On August 6th 2014 Google announced it will start to use HTTPs as a ranking signal in the search results. This change is in-line with Google’s mission to protect users, and comes after it made large strides towards encrypting all of its own services.
This change isn’t the first time Google has used its natural ranking algorithm to try and influence websites to conform to best practices. In 2010 Google announced site speed was a ranking signal, and more recently in 2013 confirmed sites which aren’t mobile friendly would not rank well. The result of these changes was that Google penalised websites which were slow or not mobile friendly, forcing webmasters to resolve the issue to avoid losing visibility in their search results.
What are the implications?
As a result of this change from Google MEC anticipate that in the future secure connections will become the norm for all websites, rather than only being limited to sites that offer e-commerce transactions. The implications at the moment are small with just one per cent of global search queries affected, however, this may change over time as more sites switch over to the HTTPs protocol and protect their users. Ultimately this is good news for users as it ensures their data is encrypted and improves security and privacy
What does this mean now?
Webmasters should review their sites to check whether the HTTPs protocol is being used across the whole domain, or just specific sections where sensitive data is being transmitted. Webmasters should plan the move to HTTPs in their development schedules and ensure they are reviewing traffic data and listening to Google about the increasing affect this may have on performance.
Setting it up correctly
In order to setup HTTPs in an SEO friendly manner the following work should be undertaken:
- Appropriate use of a single-domain, multi-domain or wildcard certificate
- Use of 2048-bit key certificate
- Use of a web server that supports HTTP strict transport security
- Use of relative URLs for resources that reside on the same secure domain
- Use of protocol relative URLs for all other domains
- Migration strategy for moving from HTTP to HTTPs
- Ensuring all pages on HTTPs can be indexed
MEC says
MEC anticipates that over the coming months and years, the web will start to enforce secure connections and protect users’ data. Companies that realise this early will have a competitive advantage when Google decides to make this a more important factor.