One letter can indeed make a difference. If you haven’t already, you should really make the change from HTTP to HTTPS on your business websites. Not only are HTTPS sites more secure, but Google is giving these sites a priority when indexing.
If you want to know how much importance Google is placing on HTTPS sites, here is an important piece of data.
Marketing scientist at MOZ, Dr. Pete Meyers, recently Tweeted that the MOZCAST 10K, a measure of top Google search results, now shows 25 percent of these are HTTPS sites.
HTTPS: URLs are currently right around 25% of page-1 results in the MozCast 10K.
— Dr. Pete Meyers (@dr_pete) January 12, 2016
The MOZCAST 10K graphs SERP (Search Engine Results Page) feature history. The graph looks at changes in major SERP features over time.
This latest graph, taken between December 17, 2015, and January 13, 2016, shows Google’s SERP feature history. And guess what, HTTPS results are increasing.
That’s a lot of acronyms, but that’s just the world we live in!
HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol, and is a method of moving data around. It’s a fast way to move data however it’s also not the most secure. But adding the S in HTTPS makes a big difference.
Essentially the S in HTTPS is security, literally standing for Secure. This means data coming and going on your site is now encrypted using an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) Certificate that is hard to hack.
Again more acronyms, but is goes to show how important security is to Google. It’s also good to have more security on your business website where lots of sensitive information is probably shared.
From the simple login page to more important information like credit card numbers, you want to make sure not only your information but also your customer’s information is secure.
And so apparently does Google, as the MOZCAST 10K graph shows that HTTPS page-1 results have increased since the company announced giving HTTPS indexing priority. True it’s not the biggest increase, but it does show a steady growth.
If you are wondering how to make the switch to HTTPS for your small business website check out our article on the subject.
Google Search Photo via Shutterstock
Aira Bongco
That’s all good but my computer keeps blocking HTTPS sites. So this means that I will probably skip through the results until I found that is working.
Joy
Please add a link to the article on how to make the switch. I cruised around your pages and not seeing it.
Tabby McFarland
The link is in this article in the first paragraph. But here it is:
https://smallbiztrends.com/2015/04/changing-from-http-to-https.html
Wayne S. Sullivan
Great article! Didn’t know that but it makes sense that google wants better ways to trust internet websites. I will go to the next article to see how to get my janitorial service on https. Thanks.