SEO Advantages of Switching to HTTPS
Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is the secure version of HTTP. The 'S' at the end of HTTPS stands for 'Secure'. It means all communications between your browser and the website are encrypted.
HTTPS offers security, so it is the choice to put you in Google’s good books. Other benefits of HTTPS from a SEO point of view are:
Rankings Boost
It’s what we all what to hear, Google did confirm that having HTTPS give you a slight ranking boost of your competitors if they don’t have it. With so many different ranking factors to consider it is hard to isolate on its over own but still one to consider. As time goes by and Google puts more emphasis on switching over to HTTPs for security reasons this will mean it’s likely to increase over time.
Privacy & Security
HTTPS helps your SEO goals and website with added security in many ways:
- It makes your site more secure for visitors.
- It verifies that the website is the one the server it is supposed to be connecting to.
- It encrypts all communication, including URLs, which protects things like browsing history and credit card numbers
- It prevents tampering by third parties.
Referral Data
Currently on a HTTP website, the referral information is removed and makes the traffic look like direct but when this traffic comes from a HTTPS website the secure details are maintained.
Moving your site to HTTPS is the way forward and is going to be a tick in your SEO efforts so make the upgrade now and hopefully be in front of your competitors.