Five steps to SSL encryption of your website

This is not the first time that Google has influenced the development of the World Wide Web by adapting its software and algorithms. Similar to Mozilla, the developers of the well-known "Firefox" browser, Google is also planning to mark websites without SSL encryption (i.e. without the HTTPS protocol) as insecure with its popular "Chrome" browser - especially when data is transmitted via forms.
Image

Written by
Published on
Last modified on
Estimated reading time

Maximilian Hohenstatt
November 15, 2017
October 21, 2024

Image

In contrast to previous practice, this measure no longer only affects credit card or other sensitive user data, but also everyday contact forms and newsletter registrations, which are frequently used on private and corporate websites.

We therefore strongly recommend - if you have not already done so - that you equip your website with an SSL certificate as soon as possible. In addition to being labeled as a "secure site", Google has been rewarding the use of the HTTPS protocol for some time now with a positive impact on search engine rankings. Encryption therefore not only offers you legal protection, but also protects you from unnecessary ranking losses.

How do I find out if my website is affected?

You can easily find out whether your website is already SSL-encrypted.

Check the URL

    If your website can be accessed via "https", it is already encrypted. A green lock symbol in the browser also indicates that the connection is secure. In this case, you are already on the safe side and do not need to do anything else.

    The use of HTTPS is essential for every website today. Google has clearly signaled that the security of user data is a top priority. If you don't switch your website to HTTPS, you risk both slipping in the search results and losing the trust of your users.

    How does an SSL certificate work?

    An SSL certificate encrypts the communication between the visitors to your website and the server on which your website is hosted. This encryption ensures that no third parties can intercept the data during transmission. Encryption is particularly important for websites with form fields, as names, email addresses or other contact details are usually requested here. In some cases, even passwords, bank details or insurance numbers are collected.

    How do I obtain an SSL certificate?

    You can obtain an SSL certificate from your current hosting provider. There are different levels of encryption methods. For companies that request particularly sensitive data (such as banks or insurance companies), we recommend an extended certificate that also displays the company name in the browser bar. However, such certificates are expensive to set up and maintain. For small and medium-sized companies, a simple "Let's Encrypt" certificate is usually sufficient. This offers solid encryption, does not require company verification and is easy to set up.

    How much does an SSL certificate cost?

    Let's Encrypt certificates are generally free of charge. The non-profit organization Let's Encrypt is committed to making the Internet more secure by providing free SSL/TLS certificates. There are no monthly fees and the certificates can be renewed automatically. Some hosting providers integrate the automatic setup of Let's Encrypt certificates as an additional service in their packages, but the certificate itself is free of charge.

    How does the setup of an SSL certificate work?

    The setup of an SSL certificate begins with the selection of the certificate type and the application via your hosting provider or a certificate provider. You then create a CSR (Certificate Signing Request) and submit it together with the application. After receiving the certificate, install it on your server and set up automatic HTTPS redirection to ensure that all HTTP requests are redirected to the secure HTTPS version of your website. Finally, you should check and regularly renew the installation and update your SSL settings to ensure the long-term security of your website.

    Security and trust through SSL certificates

    In today's digital world, the use of SSL certificates is indispensable. They protect the communication between your website and your visitors, prevent sensitive data from being tapped and improve the trustworthiness of your site. An SSL certificate not only ensures a secure connection, but also has a positive impact on your search engine ranking. Since Let's Encrypt offers free certificates, it is easier than ever to convert your website to HTTPS. Make sure you have the conversion process carried out professionally to avoid potential complications and ensure the long-term security of your website.

    Image
    Written by Maximilian Hohenstatt

    Further contributions

    Click hereto return to the overview page.
    Image

    Improve Meta Ads Performance

    Are your Meta campaigns not delivering the expected results? Costs are rising while conversions are falling, or your ads are suddenly barely being shown. Performance issues with Meta Ads usually have specific, fixable causes. The key is to take a structured approach and focus your optimization efforts on the right areas. In this article, we’ll show you the seven most common pitfalls and how to overcome them.

    Image

    Partner & Söhne a Google Premium Partner for 2026

    There are many certifications in the agency market. Some can be earned after completing an online course, while others can simply be purchased for a fee. Google Premium Partner status doesn’t work that way. It can neither be bought nor quickly attained, which makes it one of the most credible accolades a Google Ads agency can hold. That’s why we’re thrilled that Partner & Söhne achieved Partner & Söhne status in 2026. It confirms what we’ve understood for years as the foundation of our work: thinking sustainably, working for the long term, and delivering results that stand the test of time.

