SSL Certificates for SEO: How Important are They?

By jack123 | SEO | 0 Comments

Ranking high in the SERPs is the end result of countless SEO efforts. A large number of factors are playing an intrinsic role in the rankings, each of them impacting your performance. Optimizing your site for each of them is a rather challenging task. However, you can focus your efforts on a couple more important ones. The SSL certificates are a factor that can be pretty effective for SEO purposes.

The ownership of such a certificate has become the norm for the internet. It is well-known that they can have a significant positive impact on your website. But, the question is, how important are they after all?

Perceived Authority

Often, the rankings are all about authority. Who’s got the best website design, the best domain name, and the best content. Many things outside of technical SEO can play an important role in the perceived authority of your site. Having an SSL certificate for your website can improve your SEO and authority.

Websites with HTTPS connections represent the default state of the internet. Each reputable website has such a connection to ensure the privacy of its users. If you opt not to use one, your audience might look a bit weird at your site. They might see you as an invaluable source of information due to the lack of a secured website.

In some cases, because you lack a valid SSL certificate, browsers and search engines might even showcase a warning to the users before entering your site. Setting up such a barrier makes it more likely that the users will instantly leave your website.

The problem is that the lack of such a certificate can impact other SEO related things. The high bounce rate and low view count resulted from the lack of an HTTPS connection will signal to search engines that your website is less valuable. This will negatively impact your rankings.

The good news is that the presence of a valid SSL certificate will do the opposite, resulting in a positive SEO boost.

SEO Boost

Google is always trying to ensure the privacy of its users and the relevance of the indexed content. For that reason, they have started to push SSL certificates onto webmasters. A secured connection was only a possibility before. Now, it has become a requirement.

Google and other search engines perceive websites with an HTTPS connection as being more trustworthy. In a past update, Google stated that they will start offering a slight SEO boost to secured websites. This is made to promote the usage of SSL certificates by webmasters.

Conclusion

Although having SSL certificates is not mandatory for SEO purposes, it started to become necessary. The direct benefit you’re receiving from the SEO boost is not necessarily huge. But, the benefits resulted from avoiding the issues coming with the lack of such a certificate are countless. Considering that Google is basically demanding an SSL certificate, any webmaster desiring SEO results should opt for one.