Does my website need the SSL Cert / HTTPS Update?
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So, I own a car shipping company called Car Shipping Carriers ( www.carshippingcarriers.com ) and I am trying to find out if I need the SSL Cert / HTTPS for the site. I attached a picture that shows I dropped a HUGE amount of rank back in the beginning of August 2014 and that the SSL/HTTPS update happened at nearly the exact same time.
I do have a quote box on my website asking for: Name, Phone, Email, Origin, Destination, Move Date, Year/Make/Model of Vehicle, and Carrier Type.
I was unsure if I needed the HTTPS because I am not asking for sensitive data, but it seems that I might need to bite the bullet and update the site to HTTPS.
What do you all think? Any expert opinion and/or advice?
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I very much agree with this. Get an audit done first to uncover what happened last year around the time the HTTPS "thing" was announced, then move forward.
For your case, HTTPS could help with conversions, but I wouldn't count on it to help with SEO.
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So, first off, you don't NEED to go full HTTPS. The SEO benefit (if there is one) is minor at best. If it were a large benefit then people would be driving hard towards full HTTPS. Google doesn't require any data be submitted over HTTPS, but PCI compliance does. You don't take credit cards so that doesn't apply.
If you want to try SSL for free, my suggestion is to switch to CloudFlare DNS and use their Universal SSL product. This way you can stick HTTPS on your site without changing anything. You can use an unsigned certificate on your site if you want to go full SSL. Cloudflare only encrypts between their servers and your clients, not between you and CloudFlare. Full SSL doesn't require a valid SSL, just any SSL certificate (Cloudflare doesn't validate between you and them). Once that's done, be sure to enable HSTS to force all traffic through HTTPS
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