MBA1175 Q&A Wednesday: Do I need to make my site https? If so, how?

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If you have a question you want to ask, just email me over at omar100,mba.net Today's question is from Peter and Peter asks do I need to make my website HTTPs? If so, how? I hear it's important. Good question Peter. You may have noticed that some websites will read HTTP and some HTTPs and those with that S will have a little lock icon in your browser and you guess it the S stands for secure. What does this actually mean? What does it do for your website? And do you need to be HTTPs? And of course, how do you do it? How do you make sure your site is HTTPs? Now you might think that this question or this episode is going to be overly technical, but it has a lot of practical reasons that will apply to your business. If you take payment, if you do transactions, if you do business on your website this episode is really about trust. And if your customers can trust you with their billing information and their personal details. This has become a hot topic of recent. So you want to make sure that people feel secure on your website. We're getting into how in today's episode. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. So Peter asks, do I need to make my site HTTPs? If so, how? Now, for a minute or two, I'm gonna get a little technical, but just bear with me because it's gonna make total sense and it's gonna have its context in place when I get into the other stuff in today's episode. So when a site is HTTPs, it has that in the actual web address, webinar, ninja.com, google.com, whatever it is. That means that site is using an ssl, also known as an SSL certificate. And, and SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer. And this is a standard technology to ensure encrypted security between your website, where it lives on a web server, and the visitor of your website's browser, their computer or their phone. This technology, ssl, allows people, when they visit their website, they do it securely. They're going and reaching your website on the server, in the cloud, securely. Now, you might be asking, why is this so important? They're just on my website reading some information. Well, for the most part, if you have a website where your users, where your visitors don't take any action, then I guess HTTPs is not really useful, except for one point I'll mention later when it comes to SEO and search engines. But for most of us, we're doing business on our website. Even if you're collecting somebody's email address or, you know, signing up for your newsletter, and especially if they're going to pay you money, most payment processors require you to have an SSL certificate to be on HTTPs. If you're taking transactions on your website, you're colle information or people are inputting their credit card information on your website, if it's not HTTPs, then they'll have to go off your website to make payment. This is where PayPal comes in. And this is a bit jarring for some people because they're no longer on your website, they're paying for something, they come back to your website. Now, now that we know what HTTPs is and SSL certificates and all that kind of stuff, what does that mean for you? Well, number one, it's becoming very, very apparent when your site is not HTTPs, browsers are now having a little message on the browser bar saying, hey, this, be careful as you proceed. And that's kind of a red flag. You don't want people to see that when they go to your website. Wow, is this website, you know, being hacked or something like that? No, it just basically means your site is not HTTPs or doesn't have an SSL certificate. Now, by default, most websites will not have an SSL certificate, will not have HTTPs or will not be going through HTTPs. It's going to be your job to make sure it does. Now, if you're on a website builder, whether it's Squarespace or Wix or whatever, some of these will provide either the service to add an SSL so you do have HTTPs, or it will be included with your package. If you're not on one of these services, say for example, you're on WordPress, then your hosting provider, whoever you're paying to host your website, will have the option to use something called let's Encrypt. Let's Encrypt is absolutely free and allows you to have an SSL certificate. If you have a little bit of a bigger operation where you have a web app or maybe you're not using WordPress, you can always buy an SSL certificate and I like buying mine@ssls.com, ssls.com Pretty inexpensive. Depending on your needs, you can get an SSL certificate for as low as, you know, $5. Now, SSL certificates need to be renewed every year. Some are every six months, but you can have auto renewal placed in your account. Now, once you do that, you have to tell your site to go and make sure every time somebody goes to your site, it goes to HTTPs, forcing HTTPs. So even if they type in HTTP, your site, your website will automatically forward to HTTPs to make sure that they're going through a secure site. Once you have that in place, you'll see a little lock icon in your browser showing your visitors, hey, this site is secure. Now, if you need any help along the way, whoever you pay money to host your website, to have your site up on the web can help you get on customer support, whether it's phone or chat or email, and say, hey, I need my site to be HTTPs and they'll walk you through it. All right? Now the benefits of it, number one, a couple of years ago Google announced they're going to start preferring sites that are HTTPs over HTTP. So if your site is HTTPs, it's going to rank higher just purely because it's a more of a trusted site. It also shows Google that, hey, you're serious. And this is a real business and this is a real site and I'm investing in making sure that it's secure. This is great when people search your keywords and your site will be ranked higher than it normally is when you have HTTPs. Number two, again, the confidence your visitors are going to have when they go to your site. Number three, you need it. When you have any kind of transactions charging somebody's credit card, they're entering credit card information on your site, you have to have HTTPs and this opens up your options when it comes to payment processors like Stripe for example, which is fantastic. It's one we recommend and we use. Another great one is Braintree. And this is going to allow you to save money because their rates are a lot better than PayPal. You're also going to be a little bit less vulnerable to hackers. This is not a hacker proof solution, but hackers will go to sites that are HTTP over HTTPs. It's just easier to get through. And of course it screams credibility you can put on your website. Some people put these badges on the bottom. It says this is an SSL secured site, secure checkout. Like that is a lock icon, all that kind of stuff. If you want to put those things, it's good. But just having an SSL does allow you to have that kind of credibility. If you're asking me, I think it's a must. You have to have all your sites on HTTPs, even any personal websites. It screams credibility and it just allows you to rank better thy ticket. Lady Jennifer of Coolidge. Well, many thanks good sir. Here is my Discover card.

They accept Discover at Renaissance for yeah, they do here.

Discover is accepted at the places I love to shop. Get it with the times.

With the times. You're playing the loot.

Yeah, and it sounds pretty good, right? Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. Based on the February 2025 Nielsen report.

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To wrap up today's Q and A Wednesday's question from Peter Do I need my site to be HTTPs? And if so, how it's quite simple. The answer is yes, you should have your site to be htbs. It's a little bit of effort for a lot of gain. And how you just need an SSL certificate and you can get that from your web host, whoever's hosting your site, or you can get it yourself and have them install it for you. If you buy it@ssls.com just remember you're going to have to renew this SSL or make sure there's auto renewal on it so it doesn't expire. And all of a sudden one day you're like, hey, why is my site showing all these warnings about the site's not secure? Well, because your SSL expired. No longer securing that HTTPs website. Well, that wraps up today's lesson. I hope that answers your question, Peter, and helped those who are listening that have the same question in their head. If you have a question you want to ask, just email me over at Omar MBA Net Before I go, I want to leave you with this. There's these little finicky technical things you're going to have to do with your business and your website and all that kind of stuff that's going to take some of your time. Might take half a day or something to get your head around and do it and all that kind of stuff. But it's well worth it. It's going to help your business in the long run. And then as you grow, you can obviously get other people to take care of these things for you as you start hiring new staff, when you're getting started, getting your house in order, making sure your website is secure, making sure that you're presentable and credible goes a long way. You're starting out, people don't know who you are, and credibility and authority really has a lot to do with your success at the start. So make sure you cover your bases. Make sure you do the right things to make sure your site is secure. All right, thank you so much and I'll check you in tomorrow's episode. I'll see you then. Take care. USAA knows dynamic duos can save the day like superheroes and sidekicks or auto and home insurance. With usaa, you can bundle your auto and home and save up to 10%. Tap the banner to learn more and get a quote@usaa.com bundle restrictions apply.