I told you to do it, and I sure hope you did.

On August 8, 2014 (that’s almost a year ago now, so you’ve had time), I told you to update your website/blog to provide a secure connection to your website and be sure the little lock shows up when people type your website address into their browser.

Why the Lock Matters

Way back then, Google told us that it was using “HTTPS as a ranking factor.” Now it’s really kicking in, and the sites that failed to take action are suffering. Since Google usually keeps its ranking algorithm a secret, it’s important that we listen when the company tells us something directly. Google told us to purchase and install security certificates, and some of us listened.

Installing a security certificate is easy. We’re talking about spending $70 per year on the certificate and a few minutes installing it on your server. If you have an e-commerce site, and we do, then it’s harder (but still not that hard). Most lawyers aren’t taking money via their sites and, if they are, they should have been using a security certificate already anyway.

How big is the impact? Experts (here and here, for example) are debating the effect and, because Google keeps secrets, we’ll never know exactly what it’s doing. But this change matters, and you should do what Google suggests.

Those of us who did what Google told us to do are seeing increased traffic. My North Carolina Divorce site is again setting traffic records, and this time, it’s not referral spam. Sites without HTTPS are suffering.

Check Your Site–and Your Vendor’s

If your site wasn’t updated, then you need to ask why. I know lawyers paying hundreds or thousands of dollars per month to “experts” who haven’t taken this quick, basic, and easy action to help their clients. If you’re paying someone to take care of these basic tasks and this stuff isn’t happening, you need to ask yourself what the heck your vendor is doing for you. Maybe it’s time to get some help that’s truly helpful.

Just to illustrate, I’m paying the host of Divorce Discourse less than $100 a month and getting security, hosting, free themes, e-commerce capabilities, membership site services, forums, course software, and a bunch of other features. I asked my host to set up HTTPS security, and it did it in 15 minutes. I paid for the certificate ($50), and the company didn’t charge me anything for the installation.

Look at how your vendors treat their own sites. For example, look at Mockingbird (it markets to law firms), and it has no lock. Also look at Atlanticbt (it also markets to lawyers), and you’ll see the little lock. Check your vendor. If your vendor can’t bother to do this stuff for its own site, can you really expect it to do this for you?

Go to your site. Look up at the URL. Do you see a little lock icon? If not, fix it.