Google Uses HTTPS (SSL) as a Website Ranking Signal

Last year in August, Google announced that it would use “HTTPS” as a ranking signal.  HTTPS denotes that a website’s server has SSL installed, a security technology to encrypt the transfer of data, between the web server and user internet browser and vice versa.  When you have SSL installed, your website may be accessed via “https://…” , and the “http://” unsecure version of your website should be redirected automatically to it.  For example, on our UltimateWB website, we have https://www.ultimatewb.com – and ultimatewb.com and http://ultimatewb.com – redirect users to our SSL secured site https://www.ultimatewb.com .

How much will having an HTTPS website vs HTTP website with no SSL increase your Google ranking?  Google said last year that it would be low initially:

For now it’s only a very lightweight signal — affecting fewer than 1% of global queries, and carrying less weight than other signals such as high-quality content — while we give webmasters time to switch to HTTPS. But over time, we may decide to strengthen it, because we’d like to encourage all website owners to switch from HTTP to HTTPS to keep everyone safe on the web.
(via Google Webmaster Central Blog, “HTTPS as a ranking signal” Posted: Wednesday, August 06, 2014)

So that was more than a year ago.  Perhaps now whether or not your website loads with https makes a greater impact on your ranking than it did last year, but for sure, content is still king.  In any case, there is more reason that a slight bump in your Google search ranking (and probably other search engine companies following suit) to opt for SSL and the https url – security.  It’s not just for e-commerce and accepting credit cards.  It is the way to go to provide your users the best secure experience.  It will cut down on your spam and hacking potential too.

You can add SSL to your website here.