Is your funeral home website address turning business away? One simple way to find out the answer to the question stated in the title is to go to your site. Are the letters ‘HTTPS’ in front of your web address? Is there a little green lock in front of the URL? If not, then the answer is absolutely yes, your site address is turning away people who are seeking your services. The reason being is that ‘S” stands for security and it is more than just a symbol. It lets the Internet and its users know your site is holding an SSL Certificate or Security Sockets Layer Certificate. The SSL Certificate encrypts the data on your website ensuring you and the families you serve are not being pilfered for data and other sensitive information. Below are 5 other benefits to having an SSL Certificate.
Maintaining Family Trust
Visiting a site without HTTPS is kind of like walking down a dark alley. It leaves you a little uneasy but you may venture down anyway. Come July 2018, it will still be like walking down an alleyway but this time someone will jump out yelling “Boo!” This is because Google values internet security and at that time will start to to notify anyone using a site without an SSL certificate by having pop-up warning the site is not secure. I don’t know about you, but just as I would turn around running from a person jumping out at me yelling “Boo”, I would just as fast leave a website which shows me a security warning and perhaps I would shut my computer down entirely.
Value Authentication
Web users are more savvy than ever and having ‘HTTPS’ at the beginning of a URL is a clue to our ever proficient consumer that they are in the right location and not in an imposter’s site. The appearance of your site is becoming increasingly important as more and more Millennials, who grew up in the age of online shopping, are entering the funeral market representing their parents. if your site does not appear legitimate, they will look elsewhere.
Ranking Higher On Google
As the old adage goes, “Location. Location. Location.” Ranking high on Google is as important as maintaining C.E. credits. Think about it, when was the last time you clicked over to the second page of the Google search let alone clicked on the 5th link from the top? It is a rare occurrence. Google already ranks those using HTTPS higher than those that don’t. Come July, not having HTTPS could lower your rankings even more, affecting the credibility of your website.
Protecting Your Families & The Community
The SSL Certificate does not just pay lip service, but actually protects your website users’ information. FrontRunner never forgets its roots as a family run funeral home. This means caring for your family and the families you serve is at the root of everything we do here. In the day and age of data breaches and hackers, having an SSL Certificate will protect the information of the people you care about.
Mobile Optimization
It is no longer enough to have a website. Now, more than ever, it is important for your site to be mobile optimized. Take a look at your local park (or anywhere for that matter): where there used to be people reading newspapers, there are people reading on mobile phones. Some may even be walking. So if your site is not optimized for mobile or takes a long time to load, with a simple flick of the thumb, the reader is on to something else. Having an SSL certificate is required for mobile pages to load quickly and be considered optimized by Google, which affects your ranking in search and affects the ability for families in need to find your website.
The internet is changing and here at FrontRunner we are staying up-to-date with latest trends and are continually working hard to ensure your funeral home is ahead of the game.
