{"id":9519,"date":"2018-07-03T12:54:44","date_gmt":"2018-07-03T19:54:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sfwpexperts.com\/?p=9519"},"modified":"2020-02-06T00:16:01","modified_gmt":"2020-02-06T07:16:01","slug":"why-ssl-secure-certificate-is-important-to-your-wordpress-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sfwpexperts.com\/why-ssl-secure-certificate-is-important-to-your-wordpress-site\/","title":{"rendered":"Why SSL (Secure Certificate) is important to Your WordPress Site"},"content":{"rendered":"

Google recently\u00a0\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0it will then also mark\u00a0all<\/strong>\u00a0sites that have not migrated to HTTPS as \u201cnot secure.”\u00a0 Starting July 2018.<\/p>\n

Google has been pushing webmasters to make the change to non-secure web sites a for years now \u2013 including hinting at small rankings boost to further incentivize the shift. The campaign has proved successful. According to their blog post:<\/em><\/p>\n

Over 68% of Chrome traffic on both Android and Windows is now protected<\/em>
\nOver 78% of Chrome traffic on both Chrome OS and Mac is now protected<\/em>
\n81 of the top 100 sites on the web use HTTPS by default<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n


\nby\u00a0SearchEngine Land<\/a>
\nWhats is SSL?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, a security method which allows for the encryption of data when being transferred over a server. SSL certificates help to protect the transfer of sensitive information such as credit card numbers, passwords and usernames, Social Security numbers and more.<\/p>\n

How does it work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SSL certificates utilize a public and a private key, which work together to establish an encrypted connection. Typically, data sent between a browser and a web server is sent as plain text, which can leave you vulnerable to hackers.<\/p>\n

Why use SSL?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The benefit of using an SSL certificate is that it offers encrypted protection during the online transfer of sensitive information. (Indeed, you are required by the Payment Card Industry (PCI) to have an SSL certificate if you collect credit card information on your site.) SSL certificates can also help you gain your customers\u2019 trust and protect against phishing schemes.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Google now provides a slight ranking boost to websites using HTTPS. Technically, Google still only looks at the first five characters in the URL, meaning that your site could leverage the HTTPS protocol without a valid certificate in place and still receive a ranking boost. However, as Google\u2019s Gary Illyes suggested, more stringent checks will eventually be put into place.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you want to install SSL on your new wordpress site or existing WordPress site\u00a0 and have following questions:<\/p>\n