If you’ve visited a website recently and noticed a “Not Secure” warning in your browser’s address bar, you’ve seen what happens when a site doesn’t have an SSL certificate installed. Google Chrome began rolling out these warnings to protect users — and if your own website is affected, it could be quietly turning away potential customers before they even read a word.
Is Your Site Affected?
Ask yourself two questions:
- Does your website have a contact form, accept payments, or contain any kind of text input or search functionality?
- Does your website address begin with HTTP:// rather than HTTPS://?
If you answered yes to both, your website needs an SSL certificate — and it needs one now.
What Does “Not Secure” Mean for Your Business?
When visitors see a “Not Secure” warning, many will immediately leave. It signals that data entered on that page — contact details, payment information, search queries — could potentially be intercepted. Even if your site is technically safe, the perception of risk is enough to drive people away.
Beyond user trust, an SSL certificate is also a factor in Google’s search ranking algorithm. Sites running on HTTPS receive a modest ranking boost, while HTTP sites may be penalised.
What Is an SSL Certificate?
An SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate encrypts the connection between your website and your visitors’ browsers. Once installed, your site URL changes from http:// to https://, and a padlock icon appears in the browser bar.
Getting It Fixed
Installing an SSL certificate is straightforward for most websites. Blue Platypus Digital can install and configure SSL on your site quickly and affordably.
If you’re not sure whether your site is affected, check your URL in Chrome. If you see “Not Secure” or a plain HTTP address, it’s time to act.
Get in touch with us at 0430 809 122 to arrange SSL installation and secure your website for your visitors.
What’s Changed Since 2018
When this was written, Chrome had just started flagging HTTP pages and SSL was still something many small sites had skipped. That era is over:
- HTTPS is now the default expectation. Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge all warn on HTTP pages, and some browsers now attempt HTTPS first automatically.
- Certificates became free. Let’s Encrypt provides trusted certificates at no cost, renewed automatically. Paying for a basic certificate is rarely necessary.
- The bar moved to configuration. The common failure is no longer a missing certificate — it is a certificate installed badly: mixed content warnings, an expired renewal, or HTTP URLs that never got redirected.
Common SSL Problems We Still See
Expired certificates. Free certificates renew automatically, but only if the renewal process is working. A silent failure produces a full-page browser warning that stops visitors dead — far worse than the original “Not Secure” label.
Mixed content. The page loads securely but an image or script still points at http://, so the padlock disappears. Common after a site migration.
Missing redirects. The HTTPS version works, but the old HTTP URLs still resolve, leaving two copies of every page competing in search results.
All three are things a care plan is designed to catch before your customers do.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does an SSL certificate cost?
Most sites can use a free certificate from Let's Encrypt, which is included on Blue Platypus hosting and on every care plan. Paid certificates are only worth it for specific cases such as extended validation for financial services, or wildcard certificates covering many subdomains.
Do I still need SSL if my site has no forms or payments?
Yes. Browsers now mark every HTTP page as not secure regardless of what it contains, and Google uses HTTPS as a ranking signal across the board. A brochure site with no forms still loses trust and rankings without it.
My site has a certificate but still shows a warning. Why?
Almost always mixed content: the page loads over HTTPS but pulls an image, script or stylesheet over HTTP, so the browser downgrades the padlock. The fix is updating those references to HTTPS, which a plugin or a database search-and-replace can do in bulk.
Will switching to HTTPS hurt my search rankings?
Not if it is done properly. You need 301 redirects from every HTTP URL to its HTTPS equivalent, updated internal links, and the HTTPS version added in Google Search Console. Done correctly, rankings carry over and usually improve slightly.
