The importance of a single ‘s’

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Of course we are talking about http and https here.
A few years ago Google stated that those sites using https would receive a small ranking priority than over the non S equivalent. Today we see https sites everywhere and for the most part we are probably unaware of their existence. Common areas where these occur include banking sites, shopping sites, travel sites etc. After two years of https rollout, we can report that around 30% of all search results are ones that return a https web address.

The consensus about https still remains mixed. Upon learning of the above point, many people were quick to change their domains over while some believed that it wouldn’t make much difference, or was not worth the risk of changing over.

If you are on the verge of deciding whether to switch, then it is a good idea to factor in any time, money and logistic issues before deciding to convert. Https certainly makes sites safer, but if your aim in doing this is to receive a ranking boost then you are probably barking up the wrong tree. If you are setting up a new website however, then it is probably a good idea to use a https domain from the outset as this too will save time and hassle later.

There is no doubt that https websites are more secure and are a certain necessity for places where we are entrusting our personal data and financial information. Some of the problems fired against https websites include that they are much slower initially to load for example, as the server has more information to process. Of course when this is weighted against security, many people are of the few that these drawbacks are indeed also minor.

The predication is upwards for https and there is bound to be another algorithmic change happening soon. Infact, it is predicted that around half of all search results will return a https result in the next one to two years – this would be up 20% on today. Once this point is reached, it is likely that Google will increase the rankings boost further, meaning there is more of a chance that the number of https searches returned will then rise some more.

Are you in the https club yet?

Want to learn more about http’s or other topics? Visit our learn page where you can find subjects to discover.

 

 

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