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The importance of SSL certificates in SEO rankings

February 17th, 2023 by esigners

Google has at least 200+ factors that it uses for the purpose of performing its search engine rankings. It considers them actively before it places any website on its SERPs (search engine results pages). Despite knowing this it is rare for SEO (search engine optimization) experts to know the way that specific algorithms function in actuality. Google has safeguarded such information with great care to make sure that it is not misappropriated in any way – it wants to make sure that unfair means cannot be adopted to take over the search engine. In short, it is very rare that Google would spell out exactly what you need to do to improve the rankings of your site on the SERPs.

At most it would be offering you generic and vague statements.

What is an SSL certificate?
The full form of SSL is Secure Sockets Layer. As the name would suggest in this case, it is supposed to create an external layer of security that protects the information that a user opts to share with a website. SSL.com has defined it as a standard security technology that is supposed to establish an encrypted link between a browser and a web server. This link makes sure that all the data passes between both remains private.

So, when a visitor comes to an https website the SSL certificate makes sure that all the information that they secure is not leaked to anyone. It is the encrypted connection that protects the information.

How does this affect search engine rankings?

Now that you understand what SSL is and the way that it happens to work we shall delve into the impact that it has on the ranking that a website gets on the search engine of Google. There are a couple of ways in which SSL impacts the search engine ranking of websites on Google.

It gives you a boost on these rankings
Google has already stated that a website with an SSL certificate is a secure one and this is why it would always hold an edge over websites that do not have such encryption and security. However, in this case we are assuming that all the other SEO factors would remain the same. It can be rather difficult to calculate the precise impact that an SSL certificate can have on the SEO ranking of a website. For example, it would be hard to judge the actual effect of SSL certificate on a website’s search engine rankings when you compare it to another website that has a similar niche but whose backlinks are stronger and greater in number.

It improves the user experience on your website and this improves the SEO
It cannot be doubted that having an SSL certificate would improve the user experience on it significantly because it is such a safe and secure one. If you ever land on a malicious website you would get visible indication that it is not safe and that you must stop browsing the same. Google Chrome is making sure that this is the case as well.

You would have to install an SSL certificate on your website if you are to survive and thrive in the digital landscape today. This is because doing this would help you create the encrypted website that is so necessary in this day and age. So, ensure that you have the right SSL certificate for your website. It must be completely safe and encrypted for the visitors that are coming to your website. If you need more information on this you can always hit the internet and get the same.