The Internet changed itself day by day. The way of using the internet has changed tremendously. We take the help of the internet for everything. Whether checking any services, searching any places, or doing any financial transactions, we are dependent on the Internet.
Do you know how secure is it? Why did Google start sending emails to HTTP pages warning to website owners?
Let me explain to you why Google is sending emails to HTTP pages warning to website owners:
We use HTTP a lot but after all, it is not a secure protocol anymore. HTTPS replaced HTTP now but many of the websites are still using HTTP. Google wants to make the web a safer place. Chrome will start showing a non-secure warning on HTTP pages of any website from October 2017 onwards.
Google Search Console has started letting people (Site owners) know about the HTTP page warning in Chrome 62. I probably also received that email from GSC.
How Do I Convert My Website to HTTPS?
No need to be worried. I too changed my site from HTTP to HTTPS only after receiving this email.
First thing, you need to obtain an SSL certificate to convert your HTTP pages to HTTPS. Of course, web hosting and domain selling websites charge for SSL certificates. But you have an open-source platform (https://letsencrypt.org/) from which you can get a certificate free of cost. Read their documentation to get a better idea that how it works. By using this you can remove HTTP pages warning in chrome.
For WordPress, you can use a really simple SSL plugin to activate your SSL certificate. I am too using this plugin for my blog. After taking all necessary steps check your web pages whether they are showing HTTP or HTTPS.
If some of your pages are not showing a secure connection (HTTPS) then you need to redirect URLs with the help of the .htaccess file in your root directory. Chances are remote that you will need to redirect URLs manually.
Wrapping it up:
SSL is a certificate that encrypts web pages. Due to cost, people do not tend to obtain SSL certificates. Google pushes everyone to use SSL on their websites. Google made it one of the website ranking factors in SERP. Now you can understand that how Google is serious about HTTPS and how genuine reason Google has to send emails to website owners for HTTP pages warning and pushing them to make the web secure.
