Google announced on August 6th that HTTPS encryption – available exclusively from SSL certificates – will now be a positive factor for search ranking position and SEO.
Mastering SEO and getting the best ranking for your site is important. Google is the world’s most popular search engine by far and a majority of traffic for many sites, including personal websites, and especially for e-commerce sites, is driven by Google.
Having SSL for your site is a good thing. Not only does SSL provide encryption via HTTPS, which protects your visitors’ privacy and data, it also provides data integrity, so you and your customers know that their data or your website has not been tampered with. High assurance certificates (OV and EV certificates) also provide identity assurance so customers know you are who you say you are.
Another benefit of SSL, you get a boost in your search ranking with Google. Currently, this is just a “very lightweight signal” because Google does not want to move too quickly and punish webmasters who are not yet ready to switch to HTTPS. Google has been an advocate for internet security for a long time, and all indications show that SSL will most likely become a more highly-weighted signal in the future, after websites adjust to the new change in Google’s algorithm.
This change is a result of tests that Google has been running on their search algorithms. Google’s Webmaster Trends analysts Zineb Ait Bahajiji and Gary Illyses, mention that, based on the positive results of Google’s test, where they tweaked their search ranking algorithms to incorporate whether sites use secure encrypted connections, the team decided to use HTTPS/SSL as a ranking signal in its search results.
It’s important to know that the SEO boost only applies to pages protected by SSL. So, if your website only has its login or checkout page secure, you will not be maximizing the benefit of your SSL certificate or Google’s ranking update. Enabling HTTPS encryption across your entire site is called “Always-On SSL” or “HTTPS Everywhere”.
If you have any queries or concerns related to SSL Certificates, please click here.
