Add an SSL Certificate for better rankings

For better SEO, Add an SSL Certificate to get better search engine rankings or land on the first page results on Google, site speed and HTTPS were both listed as ranking factors.

An experiment with 1 million Google results determined which factors help web pages appear on the first SERP:

  • Dedicated/Private IP address – page or site’s speed
  • SSL Certificate – HTTPS (green pad lock icon)

How an SSL certificate affects your search engine rankings

An SSL Certificate is required for ecommerce businesses and other online businesses collecting personal information from customers.

However to use an SSL certificate on your website you need a dedicated or static IP address.

What is an SSL certificate?

An SSL Certificate is a security token used to protect private information traveling across the web. It provides security for customers and builds trust on the business with the presence of the lock icon or green bar.

https padlock

Benefits of an SSL certificate

The benefits of using an SSL Certificate is not limited to SEO, an SSL Certificate provides security for the website owner and trust from the website visitors or customer.

  • Better Rankings In Google: On the 1st of April, 2011 Google announced they would be crawling, indexing and storing data on SSL certificates found on the web and on the 6th of August, 2014, security for web users was addressed by Google when they announced HTTPS as a ranking factor in search engine results.
  • Security: An SSL certificate protects your domain name and email from phishing scams. As a business, you don’t want anyone cloning your website to gain personal information but with a proper SSL Certificate, it would be hard for anyone to clone your website.
  • Encryption: Using an SSL certificate on your website encrypts sensitive information collected from your website visitors and customers intended for you only. The Internet consist of several computers and this can be breached but having an SSL Certificate encrypts information traveling across the web to the recipient.
  • Trust: According to a survey conducted by GlobalSign, 77% of website visitors worry that their personal data could be intercepted or misused online. Using an SSL Certificate with its lock icon or green bar would increase trust on your business as 29% of customers look for the green bar before making a purchase or releasing sensitive information. Increased trust leads to increase in sales and conversion.

Key takeaway

An SSL Certificate provides security through HTTPS for your customers and website which is a ranking factor for Google search engine resulting in better rankings in search engine results.

Conclusion

To get on the first page of Google’s search results depends on a lot of factors but you need a fast dedicated hosting server, an SSL certificate for security and trust for customers and search engines.

Implementing any of the above should provide positive changes to your search engine traffic.

Source: https://searchenginewatch.com/2016/07/13/how-a-dedicated-ip-address-and-ssl-certificate-affects-your-search-engine-rankings/