Google Announce HTTPS Is A Ranking Factor
Google announced yesterday via their Webmaster Central blog that the use of HTTPS connection on your website could well see your site rank better in their search engine results, taking a step further towards the secure web that they hope for.
In the blogpost that was entitled ‘HTTPS as a ranking factor', Google outline once again that "Security is a top priority for Google" and explained how they have invested both time and money into making sure that their search engine offers a safe environment for their users to experience the internet from and the news that secure connection enabled domains are more likely to rank predominantly will have the online webmaster community rushing to purchase an SSL certificate of their own.
Within the article Google reveal that this announcement could just be the start of things that they are looking to achieve, stating that their hope is that HTTPS will be "everywhere on the web."
Although HTTPS options have been available for a while, many website owners have decided against the decision to secure their server connection for one reason or another, while others deemed that the purchase of an SSL certificate was unnecessary but the announcement may just have them reconsider their stance on the additional annual cost (ranging from £48.99 – £172.79 per year from big name domain registrars).
Google revealed that they are not coming into this announcement blind either, claiming that they have "been running tests taking into account whether sites use secure, encrypted connections" over the past few months, sharing that the deemed the results to be positive and allowing that to influence their choice to use HTTPS as a ranking factor.
With the news now out there, Google have pointed out that they will be releasing guidance for HTTPS best practise which should help to guide you into the switch over should you wish to follow the message that they seem to be pushing into the market.
7 Comments
Jonny Ross - http://www.jonnyross.com
Hi Alex,
I saw this, this morning, let me guess, Google will be selling SSL certificates next?? I’d put money on it! Do you think?
Jonny
Alex Graves
I think that with the fact that they are playing with a Beta version of domain registration to a closed US base at the moment, I think you could well be right however I personally believe that this is less about pocketing from that and maybe more about the fact that HTTPS returns N/A pagerank scores in many tools which could further slow the link buying marketplace down.
However if you use Google Chrome, take a look on the extension store for ‘Zippy’ by Bronco and you might just not have that problem 😛
David
So, bit of an SEO question here from someone who’s not an SEO. If you did go for SSL on an existing site, would you have to redirect every single URL via 301 to the https version? Do the http and https versions of a URL count as separate URLs?
Alex Graves
Hi David,
Firstly thanks for reading 🙂
Secondly, and more to the point of your question… If you were to opt to implement HTTPS on your site you would have to ensure that all HTTP URLs were redirected to the HTTPS version yes, making sure that you use a 301 redirect in order to pass the equity into the new resulting URL.
Something else that you would need to think about too is whether your images and scripts that your site could be using would still function correctly as you won’t want any cross over as problems could start to arise.
If you have verified your site in Google Webmaster Tools, you will need to do this again on the HTTPS version too.
karma - http://www.karmatechnologies.asia/
Google already clarified that it would be minor ranking elevation for SSL enabled websites . So stay calm and be focused with quality content Be organic for example you have a website that really not required any SSL security stamp then just avoid it.
Bishal Biswas - http://www.viralblogtips.com/https-as-ranking-factor/
Hi Alex Graves,
As per to Google Webmaster Central, we do require purchasing a 2084-bit SSL Certificated as because of the new HTTPs ranking signal. But, do I really require using that bit or can I use any other?
– Bishal Biswas
David
Cheers Alex, thanks for confirming that. So really, it’s a lot more hassle than I care to indulge in. Urrgh, maybe ok for new sites going forward, but not really for old ones with 1000s of pages.