Understanding HTTPS and Website Security

Websites are prefixed with HTTP or HTTPS. These protocols process the data which is sent between your browser and the website you have accessed. HTTPS stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure. This means that the communication between your browser and the website you’ve connected to is encrypted.

Website security is important; HTTPS websites keep you and the information you input into a site safe from hackers. Websites using HTTP do not encrypt data you input to a site. Therefore any private details you enter into an unprotected site are not secure. These days HTTPS sites are shown with a padlock, highlighting that they are SSL encrypted and therefore secure.

Encryption removes the text you enter into a website and alters them with a jumble of letters and numbers. This makes them unreadable and difficult to interpret by humans. As a website owner to enable a secure, encrypted site you will need to implement an SSL certificate to ensure the security of your site.

Steps to Securing your Website:

If you’re looking to secure your website the first step is to backup your site, as you should whenever you make any significant changes. Then you must implement an SSL certificate, there are varying levels of how easy this is to complete, usually dependent on the company that hosts your site.

When you implement HTTPS you will need to make some changes to the back end of your site as well as update any links you’ve created within the content and setting up redirects to address links placed elsewhere online.

Reasons to Secure your Site:

• To protect sensitive information shared through your website
• In order to demonstrate that your site is trustworthy and authentic
• For protection of your SEO rankings – search engines typically prefer HTTPS sites over HTTP equivalents
• It will help speed up loading times

Website Security High Wycombe

We understand that you want to secure your websites for those that access it, but we also know that the process can seem daunting. At Cyber Sushi Design, we regularly install SSL certificates and are aware of the technical issues that can arise and how to resolve them. If you need help with website security in High Wycombe, get in touch with us on 01494 356 778.