SSL Vs SEO - Google Official Announcement

SSL Vs SEO - HTTPS as a ranking signal

Security is a top priority for Google. We invest a lot in making sure that our services use industry-leading security, like strong HTTPS encryption by default. That means that people using Search, Gmail and Google Drive, for example, automatically have a secure connection to Google.

Beyond our own stuff, we’re also working to make the Internet safer more broadly. A big part of that is making sure that websites people access from Google are secure. For instance, we have created resources to help webmasters prevent and fix security breaches on their sites.

We want to go even further. At Google I/O a few months ago, we called for “HTTPS everywhere” on the web.

We’ve also seen more and more webmasters adopting HTTPS (also known as HTTP over TLS, or Transport Layer Security), on their website, which is encouraging.

For these reasons, over the past few months we’ve been running tests taking into account whether sites use secure, encrypted connections as a signal in our search ranking algorithms. We've seen positive results, so we're starting to use HTTPS as a ranking signal. 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.

SEO advantages of switching to HTTPS

It is clear that HTTPS offers security, so it is definitely the choice to put you in Google’s good graces. There are also some additional SEO benefits for you to consider.

Increased rankings

The obvious one. As stated, Google has confirmed the slight ranking boost of HTTPS sites. Like most ranking signals, it is very hard to isolate on its own, but this is still something to keep in mind. On the plus side, the value of switching to HTTPS is very likely to increase over time.

Referrer Data

When traffic passes to an HTTPS site, the secure referral information is preserved. This is unlike what happens when traffic passes through an HTTP site, and it is stripped away and looks as though it is “direct.”

Security and privacy

HTTPS adds security for your SEO goals and website in several ways:

It verifies that the website is the one the server it is supposed to be talking to.

It prevents tampering by third parties.

It makes your site more secure for visitors.

It encrypts all communication, including URLs, which protects things like browsing history and credit card numbers.

What type of SSL certificate works best?

Companies offer a myriad and confusing array of SSL certificates. The two primary ones to pay attention to are:

Standard Validation SSL – Standard level of validation. Get Free SSL Here https://ssl.comodo.com/free-ssl-certificate.php.

Extended Validation SSL – Offers the highest level of validation and often costs.

Comparison of SSL Certificates - https://www.whichssl.com/compare-ssl-certificates.html

Related Source: Low Cost SSL Certificate Provider in India.