Considering the threatened state in data transfer and during transactions, Google introduced a better communication protocol that is more resilient and secure in the name of “HTTPS” that shields the connection using an encrypted code.  This secure protocol helps protect the websites from vulnerabilities like hacks, downgrade attacks, and DDOS attacks. The primary purpose of HTTPS is to provide a secure connection and from then Google has increasingly motivated users to update to HTTPS as it comes with an SSL security certificate. It is not just enough to install the certificate but to configure the certificate to your server.

SSL (HTTPS) Affect SEO Rankings

An SEO perspective, upgrading to HTTPS is evident in boosting the search rankings of your website but to do so, every file in the website has to be pointed to HTTPS, only then the browser will validate that the website is secure. Though upgrading the website to HTTPS is a tedious process, it holds a great deal of boosting your website in the search rankings that you can benefit from. Updating to HTTPS can basically help Google to verify that your website is not spam and also perform verification with the browser in securing your website. Though it is a setback to not enjoy the Ranking factors by upgrading to HTTPS, it doesn’t give a huge blow as top sites like Amazon and Wikipedia have still not transitioned to default HTTPS. Also, not all businesses ease working with SSL certificates as it slows down the requests from the customers.

Benefits of SSL certificate:

• Google stores the data of Crawling and Indexing in your website SSL certificate and considers HTTPS as a ranking factor.
• Security from Cloning of websites, phishing attempts, hacking of personal information, and promoting secure transactions are comforts that users can enjoy.
• SSL certificate encrypts and secures the sensitive data from the computers trying to breach in between the sender and recipient.
• Upgrading to HTTPS helps in increasing the business trust amongst the users as they feel safe to share their personal data on SSL-certified websites. This in case aids in promoting the business sales.

Google clearly used the ranking factors as bait to encourage users to upgrade to HTTPS. It can be a difficult process in upgrading to HTTPS and an SSL certificate on its own is wrapped around the complexity that can slow user requests down. But, it has been clear that websites having SSL certificate are boosted in the search rankings and provides solid security during information transfer. Benefiting from search rankings usually involves good website response and customers don’t bounce from the website when it has a good user experience. Good trust from the customers and search engines is essential in promoting the website and ranking high in the search results.