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Google SSL Update and Its Implications

Monday, September 3, 2018

GOOGLE, the giant of Information and mobile technology, has been the vanguard of shaping the delivery of information by bloggers and webmasters to end-users, this it does largely by influencing, directly and indirectly, how webpages and search queries are presented to the local web users.
 
The journey towards search engine dominance for Google has not been an easy one. It may have started when the giant company launched Google AdSense/AdWords; a successful attempt to pay owners of websites and blogs real money in exchange for displaying targeted Ads on their webpages. This led to a generation of full time bloggers and content developers, as well as scammers who were responsible for hundreds of thousands of spam websites and blogs with irrelevant and malicious content, all looking to take a bite of the AdSense pie.
 
To reward the hardworking webmasters and punish those running sham websites, Google released periodic updates on their methods of choosing websites with the most relevant content for web users. Since 2011 when the panda update was released, a total of 9 major updates have been released so far, namely: Penguin (2012), Hummingbird (2013), Pigeon (2014), Mobile (2015), Rankbrain (2015), Possum (2016), Fred (2017) and The Medic update (August 2018). The medic update affects all blogs and websites related to medical foods and supplements/diets and nutrition. It's been rightly named, YMYL your money, your Life.
 
What you should know about the Google SSL UPDATE
 
SSL, an acronym for Secure Sockets Layer is an encryption algorithm that is added to a webserver to improve the security of its webpages. It works by ensuring that all data transmitted during a browsing session remain unavailable for snoopers and phishers.
 
Since most webpages are written with HTML (hypertext mark-up language), Google was able to come up with a technology that points out webpages without SSL certificates with the release of a particular update on Chrome browser - Chrome 62. This update displayed the security status of the webpage a user is trying to visit by displaying a green tab in the address bar https://www.example.com address bar for safe websites with SSL. If the Webpage to be visited has no SSL certificates, the address bar will read http://www.example.com, revealing to the web user that there is no SSL certificate installed on the webpage and any data is vulnerable to attacks.
 
Google also made an important announcement in 2014, stating that https:// will now be used as a metric for ranking of webpages on their search engine, still in a bid to enforce the SSL updates on webservers as a security measure, alas, they finally found a way to do this with the July 1st announcement made this year.
 
How SSL works
 
In general terms, SSL works with the transfer protocol ( http) of HTML webpages. Since most webpages on the internet today are written with HTML (hypertext mark-up languages), SSL serves as an encryption protocol for the safe transmission of data. When a webpage has its SSL certificates, the http (hypertext transfer protocol) becomes https and this indicates that the webserver is safe and secured.
 
Benefits of SSL to a webserver
 
The primary benefit of having SSL installed on a webserver is improved security of the private data of clients and web users. The VPCart COMODO SSL Certificate is an example of SSL whichworks to secure private data such as email account details, social media accounts username and passwords, credit card details etc. Ordinarily, such information can be gotten during browsing sessions e.g. when making online money transactions like shopping on Amazon, eBay, Alibaba, etc.
 
What this means for everyday web users
 
With this announcement, it tells that Google is mindful and working very hard to keep your data and web sessions secure. With the Chrome 68 update, websites will be flagged as unsecure just as the user is typing the address he means to visit.
 
Google chrome 68 will display a set of notifications on the address bar, beside the URL;
  • A green bar (secured) means you are good to go because the SSL certificates for that particular session are well installed
  • An info not secure (no color) indicates a warning because the SSL certificates for that session are not available
  • A Not secure/Harmful (red bar) indicates that your private data is at risk on such a connection because the SSL certificates have not been installed and that particular Website has a history of snooping and data phishing and malicious tendencies.
 
Implications of the SSL update to Bloggers and Webmasters
 
Ranking on Google Search Engine
 
Webmasters who fail to update their blogs and webpages with SSL will be affected most as they'll experience a downgrade in their ranking on Google, thus affecting their visibility to organic searches, and loss of revenue in the long run. Google has decided to use https:// as an important ranking factor for blogs and websites on their search engine.
 
Integrity
 
A more devastating implication of this update, which is even more severe than loss of money will be the loss of Integrity: Nobody wants their private information to fall into the wrong hands. Seeing a warning or danger sign will definitely scare away your followers which is bad for your general credibility. It's actually less costly to get the SSL installed.
 
It is easier, now more than ever, to get SSL installed on a webserver and with The VPCart COMODO SSL Certificate, we have taken care to provide all of the leading Certificate Authorities at a very low cost.


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