How To Avoid Chrome‘s “Not Secure” Warning

Google's Search Console users have started to receive emails stating that Chrome will be displaying new warnings to users on non-HTTPS pages from October onwards. The new Chrome 'Not Secure' warnings will be triggered when users enter text into any form on any page that's served as http:// rather than https://. These could be login forms, contact forms or even newsletter signups and the warning will be display in Incognito mode, too. The email looks like this:

What does this mean? #

This is alert is a warning to internet users that their information is not going to be transferred in an encrypted format. Essentially, this means that anyone that's trying to intercept the information will be able to see it in plain text. Whether users fully understand the implications or not, the knock-on effect of this Chrome 'Not Secure' message is that users could find this warning quite off-putting and start to trust your website less.

How can I avoid a Google Chrome 'Not Secure' message? #

The good news is that it's quick and cheap to prevent this alert occurring. There are also around six weeks to implement it, so plenty of time! To avoid this warning appearing on your site, you will need to make sure it is fully HTTPS compliant. At its most basic level, this involves acquiring an SSL certificate, changing your URL to https:// (rather than http://) and making sure there are no mixed-media content warnings on the site.

For more information on SSL certificates, read my previous blog post, get in touch or put your questions in the comments below.