    Image

    The Importance of Personal Branding for Businesses

    Brands are increasingly losing control over the context in which they appear. An elaborately designed website, well-thought-out navigation, consistent corporate identity. All of this loses visibility when content appears fragmented in AI responses, search results, or feeds. The brand framework that was supposed to classify statements is disappearing.

    In AI-generated responses in particular, content is taken out of its original context and reassembled. Large language models (LLMs) summarize information from various sources and present individual statements without the surrounding website. But what remains when the brand framework is missing? The source. And sources with recognizable authors are currently considered more credible by these systems than abstract organizations.

    Image

    Healthcare Marketing in a Highly Regulated Market

    An online store for sports shoes launches a new campaign. Flashy banners advertise a 20 percent discount, a countdown timer shows "Only 3 left in stock," and retargeting ads follow interested customers across all channels. Meanwhile, a dental practice is planning its marketing strategy for the coming season. No discounts possible, no dramatic scarcity messages allowed, every word legally reviewed. The difference could hardly be greater.

    Anyone who works in healthcare marketing is familiar with this discrepancy from their daily business. The rules of the game are fundamentally different from those in classic e-commerce or B2B marketing. Strict legal requirements, increased data protection requirements, ethical boundaries, and a completely different trust dynamic shape every single decision. These special features make healthcare marketing one of the most demanding disciplines in digital marketing—and require specialized know-how that goes far beyond classic performance marketing.

    Image

    Prompt Monitoring: How to track your visibility in AI search

    People talk to AI systems differently than they search on Google. "Project management tool remote team" becomes "I'm looking for a solution for project management in a distributed team of ten people." This natural language fundamentally changes how content is found and, therefore, how you need to measure whether your content is even discoverable. Traditional keyword rankings are ineffective when the majority of people are no longer searching for keywords. So how can you track your brand's performance in AI tool search results? Prompt Monitoring provides the answer to this question. It systematically records when and how AI systems talk about your company, which sources they use, and how you are positioned compared to your competitors. In this article, you will learn how prompt monitoring works, why it differs fundamentally from classic keyword tracking, and what specific options for action it offers.

    Image

    Which KPIs are truly relevant in B2B lead generation?

    You invest your budget in ads, build content, and generate hundreds of leads per month. The conversion rate is steadily increasing. Your marketing dashboard looks good. Nevertheless, sales remain below expectations. The problem is not a lack of marketing activity, but rather incorrect success indicators. Many B2B companies focus on metrics that look impressive but say little about actual business success. The key KPIs are not at the beginning of the funnel, but where leads actually turn into paying customers. This article shows you which metrics really matter and how you can use them for strategic decisions.

    Image

    Attribution models: How to evaluate the actual value of your marketing channels

    You invest in Google Ads, run meta campaigns, and engage in content marketing. The conversion happens—but which channel actually influenced the purchase decision? Attribution models promise clarity by assigning conversions to different touchpoints. But the reality is more complex: modern customer journeys span multiple devices, channels, and weeks—while classic attribution captures only a fraction of this journey. This article shows how different attribution models work, where their limitations lie, and which model is suitable for which use case.

    Image

    Incremental attribution: How to measure the actual advertising success of your Meta Ads

    Imagine you spend $10,000 on advertising and your reporting shows 100 sales. Sounds good. But how many of those 100 purchases would have happened without your advertising? Because customers already knew your brand, wanted to buy anyway, or would have found you through other channels? Incremental attribution answers precisely this question. It separates genuine advertising impact from random hits. The result: you find out which campaigns actually generate additional sales and which are only credited with conversions that would have happened anyway. The topic sounds complex. However, the methodology behind it is simple: part of your target group does not see any advertising (control group), while the rest does. The difference in purchasing behavior shows the real contribution of advertising. Why is this important? Because classic attribution models systematically deliver overly optimistic figures. They measure correlations, not causes. This leads to misallocations in the budget. Money flows into campaigns that look good but have little effect.

    Image

    Traffic drops, visibility remains

    Rankings are stable, visibility is on the rise, but traffic is plummeting. This seemingly contradictory situation is currently confusing many website operators. The cause lies in a fundamental change in the search landscape: AI-powered search engines are changing how users search for and consume information. This development requires a rethink of how success is measured in digital marketing. Traffic and click numbers are becoming less meaningful, while new metrics are coming to the fore. The question is no longer just "How many clicks are we generating?" but "How present is our brand in the answers users receive?"

