Your website's padlock now expires every 7 months

A customer taps your website on her phone. Instead of your homepage, Chrome shows a grey page: "Your connection is not private." She doesn't know what that means. She knows it sounds like a scam, so she goes back and taps the next business on the list.

Nothing was wrong with your website. The small file that gives it the padlock, called a security certificate, simply ran out.

The dates are getting shorter. Since March 2026, a certificate can last at most about 200 days, roughly 7 months. In March 2027 that drops to 100 days. In March 2029 it drops to 47 days. Whoever renews it by hand, an owner, a nephew or the person who built the site years ago, will miss one sooner or later.

Most websites are already fine. If your site is on Wix, Squarespace, Shopify or a normal hosting plan, renewal is usually automatic. The ones at risk were set up by hand, run on an old server, or were built by someone who is no longer around.

The 1-minute check:

1. Open your website in Chrome on your phone.
2. Tap the small icon to the left of the address.
3. If it says "Connection is secure", you're fine today. If you see a warning, a customer sees it too.

The fix is usually one switch in your hosting account, often called "auto-renew" or "free SSL". Turn it on once and you never think about it again.

If you're not sure who set yours up, send me your website and I'll tell you, for free, whether it renews by itself and when it expires next.

Remus Baltatu, Sylvania Consulting, Buffalo Grove