Google has recently started flagging websites as ‘Not Secure’ when they do not have an SSL certificate. This can be seen in the Google Chrome browser address bar at the top on the left – check your website on Chrome to see if it is flagging your website as ‘Not secure’. This is also similar on the Firefox browser.
Previously this wasn’t a problem because secure servers were only needed for shopping cart websites where customers entered their payment details. With the increase in online fraud re: personal details etc. Google has decided that all websites should now be on secure servers. It is much better that your website creates a trusted environment so that customers feel confident dealing with you. Visitors to your website may well be put off by the appearance of this notice.
To enforce this, Google has also decided to start penalising websites in it’s search results if they are not on a secure server – which could affect your Google results positions.
To resolve this so that the small padlock and ‘https’ instead of ‘http’ appears before your url in the address bar it is necessary to add an SSL certificate.
You will also need permanent 301 redirect code adding for all your pages so that any links to your website go to the new secure https address (which is different from the existing http address).