How much does using SSL (https://) improve your Google Ranking?

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Have seen a notice some months ago that Google prefers sites that use SSL-Encryption ranking-wise. I´m starting a new site and have been wondering if anyone has seen this effect their rankings so far?
#search engine optimization #google #https or #https or or #improve #ranking #ssl
  • i highly doubt SSL has any effect on ranking
  • It does not have much affect on SEO.
  • Ok, so this is not yet implemented. Here is the piece I was referring to:
    Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: HTTPS as a ranking signal
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    • I'm curious . . .

      How is anyone ever going to know exactly what has improved their Google ranking since Google isn't sharing that kind of information?

      If your site rank goes up or down, how will you be able to say with any authority it is because of this or that? My understanding is that there are quite a number of things Google looks at . . . so how can you isolate one variable and attribute ranking change to that one thing?

      My point is, why worry about those things you can't control? Do the basic SEO onsite that you can but don't let Google control your business. In fact, you would be smart to move away from bowing down to Google whenever they sneeze.

      Steve
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  • Yeah, you´re right SteveB. Was just wondering if someone here had noticed something like that. For instance, let´s one recently implemented SSL for... lets say... a site that hadn´t SSL in the past and seen this change have an effect on their rank. Just being curious if this would be a thing nowadays. Maybe coming next year, let´s see.
  • If you have an ecommerce site, SSL is worth having.

    But as far as rank effect (and this may change as time goes by), it's my understanding that right now it is extremely minimal.
  • I think it will cause you more problems than it's worth. Unless you have a justifiable reason for using SSL such as e-commerce or other sensitive data it's not necessary. In the article you link this says this ranking signal effects less than 1% of the queries. It also says that these queries already had results with SSL at the top. So the queries that this applies to already had sites w/ SSL that were prominent (ecommerce and banking come to mind).

    It was a fun thing for SEOs to write about but in practicality we have no evidence.
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    • My best guess (no proof) is that the ssl will gradually become more important. It already weighs in but probably not that much. Yet.

      From the point of view of Google I can understand their shift towards ssl (https).

      A signed certificate at least verifies the website owner and given the fact that one has to pay for a certificate it shows 'some' intention that the website builder is serious about their website.

      Generally speaking I can imagine Google giving more love to websites that cost more to maintain (like dedicated server / own IP address / faster connection / ssl) because on average it simply demonstrates that the owner is serious about it.

      That is not to say more expensive websites have better content. Content ranking is done by its own set or rules in the ranking algorithm.
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  • If you want to submit your products to their product feeds, they no longer accept sites that do not have SSL at least for checkout pages (they don't seem to require your full site to be SSL, but I have stores that have SSL for checkout and some that don't and lately my ones that don't are being disapproved.
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