Have you ever seen Google Chrome’s warning about a website not being safe when you tried to open it?
That website doesn’t have an HTTPS certificate, so Google warned you about potential danger.
Then did you go ahead?
If you understand the importance of data security, we bet you don’t. Most users these days care about safety. People use their devices for most of their daily tasks and chores, especially finance-related ones, which is why they don’t want someone to breach their credit card data.
So, coming back to the question that the blog topic poses — Is HTTPS good for SEO?
First, let us make sense of the terms HTTP and HTTPS and their difference. Then we will discuss whether you should use HTTPS protocol for your website to boost its SEO.
What is HTTP?
Hypertext transfer protocol or HTTP is a protocol that enables web servers and client computers to communicate with each other on the world wide web.
Web clients send an HTTP request to a web server, which sends an HTTP response upon receiving a request. HTTP is called an application layer protocol.
Now, consider HTTP as someone delivering a parcel (data) from point A to B. This person tries their best to deliver it in the most presentable form. However, it doesn’t care what happens to the parcel during its journey.
It gives HTTP the benefit of loading information quickly because It has little data to deal with. The HTTP protocol doesn’t remember any data it sent previously. Its benefit is fast browsing as it has little data to send.
What is HTTPS?
HTTP and HTTPS both work in almost similar ways. But the ‘s’ in HTTPS stands for security. HTTPS sites have the SSL 2048- bit key and safeguard a page’s connection via encryption and authentication.
When someone installs an SSL certificate on their web server, it activates the HTTPS system and the padlock. It also enables a web server to securely connect with a browser.
HTTPS sites protect your connection with three data security layers:
- They are encrypted, which means someone cannot monitor a user’s actions or breach their data
- They protect files from being corrupted when files move from one place to another
- Authentication develops user trust by protecting against cyber crimes
Is HTTPS Beneficial for SEO?
Yes, HTTPS is good for SEO.
Why? Google ranks those websites higher that provide a better user experience. And an HTTPS site provides added security to users, enhancing their experience on the site.
Google Chrome warns when a user tries to open a non-HTTPS website. It is enough evidence that Google place at least some value on HTTPS encryption.
Affordable digital marketing services can implement an SSL certificate on your website.
Does Google Consider HTTPS A Ranking Signal?
Yes, they announced it in August 2014. Google mentioned that they have started checking web pages for encrypted and secure connections, and from now onwards, they will use HTTPS as a ranking factor.
Google further said they would consider HTTPS a “lightweight” ranking factor. Nothing is more important for Google than its end-users; this ranking factor directly relates to user experience.
Should You Not Link to HTTP Websites?
Somebody asked Google’s John Mueller if linking to insecure sites can impact SEO.
Google’s search advocate gave this answer:
“ From our point of view, it’s perfectly fine. If those pages are in HTTP, that’s where you will link to. There is nothing against liking sites like this. There is no downside to your site linking to HTTP pages because they are kind of old or not as cool as HTTPS. I wouldn’t worry about it.”
So, in his words, Google doesn’t mind it, but your visitors can. When you link to a page that Google shows with a security warning, it leaves a wrong impression on users.
And Google’s algorithms keep sensing users’ dislike of a page by monitoring metrics like bounce rate.
But here is another problem for visitors. The HTTP websites are unreliable and insecure. But if a user visits such a site, whether the same server they request for data will respond or another server will do it.
Furthermore, technology never stays at the same point. Cybercriminals keep working on their ‘skills’ to attack sites in new ways. If you want to provide guaranteed SEO services, you have to ensure your users’ experience on your pages is safe.
Try to only link to HTTPs pages when possible. And search for alternative content on secure pages, which provides the same value as the material still on HTTP pages.
Search engine optimization is all about making users satisfied. Your SEO strategy should focus on visitors’ overall experience on your pages. If anyone gets in trouble because of your carelessness, you can bet they will never visit again.
How to Apply HTTPS Protocol on Your Site?
You need to contact a hosting company to activate an SSL certificate on your site. Or better, you hand this over to an SEO company that will take care of other aspects of your search engine marketing needs.
There are many hosting service providers, but you should choose the one that fits your requirements.
Here are some recommendations from Google when you apply HTTPS to your site.
- Use 2048-bit key certificates
- Consider a wildcard, single, multi-domain certificate as per your needs
- Employ corresponding URLs for pages that are utilizing the same safe domain
- Let the robots.txt crawl your HTTPS site
- Do not prevent your pages from getting indexed by the search engine when possible
- Do not utilize the no index meta tag for robots.txt
- Select URLs that correspond with your protocol for the other hosting services
- Take help from Google’s Webmaster Tools and any analytics tool to monitor your site’s migration from HTTP to HTTPS
Bottom Line
Our blog answers two questions. One is whether you should have an HTTPS website to boost your SEO. Its answer is yes. Google openly admitted that it considers HTTPS as a ranking factor.
And it also affects user experience, which is another significant ranking signal. The second question was: can linking to HTTP pages harm your rankings? The answer is no, according to Google until now.
We hope you like our content and that the knowledge in it helps you better refine your SEO strategy.
