HTTP vs HTTPS: How Security Affects SEO

Google is the king of search engines! I know you agree with that... Taking into account ranking factors and security concerns for online businesses back in August last year, Google officially announced moving your website to an HTTPS feature that will track and give your site a boost to higher rankings.

The essence of Google's blog post pointed out the likely reasons for this huge announcement, which is related to the security of online businesses, and that they began to "see more and more webmasters moving to HTTPS." However, the blog post also confirms that HTTPS will be just a "trivia signal" that will affect less than 1% of global requests.

Check out the brief from some outstanding personalities-

John Mueller Webmaster Trend Analyst stated in a Google+ post on April 6, 2013, that he "would like to see more websites using an SSL certificate."

According to a study on leading Alexa sites, from August 44.98 to February 2016, the number of HTTPS sites changed by 2017%. Even the world's most popular news sites have now switched to the HTTPS protocol.

Tao Tran, speaking on the home stage at Share16 in October, said: "HTTPS and securing your website is an imperative at this stage... Google will start flagging things as unsafe... The future of the internet is safe, so make sure the people in your organization understand HTTPS and it should be included in the 2017 roadmap.

Well, if Google says so, let's do it!! This article will walk you through some ideas and a clear understanding of how HTTP and HTTPS affect SEO rankings and why it's crucial to get HTTPS for effective SEO.

So, here's what it is: HTTP vs HTTPS!

HTTP - hypertext transfer protocol; it is a special structure for moving and receiving information on the Internet. It is commonly used to recover HTML web pages and is considered an application layer protocol. Its main purpose is to transmit current information to the network user regardless of which channel is needed for this.

HTTP is naïve, which means it uses data while ignoring previous web sessions. Whereas, HTTPS (stands for Secure HyperText Transfer Protocol) has been recognized for authorizing secure transactions and strong consent over the Internet. This is because sharing information such as a mobile phone number, credit card numbers, or email access requires a high level of security to prevent unauthorized access over HTTPS.

So are they both different? If so, what's the distinction between HTTP and HTTPS?

HTTPS is only HTTP, but it's just a secure version for better encryption of information. HTTPS uses the same protocols as HTTP; here the browser establishes a connection to the dedicated server through the standard port. The only difference is the additional HTTPS layer, which is denoted by the letter "S" for security and uses SSL for data transfer. HTTPS uses TCP port 443 by default; hence, they both use two different methods of communication.

Here's the SSL in the picture! Let's take a look at the role of SSL!

People often confuse HTTPS and SSL and use them interchangeably, but this is incorrect. HTTPS is a secure feature as SSL is used to transfer data. Here, both have different technical characteristics, which, however, are a bit complicated. Essentially, HTTPS works concurrently with another protocol, which is an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate to transfer data and ensure uninterrupted communication. This is done in three ways, let's take a look below −

• Data Encryption: Encrypts transmitted information and data for increased security.
• Data integrity is mandatory: data cannot be distorted or distorted during the transmission phase.
• The key point is authentication: users are properly authenticated in order to properly communicate and communicate with the website.

More importantly, an EV SSL certificate is authenticated for data transfer and information exchange as an EV SSL certificate offers advanced security with a green padlock in the URL address bar. This brings us to a further understanding of the benefits of implementing HTTPS as a ranking factor in terms of SEO benefits.

Switch to HTTPS to boost YOUR SEO rankings!

Now that we've learned about the importance of installing HTTPS and SSL certificates on a website, it's time to follow Google's guidelines for moving to HTTPS because it's a simpler, more secure, and smarter solution, especially for those who are in the business of integrating with e-commerce. This step will certainly increase the security of your website and put your customers in a secure mode to make easy transactions anywhere. In addition, there are some additional SEO benefits to consider:

Improved Rankings – This is the first and foremost benefit of connecting HTTPS to your website, as you can significantly boost your rankings when switching to HTTPS, and most SEO experts advise this as an integral part of your overall SEO strategy and planning. Also, over time, Google's search algorithms have developed their statements about striving for a more secure web, it's likely that we could see an increased impact of HTTPS on search rankings over time.

Referral Data – If you're researching and analyzing Google Analytics for your HTTP website, then traffic passing through referral sources may show up as "direct" traffic. On the other hand, with HTTPS, the security of the referring domain is sealed and enforced. Hence, switching to HTTPS is a wise decision.

Privacy and Security – Needless to explain, HTTPS adds extra security to your SEO and website goals in various ways, take a look –

• It confirms that the website is the only server it needs to talk to.
• This makes your website safer for users and visitors.
• It encrypts all messages, including URLs, which protect things like browsing history and credit card numbers.
• This prevents interference by third parties.

Let's move on to find out if there are any issues when switching to HTTPS!

You don't have to worry too much about switching from HTTP to HTTPS in terms of SEO, as Google tells webmasters that it's very secure. However, to make sure that your traffic is not affected, you need to go through some concepts.

• You should check that the site is redirected to HTTPS being crawled by Google. PS. Make sure your robot.txt file blocks HTTPS. When you redirect from HTTP to HTTPS, Google will consider it a "site move" and this will affect your site's traffic.
• Follow Google's tips and best practices when migrating to HTTPS
• Choose the type of SSL certificate you want: single, multi-domain, or wildcard certificate.
• Use 2048-bit key certificates and resource relative URLs
• Be sure to use relative protocol URLs for all other domains.
• Don't block your HTTPS site from being crawled and using robots.txt
• Use Google's updated Webmaster Tools to improve your HTTPS experience.
• Be sure to be very careful about tracking the transition from HTTP to HTTPS in your analytics software.
• Allow all pages to be indexed by search engines wherever possible
• Avoid the robots meta tag without an index
• Also, it's a good idea to read the brief introduction to HTTP/HTTPS carefully, as well as a few tips and tricks for switching to SSL/HTTPS.

So what's your conclusion?

I hope that the article justifies the need to switch to HTTPS with the installation of an SSL certificate in order to increase your website's ranking in SEO. If we look at the types of SSL certificates, it turns out that one type of SSL is enough for all websites.

You can choose from different types of SSL like Domain Level Certificate, Business Verification Certificate, Code Signing Certificate, EV SSL Certificate. Overall, when we look to the future holistically and consider what Google is likely to do with HTTPS, we recommend moving to HTTPS as soon as possible to keep up with Google.