Since security is a top priority for Google, the attempt in making Google more secure is quite real; this can be seen that recently, our services use industry-leading security, like strong HTTPS encryption by default. This enable people that using Search, Gmail, and Google Drive to have a more secure connection to Google.
Besides, SSL is provided to make the internet safer more broadly which is aimed to ensure that websites which people access from Google are secure. For instance, SSL will have created resources that help webmasters prevent and fix security breaches on their sites.
Nowadays, we can see that many web developers adopting HTTPS which is also known as HTTP over TLS, or Transport Layer Security on their website which make this new phenomenon becomes more interesting.
Due to this, a research has been conducted to prove whether sites use secure encrypted connections as a signal in our search ranking algorithms which in the end it firmly produced positive results. For now it’s only a very lightweight signal-affecting less 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.
1. SEO advantages when you switch to HTTPS
It is clear that the main function of HTTPS is to offer security, so this will surely elevate your Google’s grades. However, there are also some additional SEO benefits for you to consider, such as belows:
2. Increased rankings
The obvious one as stated, Google has confirmed the slight ranking boost of HTTPS sites. Like most ranking signals, it is very hard to isolate on its own, but this is still something to keep in mind. On the plus side, the value of switching to HTTPS is very likely to increase over time.
3. Referrer Data
When traffic passes to an HTTPS site, the secure referral information is preserved. This is unlike what happens when traffic passes through an HTTP site, and it is stripped away and looks as though it is “direct.”
4. Security and Privacy
HTTPS adds security for your SEO goals and website in several ways:
- It verifies that the website is the one the server it is supposed to be talking to.
- It prevents tampering by third parties.
- It makes your site more secure for visitors.
- It encrypts all communication, including URLs, which protects things like browsing history and credit card numbers.