Back in March 2014, Matt Cutts Head of Google’s Webspam team said he would like for HTTPS and SLL certificates to be a ranking signal. Five months later, the world’s most popular search engine Google has announced that it’s going to give secure SSL sites using HTTPS encryption higher rankings on Internet searches.
Google hopes that this will encourage website developers to utilise the technology that protects websites against middle man attacks and hackers breaking into their websites and stealing users’ personal information, such name, address, contact details and billing information. This announcements comes as one of the most significant steps Google has taken to making sure the World Wide Web is more secure.
Encrypted data transmitted over the Internet adds a barrier between Web users and anyone who wants to potentially steal their information – this is particularly useful for e-commerce websites that continuously take payments from customers.
Prior to the announcement organisations have seen this as additional burden because of cost concerns and fears of slowing down their website response time – which is also has a detrimental effect of search engine rankings. But now because of the high-speed encryption technologies available, it means that the cost and speed no longer need to be an issue. Encryption will be a crucial factor in determining how a website is ranked.
Do I need a SSL Certificate?
Yes! Typically SSL Certificates have only been used on websites checkout pages and not on product and content pages. In light of Google’s new announcement it’s essential that website owners ensure their whole domain name, including all their files and URLs go over HTTPS. Here at Free Virtual Servers we’re offering online banking standard (256bit) SSL certificates from as little as £9.99 a year. An SSL certificate will not only benefit your search engine rankings but it’ll give your customers peace of mind as they’ll know their confidential information is safe on your website.
If you want to rank favourably on Google it’s in your best interest to ensure your web pages are encrypted, or this could be detrimental to your search engine rankings.
For more information about this service, check out our website: https://netnerd.com/
