If you’re website has any sort of form that collects customer information, contact form, reservation form etc.. and you don’t have an SSL certificate, you’re at the mercy of Google.

Google wants you to have an SSL certificate, we’ve known this for a while.

In recent times Google has been making subtle changes to push website owners towards adopting “HTTPs” and securing their websites.

Google Chrome 62 to be introduced from October 2017, will show a “Not Secure” message in two new circumstances:

• When entering data on a website
• When visiting any HTTP website in “incognito mode”

In the latest update to Google’s “Chrome” web browser, users will see an even more prominent warning when visiting sites that do not serve their web pages through “HTTPS” (do not have an SSL certificate).

Currently this only applies to pages that have a form on them.  So lets say you have a website with a contact page, but no forms on any other pages.  The “Not Secure” message would only show on the page with the form.

The warning appears when your website visitors start to enter data, like the example below:

In addition to this ANY website visited in incognito mode and without an SSL certificate will show a permanent “Not Secure” warning.

Having HTTPS is Almost Expected

Organizations like Google are ramping up the pressure to push towards a “more secure web”.   Expect HTTPS websites to be rewarded even more with higher Google positions and non-HTTPs websites to be brought to users attention.

If your website doesn’t yet have an SSL certificate and isn’t displaying web pages with https:// perhaps now is the time to upgrade.

There is a definite SEO benefit to having an SSL certificate.  You can buy one from most good web host and domain providers.