Why Is Google Blocking Websites with Mixed Content on Chrome?
Google recently announced that soon it’d start banning mixed content on Chrome. The question is, why is Google blocking websites with this type of content?
Google updates Chrome regularly and works hard to make it the most secure browser of all the popular options. One of the ways they re doing that is by making it obvious when a website is not secure.
They ve shown a warning when a website isn t secure for a while now, but recently Google started showing warnings on even more sites. Why is Google blocking websites in the Chrome browser? Let s find out.
What is Mixed Content?
Chrome is tightening up on what s known as mixed content on web pages. This means the page has a combination of secure and insecure content.
You may be familiar with the difference between HTTP and HTTPS web pages. Pages that use the HTTPS protocol are encrypted to be more secure.
When the information on a web page transfers back-and-forth between the server and your connection, it passes through various other nodes on the internet. If a hacker is sniffing that data as it passes, they can see everything that s not encrypted.
This is why it s so important that credit cards and other private information goes through HTTPS connections. They re encrypted so even if someone is snooping the information, they won t be able to read it.
Pages with mixed content might use HTTPS for the page itself, but any content within the page that s unencrypted is still vulnerable to interception. This often happens with things like tracking scripts, ads, and sharing buttons for other websites.
Is Google Blocking Websites Completely?
In mid 2019, Google updated Chrome to start blocking the unencrypted parts of pages with mixed content. If you browse to one of these pages, Chrome will show a warning that some of the content is not secure and it blocks those parts of the page from loading.
Chrome will try to load the same content using HTTPS automatically. If the website does have a secure version of the content but hasn t updated the page to use it, this will solve the problem and you ll likely never know it happened behind the scenes.
If there is no secure alternative available, you can override the setting and tell Chrome to load the content anyway. If it s a website that you trust and you re confident that there s no risk in loading it, this lets you get around the block.
The Types of Content Chrome Blocks
The initial rollout of this feature in Chrome is blocking scripts and iframes, which are two of the riskiest types of content to load when insecure. Over the next several months, this will expand to include more types.
In January 2020, Chrome will start blocking mixed audio and video content as well. Then in February 2020, mixed images will get added to the list.
The option to bypass the block won t be going away but starting in Chrome 79 in December 2019, the mixed content warning will be going away. Instead, you ll see a message in the address bar of the browser identifying the website as insecure.
To bypass the block on these sites, you ll have to click on the message in the address bar and force the content to load from there. It will be much less obvious and more work to override the setting.
Why Mixed Content Blocking Is so Important
Chrome isn t the only browser that s blocking mixed content. Firefox and Safari are both taking similar steps to flag web pages that are not entirely secure. And Microsoft s Edge browser is being redesigned to use the Chromium engine that Chrome is based on so it will likely follow suit.
With so many of our day-to-day transactions happening online and sensitive information often being part of those transactions, the information must get transmitted securely. By blocking unsecured content and flagging it to the user, Google and other browser companies are driving this change forward.
Mixed Content from the User s Perspective
From the user s perspective, this change is going to be a bit inconvenient. You might find some websites that you ve used for years suddenly won t load properly. It could also mean some extra effort to make those websites work for you.
The short-term pain is worth the long-term gain, however. The overall improvements in the security of the web will be worth the hassle.
If you find it annoying you should complain to the website owner, not Google. They re the one that should take steps to resolve the problem on their site.
Mixed Content from a Business Owner s Perspective
From a short-term perspective, this change that Google is making could seem like it s targeting business owners and penalizing them in some way. It may harm your business if you ignore it but Google has been warning us that this change was coming for a while.
If a visitor lands on your website and immediately sees a warning that it s not secure, there s a good chance they re going to click away and you ll have lost a potential customer. Even if they trust your company, a lot of people aren t going to make the effort to get around the block.
This mixed content issue can affect your website s rankings in Google s search results as well. One of the search engine optimization (SEO) factors that Google considers when ranking a site is whether it s secure. A secure site is going to rank higher than an insecure site.
You can see this for yourself. Search Google for a popular keyword in your industry and look at the first page of results. Chances are, every site listed shows HTTPS in the address.
If your website has any mixed content, now is the time to get it updated so everything is secure. If you re not sure how to do this or want to make this part of a larger approach to improving your SEO, GFC Tech s SEO services will help you fix any gaps and get your site ranked higher in the Google results.
Don t Put It off Any Longer
There s no reason to wonder is Google blocking websites? They ve been clear that yes, they are blocking them. If your website isn t fully secure, it s going to get blocked.
But even if you don t care about Google, providing secure content to your visitors makes sense. It helps protect you both against data loss and other attacks.
If you want to find out more about how to protect your data or any other type of business IT support, GFC Tech can help. Get in touch with us today to find out what we can do for you.
Call: 0208 4324686
Email: Support@gfctech.co.uk
Web: https://gfctech.co.uk
Adam is a Founder of GFC Tech, a company dealing in SEO and website design and development services. Adam has been an SEO expert for the past 8 years and has been working with different companies in this field. He is an SEO consultant and a marketing strategist and works closely with his clients to ensure that his marketing plans and strategies provide them with the marketing advantages they need to grow their business. Adam’s main role is an SEO consultant, but he is also involved in all technical aspects. Adam also develops WordPress websites, designs them professionally and performs SEO for them so they can rank on the first page of google.