HTTPS as a ranking signal: Google to Prioritize Secure Sites

Published on August 9, 2014

Google has proved that security is a top priority for the company; Search, Gmail and Google Drive have a secure connection to Google.

It was not surprising for me to learn that Google will give preference to more secure websites (https) in its organic search rankings.

Over the past few months the company has been running tests taking into account whether sites use secure, encrypted connections as a signal in their search ranking algorithms.

“We’ve seen positive results, so we’re starting to use HTTPS as a ranking signal,” Google said.

This may encourage many webmasters to turn on encryption. However, this will take time and also cost some money.

With https the website is less vulnerable to hacking, and with Google new policy has more chances for ranking high.

Previously many companies had concerns about budget or fears of slowing website response times.

Now there are high-speed encryption technologies and https has no longer time issue.

Right now Https is not as strong signal for ranking, like for instance content. Google wants to give time to webmasters to upgrade their sites. Google’s Zineb Ait Bahajji and Gary Illyes said in the blog post.

“For now it’s only a very lightweight signal – affecting fewer than 1% of global queries, and carrying less weight than other signals such as high-quality content – while we give webmasters time to switch to HTTPS. But over time, we may decide to strengthen it, because we’d like to encourage all website owners to switch from HTTP to HTTPS to keep everyone safe on the web.”

If you have a website with critical data or if you simply want to stay on the safe side, my honest recommendation would be to turn https.

Google introduced HTTPS in 2011.