HTTPS SEO – Some of our clients have just gone HTTPS and all for SEO Purposes…….Not Quite!

Https SEO – If you happen to be in the Internet sector, you’ll probable know what a ‘Secure website is’ and how you know that a website you are on is in fact secure.  The issue we see at Digital Sales is that the public are ignorant and simply unaware of the security benefits of a httpS website (HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure).  If you happen to be one of the ‘unaware’ let me explain.

Within your browser, to the left of the address bar, you will see a small green lock symbol, just like on www.DigitalSales.ie, see:

You will also note that the url composition now has an S (S for Secure not Sugar!) within its composition, so https instead of http.  A second tell-tale sign that you are surfing a secure website.

You can see some Digital Sales clients using HTTPS for SEO purposes and more here:

https://www.careerguidance.ie/

https://www.boilerreplacement.ie/

https://www.ambassadorwindows.ie/

https://www.careerguidance.co.uk/

We will take a look at the benefits for the user later within this blog post, but lets focus on what a HTTPS Secure site tells Google and the other search engines??  Let’s talk HTTPS SEO……

HTTPS SEO

There are over or around 200 SEO factors and some factors have more weight than others.  Over the past few years having a secure HTTPS website has started to grow in importance and weight.  Remember, search engines like Google want to try and best serve their customers.  And so, if a competitor has a HTTPS secure website and you don’t, you are not on a level playing field and you may start to see a drop in your ranking versus HTTPS Secure websites.

The key point you must consider is that Google want to make their customers happy, provide relevant information and content and if that information is secure for the customer – then it can only be positive.  You MUST make your website HTTPS for better organic SEO results.  And don’t forget to point your url to the new secure url, for example:

www.DigitalSales.ie – if you click on this url it should go to: https://www.digitalsales.ie/

If the same process does not replicate with your website, then you should get that issue resolved.  Also, you will have to update your Google Analytics account with the new url type, within the Property Settings section, see the Default URL field:

Google Analytics Interface

Other Risks of not having a HTTPS Website apart from HTTPS SEO

Not only can a websites organic search results get hampered (especially if your competitors are HTTPS), there are other security type issues that could effect your website and in effect your business.  Your website could be effected by different types of viruses and treats such as: APT (Advanced Persistent Threats), Malware, Man-in-the-middle (MIM) attack, Direct hacker attacks.

So, apart from HTTPS SEO, what does a HTTPS Website mean to the website user?

Fundamentally, a HTTPS website also provides users with a greater level of trust and provides increase levels of consumer confidence.  Two powerful signals that facilitates the sales process.  On a more technical level, if a website transmits information from one place to another, that information be it: A user’s personal registration details, Credit Card Details, comments on a blog post – can be intercepted.  Using a website which is HTTPS ensures that that information is encrypted and secure.

Summary – HTTPS SEO Benefits and Others:

To summarise, apart from the HTTPS SEO benefits, the other positives if you move your website to HTTPS are:

• Non-secure message in the users’ browser will not appear or if the user clicks to the left of the url, the below information will not appear, see:

• Risk of data breaches are reduced and sensitive information is more secure and encrypted
• The website as an organisation is independently verified and verified authentic
• SSL (HTTPS) improves your branding power and increases customer’s trust and confidence

Need help getting your website HTTPS for SEO…….

See our contact us page for all our contact details and office locations, if you need to make your website HTTPS secure we have the knowledge and resources internally to make this happen.  Do reach out!

Diarmuid Haughian – Business Development Director – www.DigitalSales.com

Post Grad Dip. User Experience (UX, Student), Dip. International Selling, Cert. Digital Marketing, MSc. BITS