Achieving high rankings in search engines, even with proper search engine optimization (SEO), is difficult. Google and the other search engines take into account over 200 factors when deciding where to place your page in search results.

Your SEO experts at 101 Management Inc. suggest you pay special attention to one of Google’s newer ranking signals: HTTPS. These letters stand for “HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure,” and advise anyone landing on your page that it is secure from third-party viewing.

The HTTPS protocol encrypts data transfers between your computer and the webserver to ensure that what you search for and read on the Internet cannot be intercepted by anyone else. To verify that your site or one you’re reading is actually encrypted, you will see the green lock icon at the top left of your address bar.

You’ll also see the letters SSL in connection with Internet data security. It stands for Secure Sockets Locket, and means the connection between the user and the site has been encrypted, so that anything sent between the two is secure.

 

Why is this important?

Google owns 68% of the search engine market; you’ll want to comply with their wishes. Experts warn that Google soon will not only lower SEO rankings of sites lacking the “S” on their protocol, but will also label sites that don’t have it as “not secure” on its Chrome browser. They are already doing this on non-secure pages that require a password or credit card information, and the day is coming when Google will label all non-secure pages this way.

This label could actually drive visitors away from your website as more and more sites cave to Google’s demands, leading visitors to believe your site has been compromised somehow. The “not secure” warning will appear in red in the address bar, so visitors can’t miss it.

But if Google won’t even let visitors find your website because they’ve dropped it in rankings, the problem of driving them away becomes academic.

The link research tool AHREFS recently analyzed the HTTPS settings of the top 10,000 domains and found that only 10% had what it regarded as a flawless SSL/HTTPS setup. The process needed to do it properly is complex, so we recommend you consult the SEO experts at 101 Management Inc. to help you get it right. It is crucial that you not neglect this new ranking signal in your quest for optimal SEO results.