One feature I’ve been frequently asked about this year has been HTTPS / SSL support for customer websites. While this has always been possible through the purchase of a traditional SSL certificate, which would typically set you back a hundred dollars and require a manual installation, we’re about to make enabling HTTPS a lot easier.
Today Blue Pixel Design Hosting is launching a fully automated system to install and renew free SSL certificates to all domains hosted on our servers.
If you are not familiar, an SSL certificate is what is required to enable HTTPS on your website, the protocol which makes all communication between your browser and your website encrypted. If you see the https:// in the address bar of your browser and a lock icon next to it, you are browsing a secure, encrypted website.
While SSL certificates had mainly been used by eCommerce websites, the Internet is moving towards an encrypted web for better security and Google even ranks websites using HTTPS higher in their search results.
We’ve been quietly beta testing this feature for over a year so SSL certificates have already been issued for all eligible domains hosted with us.
If you’d like to make the switch to HTTPS, I can recommend some sites (or plugins if you’re using WordPress) that might help. Or you can hire me to take care of it for you!