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Switching to HTTPS Will Not Increase Your Search Rankings

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switching httpsAfter 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 rankings.

In a Google Webmaster Help Office Hours, the question about https as a ranking boost came up.

I wouldn’t expect any visible change when you move from http to https, just from that change, just from SEO reasons.  That kind of ranking effect is very small and very subtle.  It’s not something where you will see a rise in rankings just from going to https

I think that in the long run, it is definitely a good idea, and we might make that factor stronger at some point, maybe years in the future, but at the moment you won’t see any magical SEO advantage from doing that.

That said, anytime you make significant changes in your site, change the site’s URLs, you are definitely going to see some fluctuations in the short term.  So you’ll likely see some drop or some changes as we recrawl and reindex everything.  In the long run, it will settle down to about the same place, it won’t settle down to some place that’s like a point higher or something like that.

He also reminds webmasters that simply switching to https won’t magically fix whatever is wrong with your site either.

I think it’s just important to keep in mind when you make these kinds of changes on your website, move from http to https, it’s not the magic bullet that fixes your website.  It’s rather something for the long run that I think makes a lot of sense.  And you might see some effects from the user side at some point, but at least in the short term you are not going to see any visible SEO advantages, it’s a really small ranking factor.

Webmasters have had a lot of issues switching from http to https, such as AdSense earnings dropping after the switch and issues with crawling and redirection.  And with webmasters looking for every little SEO advantage, many pulled the trigger to upgrade their sites to https almost instantly.  However, it now appears that the boost isn’t significant enough at all to even be visible to users.

If you have been delaying upgrading to a secure site until some of the issues are resolved, it would appear there really isn’t a big reason to rush and do it, except perhaps for those in super competitive areas where even a non-visible factor might make a difference.

Hat tip to Marie Haynes, of HIS Web Marketing.

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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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