPS?
- Security
TLS uses encryption mechanisms to ensure data integrity and authenticity. During data flow between browser and server, attackers always seek vulnerabilities and holes, and HTTPS aids with a safe browsing experience for users.
- Integrity
The integrity of any site means the original intent and content of the site are not altered, modified, or deleted. If the integrity is not maintained, your site can suffer from long-term consequences such as losing confidence and a negative impact on SEO, page traffic, and revenue. SSL protocol helps you maintain the integrity of your website.
- Google Ranks
Google ranking algorithms prefer sites and pages with safe and secure browsing. If you have an unsecured page, but your competitor has also focused on secure protocol, then it is undoubtedly likely for your page to fall behind. Activating an SSL certificate gives your site a bit of a ranking boost.
- Trustworthiness
When a user makes a Google search and gets web pages with both HTTP and HTTPS protocols, then it is no doubt that he is likely to click for a secure web page. HTTP keeps the information flow between the browser and server safe, so no user would prefer a data exchange in an insecure manner.
- Browsing Speed
TLS in HTTP processes by skipping the three sides handshaking procedure and moves directly to the main conversation because of which your site with HTTP can be 70% faster than that with HTTP only. Despite ensuring the safe transit of information to and from a legitimate website, the encrypted protocol HTTPS ensures the validity that the content of certified websites is secure. To take the benefits of HTTPS, you should have your site migrate to HTTPS (if you haven’t already).
Why should you use HTTPS?
Browsers display contents with HTTP and HTTPS headers whenever a user browses the web. Browsers like Chrome display messages like “Not secure” on the address bar. Henceforth, users hesitate to visit the “not secure” site and prefer a secure website for information transactions. A warning triangle is displayed next to the domain name on mobile phones, indicating an unsafe location.
When we use the web for accessing our bank accounts, Gmail accounts, etc., we expect our transactions and personal details to be private and safe. HTTP does not provide this feature. MitM attack can retrieve all the credentials supplied to the server in HTTP.
So, it would be better if you upgraded your HTTP to HTTPS. HTTPS Everywhere is an extension available on Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Opera. Android users can install it on Firefox. Alternatively, HTTPS is included on the Brave and Tor browsers for desktop computers and Android/iOS mobile devices.
It would be best to get a security certificate to enable HTTP for your website. Any website with a security certificate from an authorized certificate (CA) is HTTP compatible. CA verifies and validates your website and maintains a protection shield.
You can always check whether your website is secure (or not) in the following ways:
- Check the SSL certificate
You can see a small lock before the address in your address bar. You can view your site information with messages stating “Connection is Secure” or “Connection is not secure” when you click on it. Without SSL certification, the statement says the site is not safe.
- Check the URL
The URL with improper grammatical and punctual errors may be a phishing site. So whenever you design a domain for your site, you need to check whether the URL is in a standard form or not.
- Badge
Ecommerce sites add a badge to ensure that it is secure.
Migration of a website from HTTP to HTTPS
If you don’t have HTTPS on your site, you may need to migrate your HTTP to HTTPS. It may affect your traffic for a small amount of time, but you can minimize this SEO impact. Google treats both sites similarly, except it will recognize the new site as a site with a modified URL.
You can transfer the pages of your website into sections. After migrating, you need to add the HTTPS property to the search console. You must obtain an authorized security “certificate” as a part of enabling HTTPS for your site. You should always ensure that the certificate is from a valid source.
It’s better to use server-side, permanent 301 redirects when moving old non-secure URLs to HTTPS. The HTTP pages should be eligible to be crawled and indexed by search engines. You shouldn’t use robot.txt files to block crawling on your website and make your site HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security) supportive. It tells the browser to request HTTPS pages automatically and reduces the risk of responding with insecure and false content.
But if you already have HTTPS for your site and it is not still working for your particular browser only, then you can fix it in the following ways:
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After this, HTTPS would probably work unless you have other technical issues or errors.
