The migration from HTTP to HTTPS is essential for the optimal performance of your website. It is also a business owner’s task to provide secure services to their customers, which will help build customer loyalty and trust. Furthermore, it will help reassure the clients that their confidential data is safe with you.
As an organisation, it is your responsibility to offer a high level of security, which comes with an extended SSL certificate validation. A premium SSL certificate is necessary to migrate your website from HTTP to HTTPS.
An HTTPS connection offers a high level of security for the data. It also assigns a higher trust score to your website, which is essential for businesses that rely on their website traffic for lead generation.
Our comprehensive guide provides the framework required to migrate a website from HTTP to HTTPS. We have also offered several resources that should help you install the SSL certificate, the instructions for which may vary from host to host.
Further reading: Website Security – Secure Your Website Against Malware & Spam
What are the benefits of migrating from HTTP to HTTPS?
The primary benefit of switching from HTTP to HTTPS is enhanced security. HTTPS helps protect your data from hackers, preventing data theft. It can also help improve your SEO, as Google ranks HTTPS websites higher compared to HTTP sites. The best part, making your website HTTPS compliant is easy, as all you need is an SSL Certificate. SSL Certificates are easily available at a cost-effective price, thanks to Bluehost Coupons. Depending on the level of security you need, you can either choose Domain Validation, Organisation Validation, or Extended Validation SSL Certificate.
A. Difference Between HTTP and HTTPS
B. Why Should You Migrate From HTTP to HTTPS?
We have already seen a quick overview of why HTTPS is more beneficial than HTTP. So, let’s talk about the primary benefits of HTTPS.
*Image Credit: Tutorials Teacher
1. HTTPS Provides added Security with SSL/TLS Connection
First and foremost, we’ll talk about the added security feature.
- Once you migrate from HTTP to HTTPS, your website will send data through an encrypted SSL/TLS connection.
- In HTTP, data is sent over a connection without encryption. It works fine for regular websites that don’t deal with customer or clients data, but it will not work for websites that handle customer and client confidential data.
For example, suppose you have an eCommerce website, where the users have to enter username and password to their account. eCommerce websites usually ask you to save credit and debit card details for quicker checkouts.
So, if anyone gets their hand on your username and password, they’ll possibly be able to access your card information and can clean out your bank account. So, it won’t do to establish a connection with HTTP for such websites. They require a secure connection, which is possible with HTTPS.
Further reading: Factors to Consider When Choosing An eCommerce Hosting Provider
2. Additional Security Helps Garner Trust and Establishes Credibility
HTTPS is one of the things that you need to configure when you are building your website. For example, website builders such as Google’s Blogger and WordPress recommend HTTPS.
- What’s more, they internally make use of HTTPS for their websites. The default HTTPS usage statistics show by default HTTPS is used by 78.0% of websites. It sheds light on the importance of having the security provided by HTTPS.
- Statistics from GS.Statcounter give us an estimate of browser market share worldwide, which is highest for chrome at 63.8%.
- Another reputed source W3Schools‘ data about browser usage. Around 81% of the visitors to the site used chrome to access it.
Since most internet users browse from Google Chrome, they can easily distinguish between a secure and unsecured connection. Chrome automatically adds the “Not Secure” text before the URL in Google’s URL box.
Internet-savvy users are instantly put off by a Not Secure (HTTP) connection and leave the website. It creates a bad impression on the users and might increase your website’s bounce rate. None of this is good for your website or business in general. Furthermore, it affects your website’s trust score.
3. It Positively Affects Your Website’s SEO Campaign
In August 2014, Google declared HTTPS as a ranking signal. The decision was made in a bid to make the internet a secure place for users. At that time, Google took it a step further and started using HTTPS for their applications such as Gmail and Google Drive.
We have already seen data supporting the default usage of HTTPS in the previous point.
Since its origin, SEO has become a giant organism that keeps growing. Today, ranking for competitive keywords requires not only skills, but also a substantial budget. So, as a website owner who wants to rank on Google, migrating from HTTP to HTTPS will help further your goals in this arena.
