2015 Website SEO Guide for Businesses (2015)
Change From HTTP to HTTPS
All websites by default use http, which stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol.
HTTPS stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure
Security is a top priority for Google and you’ll notice that all Google websites and services use the HTTPS protocol by default. It’s also used by all social media networks.
As of August 6th 2014, it is regarded by Google as a light ranking signal and it carries much less weight than quality content, but it’s still a signal, but this is only to give most websites a chance to catch up and change over to HTTPS. In a few months time this signal will be strengthened and Google are encouraging all website owners to switch over to HTTPS as soon as they can.
Using HTTPS on your website makes it more difficult for hackers to track your website visitors and the protocol makes sure your users data isn’t being transmitted in pain text format.
HTTPS provides a higher level of security because data sent and received over this protocol are encrypted.
Data encrypted with HTTPS cannot be decrypted by a third party who may want to access the information.
HTTPS connections are more secure for online payment transactions compared to HTTP connections.
By using certificates, HTTPS encrypts the information sent to and from websites. An HTTPS certificate is small data files, which are installed on your web server and this activates the HTTPS protocol. This type of data encryption protects visitors to your website against unauthorised third parties from snooping on their private data and also stops them from gathering information about their browsing activities. As the data is always encrypted, only the website user and the computer they are using will know what has been transferred and all the user data will remain safe.
It’s not foolproof as we all saw with the HeartBleed bug that occurred in 2014, but it is more secure than having nothing. All shopping websites and banks use HTTPS and in the near future all websites, even if no user information is sent or received will be using it by default.
So not only is it of great benefit to your users, especially if you run an ecommerce site, it’s also beneficial in getting your website higher up in the search engines.
If you would like to purchase HTTPS for your website contact your hosting provider or your web developer. If you’ve read my other books, you’ll know I almost always recommend a company TSOHost for this sort of thing, especially if your website is already hosted with them. You can buy certificates from almost any other web hosting provider as well.