As a candidate for office Google search is extremely important to you. But Google might be waving people off from visiting your website.
Google Search is the way that most people are going to find your website and online campaign presence.
Google is the uncontested Number One search engine in the world.
46% of people search the Internet using Google Search.
21% use Bing, which is the second most used search engine. That’s a big drop off.
On top of that, 89% of search traffic on mobile devices and tablets is performed on Google.
That’s where most people are searching these days. That’s why it’s vital that voters can find your campaign when they Google you.
That’s why your website domain name needs to reflect your name as I previously wrote.
But even if they can find you, Google could be waving a big red flag in their faces to warn them away from your site.
Starting last January, Google’s Chrome browser began alerting people to whenever a website is unencrypted and therefore unsecure to visit.
Why did Google do this?
It’s simple and it’s smart.
Encrypted websites are more difficult to hack.
If you website’s not encrypted, hackers could put malicious code on your site.
Should that happen anyone visiting your website (including you) could accidentally find their devices infected with a virus.
You don’t want that to happen.
First, its bad form on your part.
Second, you should be looking out for your would be constituents.
Third, if a voter thinks they got a computer or phone infected from your website, that could really piss them off.
Voters who get pissed off at a candidate usually vote for their opponent.
You want to keep your website secure for visitors with a SSL Certificate.
What do you need to do to ensure your website is secure?
The easiest way is to go to your site with the Google Chrome browser.
In the upper left hand corner next to your domain, it will tell you whether or not your website is encrypted and secure.
If you don’t have Google Chrome, you can check the secure status of your site by going to this free SSL checker provided by GoDaddy.
If your website checks out as secure, then there’s nothing you need to worry about. You can stop reading now.
If your website comes up as unsecure, then you need to get that issue fixed. And you should do it now.
Here’s three ways to fix your website’s security.
1. If you have someone who set up your website (or is going to) tell them to make sure the site has the proper encryption.
2. If you want to do it yourself, you can simply use GoDaddy (or whatever provider you’re using) to purchase and add on SSL certification.
3. If you need assistance, find a developer who will do it for you at a reasonable price.
This all may seem like an unnecessary headache to deal with, but getting your website hacked will be a much bigger one.
That I can assure you.