    Image

    GA4 Standard Events for Lead Generation: Complete Transparency Across the Entire Funnel

    Do you really know which of your marketing campaigns are actually generating value? Or do you rely on lead numbers that may sound impressive but often don't allow you to draw conclusions about real business results? This is precisely where the fundamental problem with traditional tracking methods lies: they end with the form submission and provide no insight into what happens next. GA4 Standard Events for lead generation provide complete visibility across the entire lead funnel—from initial contact to contract signing. Instead of making decisions based on incomplete data, you get the foundation for value-based marketing decisions. In this article, you'll learn how to leverage this transparency for your business goals.

    Image

    SEO vs. GEO

    Two channels, double the effort? Not necessarily. Both traditional and AI search engines work with your content, but evaluate it according to different criteria in some cases. Some of your SEO measures will therefore automatically work for GEO as well, while others will need to be adapted and still others will be completely ineffective. Knowing these differences saves resources and increases your visibility across both channels. In this article, we'll show you which of your SEO basics continue to work for GEO and where you need to adjust your strategy.

    Image

    Creative diversity in meta advertising: success strategies for better campaign performance

    Meta Ads campaigns now fail less often due to incorrect targeting than due to monotonous advertising media. Whereas advertisers used to spend hours fine-tuning the perfect target group definition, it is now the diversity of their creatives that determines success or failure. This shift is no coincidence: Meta's Andromeda system has fundamentally redefined the rules of the game. The system no longer personalizes advertising primarily via demographic characteristics, but via behaviour-based signals. Your creatives themselves become a targeting tool. Meta continuously learns which advertising material has the strongest effect on which person. The prerequisite: you provide the system with enough different options. In this article, you can find out how you can best use this for your campaigns and what points should be taken into account.

    Image

    Speed optimization for WordPress: How to measurably speed up websites

    Loading times are like good background music in a restaurant: no one consciously notices them as long as they are right. But as soon as a website loads too slowly, visitors often become impatient, bounce and prefer to look for a new page. What many underestimate: These brief moments of impatience have measurable consequences. Every second of additional loading time costs not only visitors, but also Google rankings, conversion rates and cash for online stores. The good news? WordPress offers numerous levers that can be used to noticeably improve performance - often with surprisingly little effort. In this article, we will show you which measures have the greatest effect and how they can be implemented.

    Image

    Budget planning for Google Ads: How to calculate your optimal advertising budget

    How much budget do you really need for successful Google Ads campaigns? This question is a daily concern for marketing managers. The good news is that there are proven calculation methods that help you to systematically calculate your budget instead of guessing a figure or "just starting with 1,000 euros". With the right formulas, you can plan your advertising budget on the basis of measurable business figures. This will help you avoid both underinvestment without meaningful results and budget waste without a clear profitability perspective. In this article, we present three fundamental calculation approaches and use specific examples to show you how to apply them to your company.

    Image

    Meta Ads Sitelinks: Better performance for your campaign

    More clicks, higher conversion rates and more satisfied users: Meta Ads Sitelinks add additional, clickable destinations to your mobile Facebook ads. Instead of just going to a landing page, potential customers are offered several relevant options directly in the ad. This shortens the customer journey, increases the click surface and significantly improves the user experience. Sitelinks are therefore a valuable tool for getting the most out of your meta ads campaigns. In this article, you can find out exactly how to set them up, what optimization options are available and how you can use them to sustainably increase the performance of your campaigns.

    Image

    MVZ marketing: The most important strategies for sustainable patient numbers

    Medical care centers and large healthcare providers face special marketing challenges that differ fundamentally from those of individual practices. While individual practices can often rely on personal reputation and word of mouth, medical care centers need a well thought-out, broad-based digital strategy.

    Image

    Offline conversion tracking: How to successfully master lead generation online

    Which of your online measures actually lead to high-quality leads that later become customers? The answer lies in offline conversion tracking - a method that closes the gap between your digital lead generation and actual sales.

    Image

    Google AI Overview: What the new function means for your online presence

    The introduction of AI Overviews in Germany at the end of March 2025 has fundamentally changed the search landscape on Google. For website operators and SEO managers, this presents new challenges and a variety of strategic considerations.

    Image

    The ODR platform has been switched off since July 20, 2025

    According to the official Regulation 2024/3228, the European Commission finally shut down the online dispute resolution platform (ODR platform) on July 20, 2025. This results in specific obligations for all online retailers and service providers. We show you what measures you need to take now to stay on the safe side legally.

