If you’re a WebPro, doing freelance web design, WordPress support or doing agency work like marketing, hosting, etc… and you’re not pushing SSL certificates on your clients you are doing them a huge disservice!
Your clients MUST have an SSL now, period!
It doesn’t matter if they have a basic informational website, it is the new standard!
Why they need an SSL
This is what I tell people. “An SSL or HTTPS is now the required Internet protocol for websites. Bottom line, if you do not have an SSL you are not in compliance with security protocols and will be penalized by Google, effecting your search rankings and online findability.”
Web browser compliance
Visit a website in FireFox and Chrome and tell me if you get any warnings about being on an unsecure website. In FireFox, go to a contact page on a site without an SSL and click on the form fields, does it tell you that you’re using an unsecure form?
Starting July of 2018 this is what the browser address bar will look like in Google Chrome when you go to an unsecure site:
Now while on a desktop this might not be so obvious, but on a mobile, which is a lot of our site traffic these days, it is even more obvious.
Getting your clients moved to HTTPS
In most cases, adding an ssl to a site isn’t difficult. And most hosting companies provide SSL certificates you can purchase, some will even auto setup/install.
You should start with an email to all of your clients. Inform them of the changes and the need to add the SSL.
If you can profit from it, I’d recommend offering a service and/or the SSL product to simplify their decision to comply with the new standard.
Even if they don’t hire you, and don’t comply, they can never say, why didn’t you tell/help with this?
And that’s the key! You need to be a hero, as long as you are making the effort to inform and support your clients, you’re doing the best you can to help.
Your Next Steps
You can join a reseller or affiliate program, you can partner with myWPGeek, but you should find a solution that will allow you to support your clients in this transition.
You could simple gather a bunch of how-to articles for different hosting provides on how to add SSLs and send that to them in an email.
You’ve got to be proactive in this transition, your clients aren’t going to understand or know what to do.
Go send everyone an email right now!
If you need help with email copy ideas, just use the comments below!
Skip to content