4. HTTP/2 Has Improved the Performance of HTTPS
As we have seen, the traditional HTTP protocol had one advantage over the HTTPS protocol -speed. But the launch of feature-rich HTTP/2 in 2015 boosted the performance of HTTPS connections.
In addition, to upgrade the HTTP protocol, we also have the latest version of TLS. The TLS 1.3 offers a boost in the speed of the HTTPS connection. These two working together ensure that websites that choose HTTPS over plain HTTP do not lose anything in the bargain.
C. Is a Dedicated IP Address Required to Redirect HTTP to HTTPS?
The SNI technology, short for Server Name Indication technology, has made it possible to host numerous SSL or TLS certificates on a single shared IP. It ensures that all the latest browsers have upgraded to the extent that they are now compatible with SNI. So, the need for a Dedicated IP address for using an SSL Certificate has been negated.
The biggest issue with using a shared IP Address is dealing with the consequences of sharing it with the wrong person. Someone who uses it for spam or illegal activities could get your IP blacklisted.
How to Get a dedicated IP Address:
D. How to Migrate From HTTP to HTTPS?
1. Get an SSL Certificate for Your Website
There are three primary types of SSL Certificates, Domain Validation, Organisation Validation, and Extended Validation.
- Domain Validation offers an SSL certificate for a single domain or sub-domain with simple email validation. It is one of the most affordable certificates issued within minutes.
- Organisation Validation and Extended Validation offer advanced or higher levels of security and trust. These require business verification which can take up to 7 days. Additionally, the extended or organisation validation highlights a company’s name in the address bar.
Free Trial and Premium SSL Certificate Vendors
Where to Get an SSL Certificate?
Always Free
Free Trial and Premium SSL Certificate Vendors
i) With Hosting
Bluehost offers a FREE SSL Certificate with all hosting plan. Additionally, to purchase an SSL certificate for your website, you can make use of Bluehost hosting coupons.
ii) Only SSL Certificates
2. Generate a Certificate Signing Request for your purchased SSL Certificate
Once you have purchased or signed up for a free SSD, you’ll have to generate a certificate signing request. The procedure for doing that differs from host to host. Here are some resources that should assist you in your quest to generate the request.
Resources to Generate Certificate Signing Request
- LetsEncrypt Certbot Instruction: Select the software and system your website is running on to get requirements.
- For Comodo: Choose the appropriate CSR generation guide from the knowledge base.
3. Installing the SSL Certificate and Checking the Installation
i) Installing SSL Certificate
GoDaddy has created a comprehensive step-by-step guide that starts with purchasing the SSL certificate and ends with checking the installation.
Once you have purchased the SSL certificate, you can head over to GoDaddy’s Request my SSL guidelines. The next step is verifying the SSL and then downloading it. Once you reach the installation part, you need to follow the instructions to install them on your server.
Here are some of GoDaddy’s SSL certificate installation instructions for popular servers.
For more instructions on how to install SSL Certificates with GoDaddy, refer to the Installation Guide.
Resources for other Hosting Providers
ii) Redirecting HTTP to HTTPS
Before you check the installation, you need to complete one more step. Redirect your visitors from HTTP to the secure HTTPS version of your site. The documentation for this step will vary based on your hosting provider and SSL certificate provider. For instructions on how to redirect HTTP to HTTPS with GoDaddy, refer to their redirect scenarios.
iii) Checking Installation
Checking the installation is quite simple. Simply go to your browser and try loading your website. In the address bar, you should see a padlock before your URL. It signifies successful installation of the SSL Certificate, and now your website is secure.
Here’s a list of things you check and do if the padlock doesn’t appear
- Check if you have edited the .htaccess file.
- Update the robot.txt file that’s still pointing to the HTTP directories.
- Set up an HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security) header to tell web servers to always use the HTTPS version of your site.
- Fix your websites code by replacing any HTML links from http:// to https://
- Try resetting the HTTPS redirect settings.
- You can also try re-keying your certificate to solve the issue.
- Reinstalling the certificate might help solve the issue.
- Update the custom scripts, including AJAX and JS, to HTTPS.
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