Before 2020 arrives, webmasters and site owners should look on their website to make sure there is no mixed content on their website. This is because beginning December 2019, Google announced that the Google Chrome browser will start to block web pages with mixed content from search results.
What is Mixed Content?
When referring to mixed content, it is when a secure, HTTPS, website or web page contains scripts or loads content that is served through the insecure HTTP. In simple terms, it is when you have a page on your website that still loads with HTTP while the rest of your website loads securely through HTTPS. Having mixed content on your website runs a security risk for your site visitor as well as your website since there is a “passageway” that is not properly secured. A developer at Google went into more content with mixed content and how it can be a threat to your site and its visitors.
“Mixed content degrades the security and user experience of your HTTPS site.
…Using these resources, an attacker can often take complete control over the page, not just the compromised resource.”
How Mixed Content Will Be Handled
As of now, Chrome currently loads pages with mixed content with no problem or notices. However, starting in December of this year the latest version of Chrome, Chrome 79, will do the following to sites with mixed content.
- Google will automatically upgrade the HTTP content or page to HTTPS if the rest of the website is loading under HTTPS.
- Google will have a toggle that users can use to unblock insecure resources that Chrome is blocking. This is if the resource you have on your website is unable to update to HTTPS.
While this technically isn’t a full block, it basically is as most users will opt out of a website the second a security warning is displayed on user’s screens. This is why Google urges webmasters to fixed mixed content as soon as possible before this update goes into effect.
Beginning in January of 2020, Google will get rid of the toggle option mentioned above and will start fully blocking pages from search results that have mixed content on them.