Industry changes in response to new Google guidelines
One of the frustrating things about building and hosting websites is that the technology changes frequently. Also, Google changes their guidelines and that effects your rankings.
When Mobile Friendly design came about it was considered a great concept. However, it's hard to tell a customer that his perfectly good website was now considered obsolete and Google would penalize its rankings.
Well, we have worked through all that and it created a lot of work for web developers.
Next, Google decided that all websites needed an SSL certificate. Previously, these were really only needed for e-commerce sites. But suddenly Google decided that every website needed one.
Well, you are paying $50- a year to host a website and suddenly you are told that you need a certificate that costs $75- a year. Sounds a little suspect. It was great business for the web hosts, very profitable. Some of the big hosting companies continued to promote their 'discount hosting' but then triple the price by adding a required SSL certificate.
However, a new company entered the market. Let's Encrypt is offering Free SSL Certificates through hosting companies.
The response from the more reputable hosting companies was to offer free certs with every hosting plan. However, the discount hosts are playing a different game. They are offering a free SSL for 1 year, then auto billing the customers $75- extra per year thereafter.
So, read the fine print and understand your true costs.
