Secure Sites Make Google Happy
Date: February 25, 2016Category: Author: David Hall
SSLs are not just for online stores anymore
Secure websites have always been a good idea, but the extra work and expense were generally only taken by sites accepting credit cards–or other personal information–that required secure connections.
When Google made SSL encryption a growing search optimization priority, that changed.
Google announced in 2014 that SSL certificates would become a ranking signal initially affecting fewer than 1 percent of global queries. The low weight given to the ranking signal was intended to give web developers time to convert their sites to HTTPS. A year and a half later we’re seeing increasing signs that SSL certificates improve your positioning in the Google search result pages.
Is the SSL SEO boost worth the investment?
A lot of time and effort can go into securing a site.
I won’t bore you with the technical details (here’s a brief outline) but our tech team has managed to streamline the process and make it affordable for all our clients.
Google has also gone to great lengths to facilitate site conversions. In December 2015, Google announced it would start indexing the HTTPS versions of all pages. This means you can expect no drop-off in rankings immediately after the conversion. (This was a worry many of us had in 2015.)
Google has also altered their algorithms to give credit for all inbound link–whether they go to the new HTTPS version of the page or the old one. Google’s John Mueller gives a simplified explanation here:
If we have two URLs (eg, http/https) that we know are duplicates, and we pick one over the other, then we’ll generally fold the signals together into that URL. It’s like www/non-www; you don’t “lose” the links that point at the alternate version, even if you don’t set up redirects.
What does this mean for our clients?
Our SEO team thoroughly examined all the pros and cons of SSL encryption, and we’re now recommending that 100 percent of our clients sign up for a SSL site conversion.
How do you get your site secured?
We’ll handle the complete conversion of your website to HTTPS. The fee for our SSL conversion is $5/page and $2/blog post.
If you’re interested, and our SEO experts recommend you do, or have questions please fill out the form below and we’lll get in touch with you.
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