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Website security with HTTPS and Google search rankings

Google HTTPS

SEO SecurityRecently Google announced that it was going to use HTTPS as a ranking signal in its search results. This is part of Google’s push to encouraging webmasters to utilize the more secure https standard which uses encryption to create a secure connection between the website and the visitor. This means that Google may consider whether a website uses https in its complex algorithm for deciding how to rate websites. The company has however said that the impact of this signal would be “very lightweight”.

Should you switch your website to HTTPS?

While there are many benefits of switching over to https there are also costs. You will need to purchase a signed SSL certificate to verify your identity and there may be additional hosting fees associated with secure hosting. This may be a deterrent for clients with a limited budget or those who do not deal with confidential user information. If your website is simply intended to display information to the public using https may seem like overkill. On the other hand if your website requires users to log in or displays sensitive user data https is pretty much expected.

How does SeizerStyle Designs use HTTPS?

Currently our website, www.seizerstyle.com does not use https but this may change in the future. Our client portal at my.seizerstyle.com does use https however. We recognize the importance of our visitors security and since our portal contains more personalized information than our main website we protect it with a secure connection to our visitors.

What is the impact on search rankings?

It is too soon to conclusively determine what the impact on having a secure connection will be on Google’s search results. More emphasis may be paid on this ranking signal in the future or it may remain as a lightweight signal. Only time will tell.

 

Last Updated on December 31, 2015 by Nathan Vidal

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