Bend, OR, September 20, 2017: Today we are excited to announce that we are migrating all Odysys website customers to HTTPS, free of charge! All websites on Odysys will now be HTTPS by default.
Why Did We Switch All of Our Customer Sites to HTTPS?
The answer: Because it is good for users and your conversion rates. But starting in October – Google will start warning visitors to your website if it isn’t HTTPS.
At Odysys, our mission is to help inns, bed & breakfasts, and small hotels book more guests. So we are always looking for ways to enhance the Odysys system. Recently, Google has announced they will be implementing several changes across their range of products. Many of these changes are designed to nudge website owners into serving up their sites via HTTPS.
Here’s an example of a message that Google is sending out to owners of non-HTTPS websites:
What is HTTPS you ask? HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) is the protocol for passing information between web servers and clients. HTTPS is a secure connection, whereas HTTP is not.
Benefits of HTTPS include:
- Data protection
- Increases the “trust” signals for your site visitors
- Faster site/page load times
- Google uses HTTPS as a positive ranking signal
Frequently Asked Questions About the Odysys Website Upgrade to HTTPS:
- How will this change to HTTPS affect my Rankings?
- According to Google’s HTTPS Migration FAQs: “As with all migrations, you may experience some ranking fluctuation during a migration… HTTPS sites receive a small ranking boost, but don’t expect a visible change. Google uses HTTPS as a positive ranking signal. This signal is one amongst many others, and currently carries less weight than high-quality site content; you should not expect a major SEO advantage for moving to HTTPS in the short term. In the longer term, Google may increase the strength of the HTTPS boost.”
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What happens to my http:// website?
- Your “official” new web address is https://www.yourdomainname.com/, however – http://www.yourdomainname.com/ will still work. We automatically redirect all of your site visitors to the corresponding https page automatically. In other words – all your pages and links etc will work as they always have.
- How about the other technical SEO stuff?
- This upgrade automatically includes all the necessary upgrades to: XML sitemaps, OpenGraph tags, canonical tags, server-side redirects, robots.txt files, Google Search Console, and more.
More Resources & Information about the change
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinmurnane/2017/08/22/chrome-will-soon-warn-you-about-unsecure-websites-should-you-be-concerned/#768d1a2a17e3
- https://blog.chromium.org/2017/04/next-steps-toward-more-connection.html
- https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-is-requiring-https-for-secure-data-in-chrome/183756/
- https://security.googleblog.com/2016/09/moving-towards-more-secure-web.html