Websites use SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) to establish a secure connection between hosts and visitors. All data transferred through an SSL connection remains private and integral. Websites with an SSL certificate can be accessed through HTTPS. The SSL and SEO are now interlinked. Lately, SSL certificates have become popular and widely used, but people are still wondering if having an SSL certificate affects SEO. First off, we’ll tell you the SSL certificate benefits and why you should get one:
Does an SSL certificate Help SEO?
Since installing an SSL certificate is easy and recommended, the final question is whether or not it affects SEO. Here are a few ways how SSL certificates help SEO:
1. Google prefers HTTPS
Google officially announced that having an SSL certificate positively impacts your rankings, and it’s considered a ranking signal. The reason that Google themselves have stated that it does affect SEO is a valid enough reason for you to switch to HTTPS and increase your rankings on search engines.
2. You have more referrer data
With an HTTP connection, some of your referral data gets lost, and you won’t notice it. In such cases, your website traffic originating from certain sources will be shown as “Direct.” Using an HTTPS connection will show you all your referral data and where it comes from.
3. Websites with HTTPS rank higher
Several research studies have been done by Moz, Ahrefs, and Brian Dean, who analyzed the ranking of top websites on Google and concluded that HTTPS websites already rank higher than non-HTTPS ones.
4. Users prefer websites with HTTPS
Based on analytical data from different websites. When searching for something, people are likelier to click on a secure HTTPS website than a non-secure one. So, if your website has HTTPS and ranks with other non-HTTPS websites on the same SERP, the user will most likely visit your website.
Based on all the reasons listed in this article, we recommend buying an SSL certificate and increasing your search rankings if you haven’t already done so.