    Two people are sitting at a table in front of a laptop. The screen shows the auromedicum.de website, which provides information on orthopaedic care and pain therapy. One person is pointing at the keyboard. The scene conveys a concentrated search or appointment booking in the field of medical care.

    Conversion-optimized landing pages: How to increase your digital success

    A landing page is a company's digital business card and often the first point of contact with potential customers. In this article, we take a detailed look at which elements make a landing page successful and how it can be optimized for optimal conversion rates.

    Close-up of a person using a Braille keyboard with a built-in Braille display. The hands feel the raised dots on the display, while a conventional computer keyboard lies next to it. The scene shows accessible technology for visually impaired or blind users.

    The Accessibility Improvement Act and its consequences for website operators

    The Accessibility Improvement Act (BFSG) has been in force since June 28, 2025. It is a decisive step towards greater digital participation and accessibility. The law obliges companies to design their digital presence in such a way that it is accessible to all people.

    Image

    Vanity metrics vs. actionable metrics

    Vanity metrics such as page views or followers are impressive on the surface, but rarely offer real added value for strategic decisions as they are often manipulated or lack context. Instead, actionable metrics that show clear connections to business goals and enable concrete options for action, such as conversion rates or engagement rates, are crucial. If you want sustainable success, you need to critically scrutinize superficial figures and focus on meaningful metrics.

    Image

    AI-supported content creation

    We know the challenge of regularly creating high-quality content for the blog and company website alongside day-to-day business. However, with the use of AI assistants(Large Language Models, LLMs for short) and an optimized meeting culture, this process can be made much more efficient.

    Image

    AI search engines: What does the trend mean for your digital visibility?

    For over two decades, Google was the standard: one search query, one list of links as a result. But since the end of 2023, this familiar landscape has been changing. AI-supported search engines such as Perplexity, You.com, Google Gemini and ChatGPT Search are establishing alternative ways of processing information.

    Image

    Partner & Söhne - Sustainably digital

    For seven years now, we at Partner & Söhne have been supporting companies on their way to a target group-oriented and contemporary digital presence. True to the principle "Practice what you preach", we have been working intensively on the further development of our own brand in recent months.

    Image

    How do you write the perfect blog article?

    Whether to expand a website, as a creative outlet or to provide information: blogs are an integral part of the Internet and accompany many people in their everyday lives. As a blog can also contribute to a company's positive reputation, it is also a popular marketing tool. But how do you get started? How should a blog be designed? And how do you find the right topics? In this article, we give you a compact summary of the perfect blog article: Blogception, so to speak.

    Image

    From Easter to October - What website operators can learn from car owners

    Have you already made an appointment for the semi-annual tire change at the garage? Do you regularly take your vehicle for its MOT? And why are we asking you these questions at all?

    Image

    SEO vs. SEA - When is which measure worthwhile?

    SEO and SEA are essential components of search engine marketing. Website operators rely on these measures to strengthen their online presence, increase traffic and ultimately boost their sales. But what exactly is behind SEO and SEA, and how do these approaches differ? This article answers these and other questions.

    Image

    5 points for better search engine optimization

    To ensure the constant growth of your website, it is crucial to regularly optimize key SEO aspects and ensure that your content is easy to read for search engines. A targeted focus on the most important SEO measures, such as avoiding duplicate content, using an SSL certificate, optimizing the loading time, the quality of the content and mobile optimization, ensures that your website remains visible and continuously improves.

    Image

    Five steps to SSL encryption of your website

    This is not the first time that Google has influenced the development of the World Wide Web by adapting its software and algorithms. Similar to Mozilla, the developers of the well-known "Firefox" browser, Google is also planning to mark websites without SSL encryption (i.e. without the HTTPS protocol) as insecure with its popular "Chrome" browser - especially when data is transmitted via forms.

    Image

    Easy navigation, better use: how to increase the usability of your website

    Every website launch or relaunch often begins with the question: "What and who do I actually want to reach with my website?" This consideration is crucial in order to find out whether existing content can continue to be used in an optimized way or whether new content needs to be created. We can already anticipate this: In most cases, a balanced mix of both is the best approach.

    We look forward to your inquiry

    Book a free initial consultation with Maximilian Hohenstatt now or contact us by email, phone, or LinkedIn.

    hello@partnerundsoehne.de
    +49 621 533 999 82
    Networking on LinkedIn
    Image