Google has announced that the use of HTTPS on a website will be seen as a positive ranking feature, resulting in improved rankings for those websites that implement it. HTTPS is the same as HTTP but with added security. You can tell when a site is using HTTPS as a padlock is displayed somewhere within your browser to denote the fact that you are using an encrypted connection to the website that you are viewing. The data that is then transferred, in either direction, between your browser and the website is encrypted. Google believes that all sites should use HTTPS in order to provide a safer internet for all users.
Google already uses HTTPS in many of its own products such as Gmail, Google Drive and Search. They are hoping that by announcing that HTTPS is now a ranking factor that it will encourage other website owners to invest in an SSL certificate for their own websites, not just for the good of the web but to the benefit of their own search engine rankings. The theory is that by incorporating HTTPS as a ranking factor it will lead to more secure sites being given higher rankings then users of Google’s search engine will have a safer online experience.
How Do I Implement HTTPS?
In order to utilise HTTPS on your website you will first need to obtain an SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificate. This then needs to be installed on to your domain and then users will be able to use an encrypted connection. If you owned mydomain.co.uk then the usual address to access your website would be http://www.mydomain.co.uk, with an SSL certificate then you can use https://www.mydomain.co.uk. The good news is that your hosting company should be able to take care of all of this for you.
Tips for Transferring to HTTPS
Use 301 redirects to point traffic to existing URLs to new HTTPS URLs
Use relative URLs for pages that are part of the same secure domain
Google have admitted that at this stage it is only a relatively minor ranking factor and will affect less than 1% of queries. However, they have also stated that it may gain in significance as a ranking factor over time as wider adoption of HTTPS takes place. At this stage though having high quality, relevant content on your website will be of more use than obtaining an SLL certificate to help your search engine optimisation efforts.