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Why HTTPS Matters for Custom Short URLs

December 9, 2023
5 min read

Typically, SSL certificates adorn pages that necessitate end-users to furnish sensitive information, such as personal details, passwords, or credit card data. However, the prevalence of SSL extends beyond these domains.

You might have noticed the 'S' indicator in your browser when navigating through social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Moreover, Google has demonstrated a penchant for websites equipped with SSL certification. So, why is it imperative to ensure the security of all your links?

Even if your links do not facilitate highly sensitive communications, the internet is steadily gravitating towards an HTTPS-exclusive landscape. HTTPS has become a prerequisite for numerous contemporary browser features.

When your website boasts an SSL certificate, all the links you share should follow suit. This ensures that your users maintain a consistent cloak of confidentiality while interacting with your website. In contrast, employing HTTP short links exposes your link traffic to third-party monitoring, potentially divulging insights into which short links are being visited. If you link to destinations like Google Docs or public Dropbox folders housing confidential or identifying information, such as usernames, adopting secure HTTPS links becomes indispensable. This mitigates the risk of critical data falling into the wrong hands or visitor de-anonymization.

Additional Benefits of Sharing Secure Links

SSL isn't just about protecting your links; it also furnishes users with a sense of privacy and engenders trust in your brand, even if your links don't encompass sensitive data.

If you seek to entice users to click through to your website, employing HTTPS URLs instills confidence from the outset, signaling that your online business is trustworthy. This becomes especially vital when you intend to facilitate payments or transactions on your website. As HTTPS becomes the norm, users increasingly expect professional links to be shared with HTTPS, making trust-building imperative.

Sharing HTTPS links proves particularly advantageous when you are posting a link on a secure SSL page. Using insecure links on a secure web page may trigger browser warnings about unsecured content, and privacy-focused browser extensions may also raise concerns.

How to Attain Secure HTTPS URLs

Are you keen on sharing short links fortified with SSL encryption? Unfortunately, most URL shorteners do not offer this capability. Generic URL shorteners typically lack SSL certificates for short links, potentially dissuading users from clicking on them. Furthermore, they fail to convey to users the nature of the linked content or the safety of the destination server.

If you want to employ branded links, Tapper is here to cater to your data protection needs. Branded links are already proven to boost link trust and click-through rates by up to 39%. By incorporating HTTPS into your branded short links, you can amplify this trust factor.

Obtaining branded HTTPS short links is now seamless and included in all our plans. When you create custom short URLs using HTTPS, traffic to your content will automatically benefit from encryption, sans any need for complex configurations. If you prefer to utilize your own SSL certificate, reach out to us, and we can facilitate the setup process.

In conclusion, HTTPS for custom short URLs emerges as an indispensable asset for marketers, enhancing brand trust, safeguarding user privacy, and aligning with the evolving web security landscape. Secure your links and bolster your brand's online presence with HTTPS today.

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