New Chrome update that may ruin your website

So, you’ve had it up to your neck with GDPR and think the coast is clear, and the bureaucracy and paperwork is over. Well even if you’ve done everything correctly, there’s something completely different on the horizon… SSL.

When you go to a secure website, like a bank or payment system you’ll notice that the web address starts ‘https://’ rather than ‘http://’, and you will hopefully know that there should be a green padlock.

You may notice that some sites, like ours, have this anyway. What this does is add an extra layer of security so that any data submitted by the user is ‘scrambled’ on the way to its destination.

Buy why should you care?

Well, currently websites without SSL look ‘normal’ and ones with it gets a green padlock.

However, in July this will change, and Google Chrome (the UK’s most popular web browser) will display a red ‘not secure’ message on all sites without this.

Imagine what your users will think, arriving at your site and being told that it isn’t secure; you are likely going to get people leaving your website as they don’t understand what it means.

Having an SSL certificate has other advantages, such as slightly better rankings in search engines, better experience for users, another box ticked for GDPR, and better security.

Hassle and cost?

Luckily, this much easier and cheaper to fix than the GDPR changes, and best of all it should require little or no input from you.

Any web design agency (including us) should be able to do most of it for you, and it’s not that expensive at all.

 

We are Webbed Feet, we take website security seriously