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You are here: Home / Google / Google Gives Search Algorithm Boost to Secure Sites

Google Gives Search Algorithm Boost to Secure Sites

August 7, 2014 at 2:17 am PST By Jennifer Slegg

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google secure

We all knew it would only be a matter of time before Google began weighting sites that were using HTTPS a bit higher than non-secure sites.  Matt Cutts had hinted about it and Google has been stressing the importance of the secured web for quite some time, so many webmasters were being proactive about the possibility.  And it looks like that is about to pay off.

Google announced they have been testing giving a new signal that gives a slight boost to secured sites in the Google search algorithm and have now made it live for the search algorithm.

1% Affected… For Now

The boost is currently only affecting about 1% of all search queries, although they didn’t detail what market areas are affected.  This leads me to believe they are either targeting higher profile sites that collect personal information – such as banks or government sites – or they are targeting markets that tend to be highly spammed, in hopes it might give a boost to legitimate sites while giving some spammier quality sites a knock down.

Google does stress that it is only given a very lightweight boost, and other influencing factors such as quality content are given much more weight in the algorithm.  But they state that they can ramp up the weighting of HTTPS sites in the future, which is they might do in the future.

However, it should be stressed that content sites SHOULD get secured (read: HTTPS as Ranking Signal Affects Content Sites Too)

Canonical Recommendations

For those serving both HTTP and HTTPS, if you are using canonical rel= to prioritize the non-secure versions of the URLs, then Google will not see this site as being indexed with HTTPS for this ranking boost.  You need to ensure you are using canonical rel= on the https version instead.

Does Certificate Type Matter?

The type of key used doesn’t seem to influence the rankings at this point, but John Mueller states “the type of certificate doesn’t play a role at the moment. AFAIK new certificates have 2048 bit or more keys anyway. If you have something with a shorter key, I’d recommend replacing that regardless of this. You don’t need an EV certificate for this.”

Will Google Become a Certificate Reseller?

But with Google moving into the domain market, it does make you wonder if Google might plan to offer secure certificates in the future, especially if it came with an easy validator that was incorporated into Google Webmaster Tools.  As it is, many webmasters are uncertain about how to go about finding and using certificates.  But with it giving a boost in the algo – and especially with the potential of it getting stronger in time – webmasters are going to need a crash course in the world of certificates and making their website’s secure.

Best Practices for Switching to HTTPS

Google has some recommended best practices for webmasters who are planning to make the switch to HTTPS

  • Decide the kind of certificate you need: single, multi-domain, or wildcard certificate
  • Use 2048-bit key certificates
  • Use relative URLs for resources that reside on the same secure domain
  • Use protocol relative URLs for all other domains
  • Check out our Site move article for more guidelines on how to change your website’s address
  • Don’t block your HTTPS site from crawling using robots.txt
  • Allow indexing of your pages by search engines where possible. Avoid the noindex robots meta tag.

If you have a secure server already, you can use this Google recommended checker to ensure it is working correcting.

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Jennifer Slegg

Founder & Editor at The SEM Post
Jennifer Slegg is a longtime speaker and expert in search engine marketing, working in the industry for almost 20 years. When she isn't sitting at her desk writing and working, she can be found grabbing a latte at her local Starbucks or planning her next trip to Disneyland. She regularly speaks at Pubcon, SMX, State of Search, Brighton SEO and more, and has been presenting at conferences for over a decade.
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Latest posts by Jennifer Slegg (see all)

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Filed Under: Google Tagged With: Google, https, secure, SSL

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Trackbacks

  1. HTTPS as Ranking Signal Affects Content Sites Too - The SEM Post says:
    August 7, 2014 at 2:49 am

    […] Google now giving secured sites a slight boost in the search algorithm – and with the potential for that boost to be turned up even more – there have been […]

  2. Switching to HTTPS Will Not Increase Your Search Rankings - The SEM Post says:
    September 29, 2014 at 4:00 am

    […] webmasters were scrambling to make their sites secure with Google’s announcement that using https would give those sites a ranking boost, John Mueller states that using https will not visibly increase your […]

  3. How to Migrate to HTTPS from the Google Chrome Team - The SEM Post says:
    December 29, 2014 at 4:29 am

    […] of you who didn’t immediately transition to HTTPS when Google first announced that it would be used as a ranking signal (which they later announced would not be visible), you probably want to add it to the upcoming to […]

  4. Google's HTTPS as Ranking Factor Announcement Increased Secured Webpages by 3% - The SEM Post says:
    January 5, 2015 at 3:30 am

    […] Google pushing webmasters to adopt HTTPS with their announcement in August that it would be a ranking signal, it prompted many webmasters to rush to get their websites secured.  And it would appear that the […]

  5. First Look at How Google Chrome Plans to Alert Users to Non-HTTPS Websites - The SEM Post says:
    January 28, 2015 at 7:59 am

    […] year, many webmasters began switching to HTTPS earlier this year after Google announced it would be used as a ranking signal. Google later backtracked slightly to state that it wasn’t a noticeable signal for webmasters but […]

  6. Google's Change to Chrome Showing non-HTTPS Sites Launching in Chrome 42 - The SEM Post says:
    April 14, 2015 at 5:18 am

    […] information, it would be advisable to consider doing it sooner rather than later, even if the SSL ranking boost in Google search is […]

  7. Do HTTPS Mobile Sites Get an Extra Ranking Boost with Mobile Friendly Algo? - The SEM Post says:
    April 16, 2015 at 5:02 am

    […] Google made HTTPS a ranking boost, many websites made the switch to HTTPS.  While the ranking signal was later determined to be very […]

  8. Google AdWords Moves Towards HTTPS for All Advertisers - The SEM Post says:
    April 20, 2015 at 4:00 am

    […] They announced it as part of their HTTPS Everywhere mission, which has seen things such as a small search ranking boost for websites using HTTPS. […]

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