How Does SSL Certificate Affect SEO

A variety of criteria determine the rating of a website. Search engines will prioritize websites that provide consumers with a safe and protected experience as their top results.

It has been discovered that if two websites have the same infrastructure but only one has SSL certification, the website that does have it will have the edge over the website that does not have it in terms of search engine results.

SSL certificates

The acronym SSL refers to the Secure Sockets Layer protocol. SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is an additional layer of security that is strengthened, and given its name, it is easy to deduce what it stands for. It protects the information of visitors and users of an online portal from being compromised by cyber anomalies.

This layer is in charge of encrypting all of the data transferred between servers and users to ensure that malicious actors on the Internet cannot decode it and that the entire transaction is kept confidential.

Nowadays, if you using Shopify, Shoplazza, or other website builders, the SSL certificate is set as default to protect your site.

How Does SSL Certificate Affect SEO?

A customer aware of the significance of data privacy would likely only use a website that uses SSL certificates to ensure that their data is encrypted before it is sent over the Internet. When you think about it, the Internet’s size is just staggering.

In light of the prevalence of bad actors on the web who are eager to acquire sensitive client data and contribute to the dark web, it is more important than ever to take all necessary precautions to protect sensitive data. It follows that people want to feel safe when using the website they browse.

As one of the most extensively used search engines, Google strongly suggests that all websites move from the insecure HTTP protocol to the more secure HTTPS protocol. By implementing stronger laws on the web and focusing on providing consumers with more actual search results, Google is working to make the Internet safer for everyone. This implies that search engine rankings are boosted for SSL-certified, trustworthy websites.

Does SSL Affect Rankings?

No significant boost in search engine rankings results from installing an SSL certificate on a website. Still, they contribute to your site’s higher position in search results, and it makes sense to spend money on SSL certification for your website. While there are several other ranking criteria to consider, SSL for SEO rankings is helpful if you hope to see significant movement in the SERP.

In addition to the previously stated benefits, it also improves your website’s safety, increasing user trust and your site’s visitor count. Consequently, it is safe to say that SSL does boost SEO rankings to some degree, even if there is no immediately noticeable improvement in rankings after using HTTPS.

HTTP VS. HTTPS

Since it operates at the application layer, HTTP is a protocol at that level. This means that rather than the actual transport of data, the emphasis is on the display of data to the user. As a stateless protocol, HTTP does not keep track of user history. This means that the order in which requests are processed does not matter. Though the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) facilitates client-server communication, it does not provide any means of secure data transmission.

The Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) functions at the transport layer. An SSL certificate is unnecessary for use with HTTP. HTTPS requires both an SSL certificate issued by a certificate authority and an annual renewal. When sending data over the Internet, HTTP uses port 80, whereas HTTPS uses port 443. When weighed against HTTP’s free benefits, HTTPS’s higher price tag is understandable.

Therefore, HTTPS provides far more security than HTTP.

(Contribute by M. Zeeshan & Hermes Fang)