SEO Benefit to SSL Certificate
-
Our site does not have an SSL certificate. I have read that in the process of adding one of URLs need to be redirected and that some link equity can be lost.
Implementing an SSL certificate sounds somewhat complicated and far from risk free.
Is there a tangible SEO benefit to upgrading to SSL? Will doing so help SEO in a tangible manner that justifies the cost, time and aggravation?
Thanks,
Alan
-
Just like everyone else here responded, ssl is no major ranking factor. Implemented ssl on 8 websites during the last 4-6 months and there was no change in ranking.
-
I only know clients wich are using ssl since google considers it.
I have some insights to these sight, there ist no visible change in traffic or ranking.It is not better, but its also not worser (but implemention is done right, I read that here over 60%
do it in a wrong way). What I mean - done wrong may be bad for your ranking. -
I have implemented SSL about 5 months ago, and have not seen much of a benefit. Also you have to consider that sites running SSL are invariably slower as well, although Cloudflare can help with that.
The only thing I currently like about SSL are the EV SSL certificates (the green bar with your company name) as I believe these allow some sense of authority to be seen by users.
-
Hi,
I have implemented SSL certificate three months ago but I haven't seen any tangible SEO benefits on my site.
If you are running E-commerce site then you should implement it .
Thanks
-
"If you're only doing this for SEO benefits, though, I think there are better places to spend your time and money. Google may turn up the volume on this factor over time, but the evidence for major benefits is still lacking."
^ This. This. This.
-
I'm afraid the short answer is that we don't really know. Google is pushing that direction, but sites that have taken the plunge aren't reporting much in the way of verifiable gains. As you said, there is a real risk, too, and it can complicate some things.
As Patrick said, there are many legitimate business cases for having SSL, and if you're dealing with commerce or private data, you really should look beyond the SEO aspects. If you're only doing this for SEO benefits, though, I think there are better places to spend your time and money. Google may turn up the volume on this factor over time, but the evidence for major benefits is still lacking.
-
Hi there
I have not directly, I am just going off of what Google has publicly stated.
I will say this - if you are collecting information or taking transactions, HTTPS is a best practice for those types of sites. It shows you have taken the proper steps in securing user information.
-
Hi Patrick:
Google has hundreds of ranking factors. Do you know of anyone who has implemented this switch to SSL certificate witnessed a ranking/traffic improvement as a result? -
Hi there
Yes. Google has stated they consider this a ranking factor. While not a huge one, it's still considered one, and they have come out and said "Hey, we value this, and consider it in our rankings".
A couple of resources for you:
Search Engine Land
Moz
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
SEO Migration Options
Hi Guys, We have a www.sitename.com.au domain name and looking to move into the US market, and other markets in the future such as UK, Canada, etc. We are reviewing our options. Currently the .com.au is ccTLD to Australia so won't perform well in US. It seems the best option at this stage is to get a generic domain Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) like a .com. Then create different sub-folders for each country for example: .com our main country .com/us/ target us .com/uk/ Then in Google Search Console don't set country targeting for entire domain but use Hreflang Tags to specify the targeting for each page? -- This seems like a complex strategy to execute so i just want to check if this would be a optional option? Any suggestions would be very much appreciated! Cheers.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | cerednicenko0 -
Two Companies Merging - Impacts on SEO
Hi there! I work with Company A. They've decided to merge with Company B (who we don't work with/doesn't do SEO) under Company B's name. (We would then work on Company B's website.) What would be the impact on SEO if the content from Company A's website is moved to Company B's website, and Company A's website would be deleted? Factors to consider: Both websites have a domain authority of 6 and a homepage authority of 21, and each has less than 5 backlinks. Company A ranks much better than Company B (of the KWs we're tracking, Company A ranked on Page One for 15.3% of them, while Company B ranked for 2.8% of them). So, what I am asking is: If they do the content migration to Company B's website and get rid of Company A's website, what negative impact would that have on SEO? Could we keep both sites, but change the mentions of Company A on their website to Company B? Although the URL would still be Company A's name, could Company B treat this as a microsite and take up more of the search engine real estate since Company A already has rankings? What would be another solution? The companies merging is definitely happening. Thank you in advance.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BlueCorona1 -
Splitting a strong page - SEO
Hi, I have a page with high traffic that is showing a list of flea markets in a unique URL. We are redesigning our website and we have created a listing directory of flea markets, so the users can look up and find the information for each. Each flea market will have its own URL in the future, and the listing directory shows only summarized info of each flea market in the results. Before activating the new flea market section, I would like to make sure which is our best bet: Option 1: Create pages with same URL/content as the current ones, which we won't link from frontend, and besides that, use the new flea market section on a separate page. Option 2: Redirect the current page to the new flea market section. As an inaccurate reference because it depends on many variables and SEO doesn't have an actual number, I understand this is more or less how it would work: Example Option 1 (after 1 week of launch): Old Flea Market Pages SEO traffic: 10,000 visits/month New Copied Flea Market Pages traffic: 9,700 (maybe a bit below 100 because of design changes etc) New Flea Market Section traffic: 500 visits/month (then increase over time) Example Option 2 (after 1 week of launch): Old Flea Market Pages SEO traffic: 10,000 visits/month New Redirected Flea Market Pages traffic: 9,000 (in principle PageRank wouldn't be affected, but other rankings might) New Flea Market Section traffic: (joined above, then increase over time) According to this, Option 1 would give us more total future visits compared to redirecting, plus the new flea market pages would add to it. If redirecting, the new flea market section would add up some SEO juice to the old page, but not as much as Option 1 (not redirecting). Please confirm. Which option is the best one and why? Thank you, New 301 Redirection Rules: https://moz.com/blog/301-redirection-rules-for-seo
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | viatrading10 -
SEO of blogging websites
What are the best practices of doing SEO of article/blogging websites.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Obbserv0 -
Magento SEO firm
I'm looking for an SEO company that has substantial experience with the Magento shopping cart system. I've gone thru MOZ.com's Recommended List but I'm unsure of who specializes in Magento. Thanks.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | UncleXYZ0 -
Which part of SEO take the most time?
Which part of SEO do you think will take the most time? and Why?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | marknorman0 -
Tips for quick SEO
Hi guys (first time posting). I'm involved in many differnt marketing activities on an ecommerce site and don't always get a lot of time to focus on SEO (although I appreciate its importance). What are your tips for the most effective SEO tasks to focus on considering these time constraints? Think 80/20 applied to SEO. Thanks. Paul
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | kevinliao0 -
In-House SEO - Doubt about one SEO issue - Plz guys help over here =)
Hello, We wanna promote some of our software's. I will give u guys one example bellow: http://www.mediavideoconverter.de/pdf-to-epub-converter.html We also have this domain: http://pdftoepub.de/ How can we deal about the duplicate content, and also how can we improve the first domain product page. If I use the canonical and don't index the second domain and make a link to the first domain it will help anyway? or don't make any difference? keyword: pdf to epub , pdf to epub converter What u guys think about this technique ? Good / Bad ? Is there the second domain giving any value to the first domain page? Thanks in advance.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | augustos0