It goes without saying for those of us at web production companies, but "website encryption (SSL)" is one trend that in-house website managers should definitely know about and address as soon as possible.

In the past (and by that we mean until very recently), it cost tens of thousands of yen a year to maintain and the application process was rather cumbersome, so it was mainly used by large corporations, online shops and other sites with a strong need to protect personal information—it hadn't really caught on among the websites of small and medium-sized businesses like ours.

Now, however, with rising awareness of information security, the trend has gained such momentum that "SSL is a given—in fact, non-SSL sites may end up being seen by no one at all."

In this article, we'd like to revisit just what SSL is, and why it has become essential—along with the reasons behind it.

What exactly is SSL?

What is SSL? Put simply, it's a technology that encrypts communications over the internet.
Let us explain a little more about encryption on websites. When browsing a website, users access the server where the website's data is stored from their PC, smartphone or other device, then download and view the data from there. And when shopping or making an inquiry, they may also enter and send personal information such as their address, name or credit card details as needed.
Without encryption, communications carried out between the web server and the device like this can be peeked at or tampered with by third parties.
Encryption is the technology that prevents information leaks during such communications.

You can easily tell whether a website has SSL enabled: an "s" for "Secure" is added to the "http://" at the beginning of the address, making it "https://".

Why has SSL become essential?

SSL is a technology that has been around for some time, so why has it become so essential only recently? Let's sum up the reasons.

Frequent information leaks have raised security awareness

While all kinds of services are now provided over the internet, information leaks have also become frequent. That's why encryption has become an essential measure for protecting users' personal information.

Google has begun using it as a factor in determining search rankings

From the perspective of a website manager, isn't this the one with the biggest impact?
On August 7, 2014, the official Google Webmaster blog announced:

"HTTPS as a ranking signal"

In other words, they announced that "encrypted websites will be given preferential treatment in search rankings." Several years have already passed since then, and as for how much of an effect (impact) it has on search rankings, the answer is "it does have some effect!"
That said, going forward most of your competitors will move to encryption. In that case, rather than thinking "encrypting will raise my rankings," you should think "not encrypting will lower my rankings."

On top of that, for users browsing with Google Chrome, there's a difference not only in search rankings but also in how websites appear when viewed.

You can see it in the image above.
　*When an encrypted website is displayed: "Secure"
　*On a website that isn't encrypted, an "! mark (warning mark)" is displayed.

If most other companies show "Secure" while only your website shows "Not secure"... it may become difficult to earn users' trust.

The cost of obtaining and maintaining it has dropped dramatically

Encrypting a website used to cost from around tens of thousands of yen a year, but recently it has become extremely cheap.
How cheap? Zero yen (laughs). More and more hosting services you contract as your web server now offer it as a free option.
Representative hosting services that offer it as a free option include:

　*Xserver
　*Mixhost
　*SAKURA internet
　*Lolipop

These are the ones we'd recommend.

In short...
"There's a growing need across the board to strengthen website security. How important is it? Important enough that it may affect your search rankings and your customers' trust. And since you can now encrypt your site essentially for free, you'd better act quickly!"
Roughly speaking, we hope you'll see the situation in these terms.

So how do you go about encrypting (enabling SSL on) an existing non-SSL website? We cover that in this article.