Every time you got to a website you type an address or URL into your web browser address bar. Even now looking at this website you can probably see something like https://townsvillenerds.com.

HTTP stands for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol and it is the rules or a set way your computer and web browser use to transfer the data you are seeing on your screen between yourself and the web server which hosts the site such as Hostgator or BlueHost.

Every time you go to a particular website you and the web server are swapping information and files are being sent to you over http which your web browser is displaying on your screen to make sense in a way you can understand such as text, pictures, movies and music etc.

Hyper Text Transfer Protocol is quite efficient and does an excellent job for most web browsing, but it is not very secure.

How is HTTPS different?

HTTPS stands for Secure HyperText Transfer Protocol. On the surface it looks a lot like HTTP but it is actually a different communications altogether.

When you use HTTP you have no protection from prying eyes and it does not ensure you communication is arriving at the right destination intended.

HTTPS does quote the opposite, not only concerning itself with just making sure no one else can see it, but also making sure it gets to the right destination and no one else receives your exchanging of information over the web.

HTTP and HTTPS are in fact so different they use completely different TCP ports. HTTP uses 80 and HTTPS uses 443.

How does HTTPS work?

Secure HyperText Transfer Protocol doesn’t keep your communication protected alone. It uses another form of technology called encryption and in this case the encryption is called SSL (Secure Socket Layer). HTTPS is only secure because it uses SSL.

Secure Socket Layer works by the client initiating a handshake with the web server and sending it a number of specifications like the version being used etc.

The server makes sure it version is used by both and assigns a cipher suite and compression protocol, then sends a server certificate.

When it is satisfied the server is who it is suppose to be and no one else can see what you are doing a key is exchanged and data can be communicated between you and server with much higher security than HTTP.

HTTPS Pros and Cons

The only real disadvantage to setting up HTTPS on your web server is the cost, they are not free.  Not the good ones anyway.

It is a huge misconception that using HTTPS will hog all the resources on your server and pages will load much slower for customers, which simply isn’t true.

Advantages:

• You will build trust with your users when they do something like try and move money and they can see they are doing it over HTTPS.
• Data Integrity – SSL guarantees integrity of data sent over SSL.
• Google takes into consideration if your sensitive information is being transferred over HTTPS or not and includes this in SEO rankings.