Issue: If your homepage doesn’t use HTTPS, it’s less secure and may rank lower in search results because Google prioritizes secure websites.
Fix: Switch your homepage (and entire website) to HTTPS by installing an SSL certificate.
How to Fix for Beginners
- Get an SSL Certificate: Purchase or obtain a free SSL certificate from providers like Let’s Encrypt or your hosting provider.
- Example: Your hosting provider may offer a free SSL setup.
- Enable HTTPS: Install the SSL certificate on your server and configure it to redirect all HTTP requests to HTTPS.
- Example: Redirect
http://example.comtohttps://example.com.
- Example: Redirect
- Update Internal Links: Replace all internal HTTP links with their HTTPS versions.
- Example: Update
<a href="http://example.com/page">to<a href="https://example.com/page">.
- Example: Update
- Update External Links: Notify external sites linking to your homepage to use the HTTPS version.
- Check for Mixed Content: Use browser developer tools to ensure all resources (images, scripts, etc.) are loaded securely via HTTPS.
- Submit Updated Site to Search Engines: Update your sitemap in Google Search Console to reflect the HTTPS change.
Tip: HTTPS encryption improves security, user trust, and search engine rankings.