What are HTTP and HTTPS?

According to web design agency Liverpool, the difference between HTTP and HTTPS is just one letter, but this one letter can make a significant impact on your website’s performance. HTTPS which stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure is a way to encrypt information that you send between a browser and a web server. It protects your website’s users from attacks such as people stealing the data being sent to a website, like credit card information or logins.

HTTP [Hypertext Transfer Protocol] has been for the longest time the foundation for communication on the internet. The issue now is that HTTP is no longer safe as it used to be. Information on HTTP can get intercepted, manipulated or even stolen by hackers without an advanced layer of security.

The following are the reasons why you should move from HTTP to HTTPS.

Google likes HTTPS

Web design agency Liverpool says that one of the top reasons why you should move to HTTP is because Google likes it. This can impact everything from indexing to search ranking. One of the reasons why Google love HTTPS is because of security. This is very vital for websites that transmit sensitive data like credit card or payment information. Users want to be assured that their information is secured. This is why they will look for the small lock icon in the URL bar, and they are likely to leave a site with no secure payment gateway.

SEO benefits

When Google likes something, it can result in a two-part benefit, and one of the benefits is increased search visibility. But you shouldn’t expect to see an increase in traffic overnight. While it’s true that Google will give HTTPS priority over HTTP, it’s probably more of a long game for owners of small websites.

Webmasters and designers like web design agency Liverpool should move to HTTPS because Google has been using HTTPS as a ranking factor since 2014. Using it can also give you access to HTTP/2 which makes the internet faster.

Credibility with users

Credibility comes in two forms:
• Credibility of referral data so that you can know where the actual data is coming from.
• Credibility with users who visit your site and want to know if you are legit.

The second one is easy to understand. Users want to know whether your site is real or not and if you are trustworthy. A survey by GlobalSign showed that 9 out of 10 users are more likely to trust a website that displays security indicators, and about 84% of users would abandon a purchase if data is sent over an insecure connection.

The first part of the credibility concept relates to referral traffic data. Analytics referral data is not accurate completely, and can actually be lost for a site that uses HTTP that was linked to from a site using HTTPS. The result is that some websites like web design agency Liverpool are moving even if it’s just for more accurate data and reporting.

It’s affordable right now

HTTPS is one of the cheap or free website elements right now. Many hosting companies like web design agency Liverpool are offering free security certificates to help more website owners to make the switch.

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