Does The Google Chrome Browser Put a Closed Sign On Your Business?
Last year, Google announced its plans to enhance security for Chrome users by presenting them with simple but effective warnings whenever they attempt to view a website that contains search boxes or any field where users are able to input information of any kind.
At first, the warnings were only appearing before users attempting to navigate to sites with payment or ID data fields, but they later expanded the protections to include much more than that.
Security Warnings Throttle Professional Websites
In time, this will result in your business site presenting Chrome users with a warning that claims that your site not secure- and offer them an opportunity to ‘turn back.’
In October, Google made further changes that could mean trouble for businesses who have customers who use the Chrome browser. Their intention was to mark all HTTP pages as insecure in Chrome- and it could mean your site has a permanent “Closed for Business” sign if you’re not aware of the problem. They began labeling some HTTP pages as insecure in January of 2016 when Chrome 56 was released. This had a negative impact on pages that deal with sensitive payment and login data- as all direct sales sites do.
In so doing, they sent a rather bold warning to users indicating that navigating to sites so-labeled is considered unsafe. By now you’ve probably been seeing increasingly more “Take me back to safety!” options when surfing the web. This is part of the reason for that.
Websites affected include those containing:
- ID Input Fields
- Payment Submission Fields
- Search Fields
Security Warnings Harm Web Sales
If your website is being affected by this, you might be losing traffic and not know why. The problem became even worse last October when Google started marking all HTTP pages where users can input any data as unsecured. That means any site that contains a search box is losing traffic.
Chrome’s Security Team product manager, Emily Schechter, had this to say about the tighter security protocol; "Any data users type into websites should be inaccessible to other users on the network, so beginning with Chrome version 62, users will see the 'Not secure' warning when they type data HTTP site search boxes.”
The SSL Certificate Solution
These broader HTTP warnings will push site owners to acquire SSL certificates and to set up HTTPS on servers. Warnings directed towards users who attempt to access a site with user input search fields will begin to be triggered by a wider and wider set of circumstances- eventually making nearly every website owner have to adopt these new protections.
Fortunately, there is a ready and viable solution in SSL Certificates. These are small files of data that will digitally bind cryptographic keys to the details of organizations that utilize them. When SSL Certificates are installed on a server, they activate the locking mechanism, sometimes called a padlock, and HTTPS protocol to allow secure active connections between a server and a browser.
We now offer standard SSL Certificate installation for $150 with a $60 annual fee.
Other services we offer include:
- Website development
- SSL Certificate
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