How SSL impacts your SEO ranking!

SSL And SEO – Overview

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, which is a type of security protocol. More broadly defined, SSL is a standard security technology that establishes a secure connection (an encrypted link) between a client and a server, which typically means securely connecting a web browser (client) and a web server (website). Also, SSL can provide a secure connection between a mail client and a mail server. It is paramount in providing means for confidential and sensitive information - such as login credentials, credit card details, and classified business metrics - to be transferred securely over the Internet, as without establishing a secure connection that SSL provides, data that is transmitted between a client and a server is sent in plain text that can pretty easily be obtained (or eavesdropped by) a potential attacker (i.e. a third party). An owner of a website wanting to employ numerous advantages that SSL offers can opt to install SSL certificates (small data files that digitally associate a cryptographic key with details of a particular web server) on its web server, thus securing a connection between it and its visitors (clients). The “S” at the very end of the “HTTP” part of URL (HTTPS) tells its visitors that the website provides a secure connection (i.e. has SSL certificates installed).

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a marketing discipline whose primary mission is to continuously improve visibility in non-paid (organic) search engine results. When an owner of a website decides to make it more visible within search engine results, he can implement several different SEO ranking techniques, most of which deal with text optimization (as most data available on the Internet is of textual nature). To make things even trickier for website owners who embark on a never-ending journey of optimizing content to improve rankings, search engines (such as Google and Bing) often update their algorithms (which, ultimately, determine all of the parameters relevant for establishing rankings), thus forcing SEO experts to adapt their techniques to new parameters (algorithmic changes). The right SEO moves can net the website an exponential rise in a number of visitors, numerous new business proposals, and many other benefits.

Should you go the SSL way as pertaining to SEO ranking?

As of March 2017, less than 1% of all websites (that are ranked by search engines) employ a secure connection. At the same time, 40% of page one organic search results by Google are HTTPS websites. Keep in mind that many of those HTTPS websites ranked on Google’s page one also follow other best practices in regards to SEO ranking, a fact that correlates with two studies, one conducted by Brian Dean, SEMRush, Ahrefs, SimilarWeb and MarketMuse in which a moderate interrelationship between secure websites and higher search rankings was found, and another (mentioned here by Neil Patel) conducted by Moz, where a fairly limited correlation was observed between secure websites and search engine results.

An HTTPS website is able to properly recognize traffic that is directed or referred to from another HTTPS website (whereas ordinary HTTP websites “see” the traffic directed or referred to by HTTPS websites as “direct traffic”, i.e. the referral data sent is lost in the transmission). That way, website owners can fully assess the state of their referral traffic and analytics, which will, in turn, help them make the website more SEO friendly.

Privacy is one major advantage of secure websites, as their verification eliminates the danger of third-party data modification. Visitors simply love this kind of freedom, as it allows them to transfer credit card details, login credentials, and other sensitive and highly classified data without worrying about the potential intrusion or eavesdropping. This, obviously, means that your search engine rankings will improve, as the number of visitors will directly reflect the security your website provides.

One major obstacle for many website owners wanting to go the SSL way is the cost of its implementation. SSL certificates, additional hardware, engineering man-hours, securing the individual transmissions (by using bandwidth and CPU cycles) – are all costs that must be taken into account, and are, in most cases, not insignificant.

Another, albeit smaller, obstacle is the speed cost which your website has to pay since HTTPS requires extra communication (i.e. data transmission) between the website itself and the server on which it is hosted. However, the speed penalty is not severe, and will only be noticeable for websites whose content is not properly optimized, to begin with (that were slow even before SSL implementation).

Conclusion

With all cons of embracing security in mind, we think that SSL is definitely the way to go for website owners, as the advantages of its implementation are undeniable and, most importantly, search engines will increasingly favor HTTPS websites as we move into the future, thus further strengthening the correlation between enhanced security and excellent SEO ranking.