Make Your NetSuite Site Builder Site Secure – HTTPS Throughout

Get the Benefits of a Secure Website Without Buying SCA

Why Secure Your Entire Site? When you view a webpage, that information passes through a dozen or more servers to get to you. If that URL starts with https://, anyone in the path can view or even modify the contents of the page. ISPs insert their own ads in web pages, can now legally track & sell your browsing history, and many governments around the world collect massive troves of browsing data. Securing your entire site (instead of just the checkout portion) is now considered a very good thing to do for your users. It’s nearly impossible for a ‘man in the middle’ to extract or change information on secure pages. It’s a win for the user. Here is a more detailed explanation of HTTP vs HTTPS if you want more background.

How a Content Delivery Network Works

Benefits of Using a CDN

• Your pages load faster for users and search engines, which may boost your organic rankings and conversion rates.
• Avoid bottlenecks during peak usage – when your site is the busiest, the CDN will keep it from slowing down.
• Google has stated they give a small rankings boost for secure sites.

Google Gives Us Extra Motivation

Google has a mind-boggling amount of influence over the web, thanks to its near monopoly of search traffic. There are two main benefits:

1. A small organic rankings boost for HTTPS sites
2. Referrer data will be preserved when users come to your site from a secure URL, like search results pages (SERPs).

Obviously everyone wants a rankings boost, but the lead has really been buried – the return of keyword data! Currently, Google still hides the keyword even for HTTPS websites. I hope public pressure can get them to change their mind, as their stance is pretty hypocritical. Other HTTPS search engines DO provide the keyword, like Bing. Read more on Google’s privacy hypocrisy here.

Options for Site Builder Websites

NetSuite has said multiple times that they will not be offering Site Builder sites any way to make their entire site secure. Maybe they think that will get more businesses to spend six figures on their SuiteCommerce Advanced behemoth, but it’s not necessary for site-wide HTTPS.
Content Delivery Networks to the Rescue
With the right technology, you can get your entire site running on HTTPS without upgrading from Site Builder. A content delivery network (CDN) works by sitting between your site and your users, speeding up the flow of information by caching it and delivering it from servers that are closer to the user. Some CDNs like Cloudflare also offer the ability to convert your HTTP sections to HTTPS. I have done this on my test drive site as a proof of concept:
https://tdr.fourthwc.net

Sounds Great! How’s It Done?

There are some technical aspects to this:

• Code updates in site builder to ensure compatibility with CDN (can be somewhat complex)
• Configuring the CDN
• Purchase & set up a custom SSL certificate (optional)
• Post-launch testing & fixes

Contact Us for More Details

Each website has its own customizations and needs, and no two CDN projects are the same. We will need to make sure you are using relative references for resources like CSS & JavaScript files, and may need to set up exceptions in the CDN for certain files. We at Fourth Wave don’t have any standard solutions, each project is customized to our client’s needs. Get in touch with us and we can discuss your situation for free.

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David Norris

Owner at Fourth Wave Consulting

I have been working with computers and web sites for 20+ years, and have enjoyed mastering many areas of technology. I have been building websites for about 15 years, and working with NetSuite for more than 10. I have worked with dozens of small and medium-sized companies in that time, helping them to understand and leverage the latest tools to grow their business. My business is all about helping you to maximize your business, and I prefer to establish long-term relationships with clients who are dedicated to embracing smart ways to optimize and expand their business.

Latest posts by David Norris (see all)

• NetSuite Announces Plans to End Promotion Functionality for Site Builder - January 16, 2020
• Most NetSuite Websites Are No Longer Tracking Safari Conversions for Adwords - November 20, 2017
• Make Your NetSuite Site Builder Site Secure – HTTPS Throughout - May 28, 2017
• An Introduction to Automating XML Sitemaps for NetSuite Companies - November 13, 2016
• An Introduction to NetSuite’s Reference Checkout & My Account Bundles - April 18, 2016