Errors that you might have while migrating to a secure site
While transforming your site to a secure one, you may receive errors due to slight mistakes. To configure HTTP, you need to enable the SSL parameter on the socket of your server. Your server handles the server certificate and security keys separately and only sends the certificate to your browser.
Besides SSL/TLS certification, HTTPS depends on components that can ruin processing and produce uncertain error messages. Warnings messages on your website do not always imply that your site is hacked. It may also display errors when the area suffers from expired certificates, crawling issues, indexing issues, etc. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the server or browser is under attack.
Additionally, the continuous display of warnings and error messages on your site may also affect your site’s reputation. So, these errors must be identified and fixed on time.
A few such errors are given below:
- Not Trusted Error
Any security certificates need to be verified and signed by a third party called Certificate Authority. A Certificate Authority (CA) makes a digital signature on your certificate. When the server does not recognize the digital signature or finds the signature to be unauthorized, it responds with a “Not Trusted” error. To fix this error, you are recommended not to use self-signed certificates if your site makes a sensitive transaction. If you are using a certificate signed by a third-party CA and still facing this problem, it may be due to some installation errors, and you should take assistance from your CA.
- Not Secure Error
When the browser cannot validate the server certificate, they state that the connection is not safe or not private. Then, the browser will terminate the link to the website and show this error message instead. These certificates need a timely renewal and update for fluent operation. To fix this error, you are recommended to renew your SSL/TLS certificates before they expire.
- Expired Certificate
The expired certificate will result in losing the browser’s connection to the server. It is similar to not secure error. You should make sure that your certificate is up-to-date in order to fix it.
- Crawling and Indexing Issues
You get crawling issues when you use a file like robot.txt to block your site from HTTP crawling. Likewise, the use of noindex tags blocks your site from indexing. For good optimization, you need to allow crawling for search engines, and you should avoid the use of tags like noindex.
- Mixed Content Issues
You might mix the content of the previous site with the updated content while migrating your site from HTTP to HTTPS. It may cause the existence of insecure content on your website. Attackers are always hunting for these insecure transactions. So to fix this error, every page on your site should be appropriately transformed from Http to Https securely.
How to renew your SSL certificate?
Once you install your certificate correctly, you need to update and renew your certification after its expiry. Any site with no SSL certificate is prone to attacks and hacks. These SSL certificates have a validity of around 1 to 2 years.
Renewing an SSL certificate is not so hard. Anyone can renew a certificate in the following step:
Step#1: Firstly, you must generate a certificate signing request (CSR).
Step#2: Then, select your SSL certificate and its validity duration.
Step#3: Fill up the credentials required and continue the process.
Step#4: After that, you need to review your SSL order and make payment.
Step#5: Finally, you can deploy the SSL certificate on your site securely.
Tips to check on HTTPS
Though HTTPS may look vague, they are a vital part of the Internet and web. The use of HTTPS aids you in creating a trustworthy and secure site.
It also supports marketing by helping your site to look valid and authentic because people like to visit and share web pages that are safe and legitimate.
Tip#1- Businesses must also ensure that they have obtained server certificates for all web pages inside your website.
Tip#2- Sometimes naming errors during certificate registration also hamper your site. So, you should make sure to check the domain names and other credentials while registering for an SSL certificate.
Tip#3- The MozBar extension in the browser can help you know which version of HTTP your site delivers. It also checks the redirection of your site.
Tip#4- Google’s Lighthouse browser plugin is another tool to check if your site has a healthy HTTP status. This tool will produce a report, and once it’s loaded, you can verify that your site uses HTTP.
Final thoughts
In a nutshell, safe browsing is a significant point when you design your website.
It also improves dwell time, reduces bounces, and increases back-link growth/referral traffic.
So, if you want to rank higher, improve your site traffic, and maximize the conversion rate (CR), you must get an HTTP for your website.
If you think that you are having HTTPS issues and can’t figure it out, then Growfore Solution is here for you.
Talk to us about any kind of SEO services or HTTPS issues!
