Have you noticed that little lock (or circle) in the top left corner of websites? Some say ‘Secure’ with a lock icon, others have a little ‘i’ in a circle. Worse, some will make you click to ignore a warning before proceeding to a website.

Why is this important?

Google will rank sites higher that have SSL implemented. 

If your site is not loading securely, talk to your host. Some hosts provide them for free, but it’s up to you to make sure it is working. I like to install “Really Simple SSL” to make sure everything is linking correctly on the site. If a plugin is using resources that are still linking to an ‘http’ resource, it will throw security errors on your site, and maybe not even work.

Google defines ssl this way: 

HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) is an internet communication protocol that protects the integrity and confidentiality of data between the user’s computer and the site. Users expect a secure and private online experience when using a website. We encourage you to adopt HTTPS in order to protect your users’ connections to your website, regardless of the content on the site. (Source: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6073543?hl=en)

The hosting solutions I recommend both offer security certificates with hosting, but you may incur a cost to set it up.

All browsers are going to give warnings on sites that don’t have an SSL certificate. While not everyone updates their browser to the latest one, why risk missing traffic to your site because you lack an SSL certificate.