A lot of people have blogs nowadays. If you’re one of them, this post is definitely for you. When you go browsing on the internet, you’ve probably noticed the little padlock in your browser like on a bank website for instance. They always have the green locked padlock. This assures you that your sensitive information such as credit card number can not be intercepted by a third party. Google, in an effort to make internet more secure has started penalizing websites that have not implemented HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure). We all know the struggle is real to get more eyeballs to our sites. Last thing we need is a further ding. In just a few steps, you can secure your site. I have done the hard work with experimentation. You’re welcome :-).
Moving from http to https easily and quickly:
Have a great host:
This is essential. The first step is to contact your host and ask for an SSL certificate for your site. A lot of hosting companies charge dearly for this. Numbers that get thrown around is anything from $6 to $400 and more. You could get a web developer to do it for you, but that will cost you as well. I have my sites hosted with Siteground. They do it for a grand total of zero! Zip. The best part is they are doing it automatically. Check your site in your browser using https instead of http if you have Siteground. It might have been done for you already. Even if it’s not done yet, a simple phone call or online chat with their very helpful support team will fix it pronto. If you’re interested in signing up with Siteground, please use this affiliate link.
Redirect your site:
Once you’ve done the above, you will see that your site is still not fully secure. Check this by clicking on the i (info) button in your browser. This SSL certification has the nasty result of duplicating your website with Google. Everything now exists in http as well as https and you know how Google hates duplicate content. A quick fix for this is to install through your WordPress dashboard a plugin called Easy HTTPS (SSL) Redirection. There are others like it, and l tried a couple of them, but found they were too “over my head”. This one was easy and straightforward. In the settings, just tick 2 boxes and save (select for the whole website). That’s it! This plugin forces everything to your https site, text and images (second tick), even if someone types just the http. How valuable is that? You don’t have to go through every Pinterest image for example to change. You’re welcome! :-).
Update Google:
If you have Google console, don’t forget to change the address to https. It is recommended, though not necessary. The plugin redirected the crawlers as well so l was still able to get my Google Analytics without changing it.
Secure HTTPS site is yours:
Go ahead and take a look at your website browser. You should have a green padlock showing. To confirm, hit the info button and it will tell you the website is secure! Hurray!!! You can breath easy. Your move to https easily is now complete. If you see the padlock with a triangle on some pages, it means your browser is not blocking passive content, like your images but your personal data is secure. You can change your browser settings, but l would not recommend it unless you know what you’re doing. It sounds simple, but it was over 2 days of trial and error for me. I wrote this to help other bloggers who are just starting out and don’t have a lot of money to spend. It is not my intention to take money away from the experts. who would probably do it without the use of a plugin. If you’re looking to start a blog, here is a tutorial on how to get started. Your site would start its life already encrypted with Siteground.
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Have you moved your site from http to https? If yes, how difficult was it?. If no, do you intend on doing it and avoid being relegated to page 375 on Google? 🙂
Haven’t done this yet or knew about the neccessity for it! Definitely gonna work on this for my webpages, thank you!
Oh it’s necessary :-). I guess we should be thankful, but it kind of sucks to get dinged. You’re welcome :-).
Wow!! This was very informative and necessary. I’m still a newborn in the Blog world but I will definitely keep this in mind.
Welcome to the blogging world. Hope you’re having fun. Definitely something to keep in mind. 🙂
This is great information that every blogger can utilize!
True.
On my to-do list! Thanks for the reminder.
No worries! Good luck :-).
Good info. I was under the impression that the penalty only comes in if the information on your website requires users to put in sensitive information like during a purchase or something. I’ll have to look into this.
It was when it first started, but has now moved to include everyone l believe as of this year. Kind of silly..but Google rules ;-).
Is this an alternative to the SSL certificate? My host sells that, just wondering. How
No, not an alternative. Unfortunately if your host doesn’t give it for free, you have to pay the fee to get it. Hopefully, it’s not a lot. Once you get the SSL certificate, you have to do the plugin part still or have them do it (but probably not for free either). Like l think l saw godaddy sell the certicate for 6 dollars, but to get the green padlock bumps it up to like 49 dollars (which you can avoid by adding the plugin l listed). Good luck!
It’s always something with Google (lol). Thanks very much for the detailed information. This just moved to the top of my to=dos
Yes it is. Google now rules our world 🙂 . You’re welcome. It just sucks that people are asking for such huge amounts of money to do this :-). DIY!
This is so important. My husband told me that my site was blocked at his job and now based on your post, I know why.
Yep! I think they started ramping it up this year even though they had been threatening it for a couple of years :-).
Wow. I didn’t realize this was becoming a thing. Something else to add to the to do list.
Oh it’s a thing already :-). There’s no rest for the wicked is there? They have us coming and going.. haha! 🙂
I had no idea about this. I have to talk to my web designer about it so I make sure not to screw anything up.
Haha! Yeah..they let it slack for 2 years, but it’s on now :-). Talk to him/her for sure.
I definitely need to work on this asap. Going to call my host to get this done next week.
Good for you. No reason to jet penalized by the mighty Google gods :-). It moved up to a priority this year.
Your blog provides every newbie with great and useful info, thank you! Nowadays it is necessary to take care of web hosting service for your site or blog. I’d like to share with you the best find among all the propositions – SiteGround.Just try!
Thanks for reading and for the kind words. I definitely agree about SiteGround.It’s what l use and recommend for hosting which can be found on the start a blog page.