HTTPS: Secure Your Site and Boost Your SEO
People always want their websites to rank high in Google searches. While many swear by their own bag of tricks, the truth is that a lot of SEO is guesswork. However, we have good news. Google openly acknowledges that it prioritizes sites using HTTPS and SEO in search results.
In this article, we’ll explore how adding an SSL certificate can boost your Google SEO and bring more customers to your website. With our HTTPS and SEO tips, your site rankings can go sky high!
HTTP vs HTTPS and SEO
HTTPS stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure. It’s an internet communication protocol that encrypts data so that it cannot be intercepted and exploited by a third party.
HTTPS sites utilize SSL or TLS protocols to secure data transfer and ensure that it has not been altered or corrupted along the way.
You know you’re on a website using this encryption because the URL will display HTTPS in the browser address bar rather than just HTTP. You should also see a padlock icon.
If you go to a secured website using a regular HTTP address, the site should automatically redirect you to the secure version.
How Does HTTPS and SEO Work?
In order to add HTTPS to your website, you need to purchase a security certificate (SSL) from a vendor such as Namecheap. The vendor then submits your information to a Certificate Authority (CA) like Comodo or Symantec. In turn, these CAs issue a “certificate,” which is a cryptographic key that protects the data.
It’s important to note that there are different levels of SSLs. While they all provide the HTTPS prefix, they don’t offer equal protections for your site.
We recommend Extended Validation (EV) SSL Certificates. These are the highest and most secure certificates, and are ideal for all sites that require the transmission of private data.
EV SSLs verify that the site owner is the legal owner of the business and the domain. In turn this reassures visitors that they are on the legitimate website for the business. EV certificates also turn the address bar green and add a site seal to further verify the website.
Google provides a great article that explains HTTPS and SSL Certificates in more detail as well as a helpful video presentation on HTTPS.
Does an SSL Certificate Help SEO
In addition to securing website transactions and instilling confidence among your customers, SSL certificates also boost your HTTPS and SEO.
Google in particular has openly acknowledged that it favors site URLs that begin with HTTPS, which is only possible with an SSL certificate. As of December 2015, Google prioritizes HTTPS links over HTTP, giving a boost to sites that utilize SSL certificates over those that do not.
In other words, sites that verify ownership and protect users’ privacy and transactions will rank higher on Google than those that do not.
How Can You Get Started with HTTPS and SEO?
When you’re ready to take your website to the next level to secure your users’ data and transactions, Namecheap has you covered. With Namecheap, you can choose from different levels of security, depending on your website’s needs.
Not sure which one to purchase? We’d love to help. Check out our explanation of our different SSL certificates. We also offer 24/7 customer support to help you through the SSL purchase, installation, and validation process.
And best of all? Right now we’re offering Extended Validation SSLs for a sweet price! Grab one today and protect all site transactions at a great discount.
In this rush to setup HTTPS many companies do it incorrectly leading to unsecured or partially encrypted web pages. Partially encrypted could mean just the images aren’t encrypted, but who has time to research this. Ironically Google is one of the worst for this. I saw the problem yesterday with the website PhotoBucket
Hey Tim, thanks for the comment! We address this issue briefly in a previous post: https://www.namecheap.com/blog/ssl-avoid-mixed-content-warnings/
Namcheap, EV certificates are dead, just read Troy Hunt’s article on them: https://www.troyhunt.com/extended-validation-certificates-are-dead/ Unless you’re a bank, they’re useless today. Put more effort into supporting Let’s Encrypt free SSL certificates, they’re just as secure as paid ones, and less hassle.
Would SSL be necessary for a newly registered domain that will be intended to work only as a redirect address to a destination address that does have SSL? Although I understand that if someone visited the address using HTTPS by typing it in manually at the beginning of the domain then yes it would need it, but my understanding is that if they don’t type the “https” address before it, it wont cause those safety warnings to appear and would redirect appropriately to the SSL enabled site that does have https.
Meaning, no one would have it bookmarked or would theoretically have a version of it pre-saved in their autofill history of their browser’s address bar (if they decided to type it in that is).
Although, it will, however, be the URL address which will be used as the link provided in ads purchased on Google and while the address it points to will have SSL, would I need to purchase SSL for the redirecting URL if I plan to use it with Google Ads and if yes, would that still apply if I don’t intend to run ads where potential visitors would only be typing in the said redirect URL or clicking on it from a third party link (which would be instructed to use the standard http address)?
Hi there! You raise a good question, but I’m not sure how to answer it. My hunch is that your logic is correct, that you would not run into the warnings given your scenario, but I have no easy way to verify it. Perhaps someone else has this specific setup and can respond based on experience? Alternately, you could try it without the SSL and see what happens. At any rate, this seems more like a question about Google Chrome than SSLs in particular.