{"id":85184,"date":"2021-08-31T11:59:07","date_gmt":"2021-08-31T18:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/?p=85184"},"modified":"2023-08-14T03:15:00","modified_gmt":"2023-08-14T10:15:00","slug":"page-experience-https","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/blog\/page-experience-https\/","title":{"rendered":"Page Experience Matters: HTTPS for Users and Ranking"},"content":{"rendered":"
Did you know that more than 95%<\/a> of U.S. webpages loaded in Google Chrome are now encrypted? That\u2019s good for websites and users. But not so good for the 5% that have not migrated from HTTP to HTTPS.<\/p>\n This article is part of our series on page experience. It highlights why HTTPS is important for everyone, but especially so you can equip your webpages to qualify for a ranking boost in Google. A secure site is a ranking signal in Google’s page experience update<\/a> that went live in mid-2021. (Tip: You’ll find more info on the page experience ranking factors at the end of this post.<\/em><\/p>\n In this post (and be sure to see the other articles in this series at the end of this one):<\/p>\n HTTPS, or hypertext transfer protocol secure, secures the data that are exchanged between a web browser (such as Chrome) and a web server (which stores, processes, and delivers your webpages to a user).<\/p>\n As the illustration shows, the difference between HTTP and HTTPS is that the data is not encrypted on HTTP. HTTPS helps protect against attacks that can happen while data is in transit.<\/p>\n Examples of attacks could be:<\/p>\n HTTPS came about in the \u201890s and originally applied to processing credit card information. But as companies like Google began to push for secure web browsing, HTTPS has become a gold standard for websites.<\/p>\n Google\u2019s goal is to achieve 100% encryption across its products and services.<\/p>\n HTTPS is important because it helps to protect your website and your website visitors from potential bad actors. HTTPS creates a good user experience, helps instill trust in your website, and protects your revenue.<\/p>\n HTTPS is also necessary when pursuing new web platform features<\/a>, including progressive web apps (for more on what that is, see this article on Medium<\/a>).<\/p>\n Google announced back in 2014<\/a> that sites with HTTPS would receive a ranking boost albeit a small one. In other words, if your site was not secure but a competitor\u2019s was, their website may rank better, all else being equal.<\/p>\n Will HTTPS be a stronger signal in the future? Maybe.<\/p>\n In its 2014 announcement, Google said that \u201cover time, we may decide to strengthen it, because we\u2019d like to encourage all website owners to switch from HTTP to HTTPS to keep everyone safe on the web.\u201d<\/p>\n But in 2017, Google rep Gary Illyes said they didn\u2019t have plans to make it a stronger signal:<\/p>\n No. We revisited the idea a few months back but we decided against it.<\/p>\n \u2014 Gary \u9be8\u7406\uff0f\uacbd\ub9ac Illyes (@methode) April 21, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n Another announcement coming from Google in 2015<\/a> said it would index HTTPS pages by default:<\/p>\n \u2026 we’re adjusting our indexing system to look for more HTTPS pages. Specifically, we\u2019ll start crawling HTTPS equivalents of HTTP pages, even when the former are not linked to from any page.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n A secure website can also protect website visitors and revenue. When people reach a webpage that is not secure, they may receive a message that labels it as such.<\/a> This may cause a person to bounce from the site or abandon their cart.<\/p>\n Plus, once you enable HTTPS, you can implement HTTP\/2<\/a> on your site. This is the first major upgrade to HTTP since its inception, and it can improve page load time. Remember that site speed is a signal in Google\u2019s ranking algorithm\u00a0.<\/p>\n @aleyda<\/a> @balibones<\/a> Yes, exactly! HTTP\/2 is for speed. Fast sites make users happy, happy users recommend websites, so it’s very indirect :)<\/p>\n \u2014 🍌 John 🍌 (@JohnMu) April 3, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n So it\u2019s a good idea to implement HTTPS for security \u2014 and to do it ahead of Google\u2019s page experience ranking update in 2021.<\/p>\n An additional note: I believe HTTPS is a strong trust signal, especially for ecommerce sites. But if everyone is finally HTTPS, then everyone is tied. That means NOT being HTTPS becomes a disqualifier.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re ready to move your site to HTTPS, Google offers some good resources to start:<\/p>\n Like any site migration, it\u2019s common to see fluctuations in rankings and traffic for a time. Depending on the size of the site, this can take weeks or more. Traffic should resolve itself after things settle (and you may even see a ranking and traffic boost afterward).<\/p>\n To avoid pitfalls that could impact your site during the migration, make sure that you:<\/p>\n Google offers its best practices for an HTTP > HTTPS move here<\/a>.<\/p>\n For more details on the coming update, keep reading our Page Experience series:<\/em><\/p>\n\n
<\/a>What Is HTTPS?<\/h2>\n
\nImage credit: \u201cWhat is https?<\/a>\u201d by TutorialsTeacher.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n
<\/a>Why Is HTTPS Important?<\/h2>\n
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\nImage credit: \u201cA secure web is here to stay<\/a>,\u201d Google Security Blog<\/em><\/p>\n\n
<\/a>How Do You Move to HTTPS?<\/h2>\n
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