Could drop next month. Blame SSL. — Domain inquiries

Start filling out a form on for sale landers and you’ll see a “not secure” message.

Yesterday I wrote regarding how landing page firms are adding SSL support for domains on their platforms in order to meet Google’s deadline next month. Starting next month, domain names with any sort of user submission form that don’t have an SSL certificate will be marked as “not secure” in Google Chrome when people enter text in the form.

This is also going to be an issue for domain name for sale pages that have a contact form. A “not secure” message in the browser will surely lead to some drop in conversions. The message will only appear when someone starts typing in the form, but that will probably catch their eye. It would be much better to have the green secure padlock.

You might say “Hey, if they really want the domain, they’ll find a way to contact me”. But domain sales firms have worked tirelessly to improve the conversion rate of their sales forms, so dismissing this issue out of hand doesn’t make sense.

Most of my domains are parked with Afternic and Uniregistry, and both of these ought to be OK.

Afternic parked pages don’t have a form on the landing page. Instead, like many parking firms, they include a banner with a link to a form on a secure site.

Uniregistry is the same for standard parked pages. If you choose the sales form option, the domain forwards to a page on Uniregistry.com that has SSL. For example, go to Sweller.com and you’ll be forwarded to Uniregistry.com.

I also have a few domains at BrandBucket. These have a contact form and will be marked as “not secure” starting next month if someone starts typing inside the form. Ditto for domains at Efty.

SSL certificates can be obtained for free, so there’s a solution for these firms that will not require shelling out lots of money on SSL certs. Still, it’s going to require some technical work to make this happen. I recommend domain sales firms get working on this. Fast.