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No More Excuses: It’s Time to Go Secure with SSL!

Eric Hochberger

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Let’s cut right to the chase: It’s time for every Mediavine publisher to go SSL. This July, with Chrome Version 68, Google will begin marking non-SSL sites – or sites beginning with http:// instead of https:// – as “Not Secure” at the top of the address bar. As of right now, secure sites get a nice green lock logo and the word “Secure” in green. It makes users feel good. Non-secure sites merely lack these indicators. This summer, that will change as non-secure URLs will be labeled “Not Secure” in the address bar … which certainly won’t make users feel good. The solution? GO SSL. First, the briefest of overviews: SSL (for Secure Sockets Layer) is a security protocol for establishing encrypted links between a web server and browser. SSL technology ensures that all data transmitted between a web server and browser – including advertising – is encrypted. Mediavine has supported SSL ads for years while encouraging publishers to adopt SSL; 81.5% of ads served by Mediavine appear on SSL sites as of April 2018. Not a bad figure, but it still means close to one in five publishers are about to have “Not Secure” warnings scare away users, and that just doesn’t seem right. We pride ourselves on being more than an ad management company; Mediavine wants to ensure its publishers and their users always get the best experience. That includes SSL. Going SSL used to be cost prohibitive, but thanks to Let’s Encrypt, it’s actually free these days. It also used to be considered slower, but thanks to improvements like HTTP/2, which only runs on SSL sites, secure sites are by and large as fast, if not faster than non-secure counterparts. There’s really no longer an excuse. Your hosting company should offer you a free SSL certificate on your site; Blogger even now supports SSL on custom domains. So how do you go SSL? First, contact your host to make sure they can help set things up. If they’re unable to, we’ll gladly refer you to a hosting partner who can. Just email publishers@mediavine.com. Once your site is set up for SSL, be sure you review our guide to going SSL and again, please reach out via the email address above if you have any questions.

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Eric Hochberger

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