On July 1 (Canada Day!), Google will be implementing a new security measure for all users of the Chrome browser.

If you don’t have an HTTPS url, which is a standard website encryption feature that protects your website visitors, they will start showing warnings in both search results and when a visitor visits your website.

When someone visits your website after July 1, 2018 they will see this warning in their path bar at the top of their web browser.

Fortunately, at EverWeb, we’ve got you fully covered!

What is HTTPS?

When someone visits your website they will usually visit with the URL http://www.yourdomain.com. This is an insecure URL as all data passed from your visitors’ browser to the web server is not encrypted and can be seen by someone who is monitoring internet traffic.

With an HTTPS url, you’re website address changes to https://www.yourdomain.com (notice the extra s) and all data passed through from your visitors’ connections to your website is fully encrypted. No one can see or steal information as it passes through to your website.

This makes browsing much more secure and private.

An HTTPS url also protects against an attack known as a “man in the middle” attack which is relatively common and happens when someone hijacks an internet connection to send a visitor to a fake URL without the visitor realizing.

For this reason, HTTPS URL’s are;

1. Much safer than unencrypted http urls
2. Appear higher in search engines
3. Protect your website visitors
4. After July 1, 2018, will not show a warning from Google Chrome and other web browsers

How to Get an HTTPS URL

EverWeb makes it extremely easy to get an HTTPS url. 

In fact, if you are an EverWeb + Hosting 10GB or higher user all you have to do is go to Edit Publishing Settings under the File menu and select the ‘Use Secure HTTPS URLs’ option and then re-publish your website. There is no additonal cost or set up, you just need to select a checkbox and you’re done.

For EverWeb + Hosting 2GB users you just need to the ‘EverWeb Secure Shield’ add-on which adds the 256bit encrypted SSL certificate to your website. You can purchase the add-on in your client area.

Once you have the add-on you simply check the same ‘Use Secure HTTPS URLs’ from your publishing settings screen in EverWeb and re-publish your site.

EverWeb takes care of all the set up, re-direction and security of your website. You can be 100% prepared for the Chrome change in just a few minutes,

If you are using EverWeb Standalone with a third party web hosting provider, you can still use HTTPS urls. However the setup may be a bit more technical. In EverWeb under the File menu->Edit Publishing Settings change the website URL to include https://. Then contact your web hosting provider and ask them to set up an SSL certificate (there is almost always an additional cost that varies from web host to web host). You need to work with your web hosting provider to properly redirect non-secure urls to secure urls as well. Since all web hosts are different, they will be able to assist you with this process.

With EverWeb  + Hosting we were able to make this process so simple, that all you need to do is click a checkbox and re-publish. That’s just one of the benefits of EverWeb + Hosting integrated service.

Step By Step HTTPS Secure Websites

Watch our step by step video tutorial showing how to set up EverWeb Secure Shield with your website so you’re prepared for the Google Chrome change and you can secure your website in just a few minutes!