As you know, the web is getting crowded. And Google, being the primary search engine of choice, can’t possibly put everyone up in the front of the line. Google has a lot of policies to ensure that their clients find the best of the best, …first. Before all the crappy stuff. And that’s the way it should be. They have a lot (a really lot) of policies governing advertising…so if you use Adwords, you should really look. But this is not about advertising…

They have a new rule that governs sites that have forums, mailing lists, even simple contact forms…every site that takes personal information. And the rule is that those pages must be delivered via SSL (secure socket layer…encryption for you simple folk) In other words, they have to be able to be delivered with the https:// in the front, instead of https:// . And if they don’t comply, or can’t, then in Google’s search results, there will be a warning in red that the site is not secure. (damaging traffic, of course)  If you want to read about it, The Post is Here