What is HTTPS? A Guide to Secure On-Site Experience for Marketers

A new article on Search Engine Journal explains that providing a secure website improves user experience and search rankings alike. Learn about HTTPS is and how it can benefit your marketing.



HTTP stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol. This protocol provides the rules within the application layer for web browsers to communicate with web servers. It is the foundation of communication for the Internet. HTTP requests are sent by a user's browser. Web servers send an HTTP response to the request, loading the web page using hypertext links.

The S on HTTPS stands for Secure. HTTPS enables secure communication between web browsers and web servers. HTTPS works via SSL or TLS. The Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is the predecessor of TLS. Transport Layer Security (TLS) provides privacy and data integrity via encryption protocols in communications between two or more applications. The goal of this protocol within the application layer is to prevent eavesdropping and tampering with secure data transfer.

• Why HTTPS Matters: HTTPS prevents intermediaries from injecting content into the website without the owner's knowledge. Without HTTPS, a bad actor might inject online ads, for example, to profit from your web traffic. According to HTTP Archive, about 92% of desktop and 91% of mobile requests are from URLs with HTTPS in the prefix. W3Techs reports that HTTPS is used by 75.2% of websites. BuiltWith has found over 155 million SSL certificates installed on websites throughout the Internet.
• How Safe is HTTPS? HTTPS doesn't mean a website is 100% secure or fail-safe. HTTPS only secures the communications between two computers, such as a user's computer via web browser and a web server. HTTPS offers stronger security than HTTP, it does not protect the user's computer or the web server itself from attack by hackers or malware. This is why webmasters must secure their website and users must use virus and spyware protection on their computers.
• How to Get HTTPS for Your Website: To add HTTPS to your website, you may need an SSL certificate. But first, search your current web hosting provider's documentation on how to enable or enforce HTTPS. It may already be included in your current hosting plan. If not, you should be able to purchase a TLS/SSL certificate from your current web host or upgrade to a new hosting plan that includes TLS/SSL. Alternatively, you can get a TLS/SSL from content delivery networks (CDNs) like Cloudflare or get a TSL/SSL from Digicert.