Does an SSL certificate affect SEO?

The presence of a company in the TOP of search results today is crucial if you want to reach customers. Of the 200 factors affecting a site’s position in search results, having an SSL certificate is critical. In 2018, Emily Schechter, head of Google Chrome security, reported on Google’s official blog that websites without SSL will be marked as unsafe. Why?

Well-chosen keywords, site speed, internal and external links or structured data are all important for SEO. However, this is not enough: we have a lot of sensitive data on every site, and the risk of losing or stealing it is too great. According to the 2016 Internet Security Threat Report, 500 million records with personal data were stolen from websites in just one year. No wonder, then, that at this point Google is putting even more emphasis on security. This is important information not only for the owners of sites of large companies, institutions, but also for any site that processes personal data, passwords, transactions or messages.

What is an SSL certificate?

SSL, or Secure Socket Layer, is a technology that secures the transmission of data from a website to a server. You can recognize it by looking at a website’s address bar: https:// and the green padlock symbol. HTTPS is protected by the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol, which secures data at three levels:

1. Encryption – data typed in by
   users is encrypted, so that outsiders cannot
   access it and intercept conversations, information or actions taken.
2. Data integrity – attempts to corrupt
   or alter data are immediately detected during transmission.
3. Authentication – the user has
   confidence that he has come to the right site. He is protected from attacks and gains
   confidence in the site.

How does SSL protocol affect SEO?

Google already now favors https sites, especially sites of e-shops, large enterprises, institutions. Since 2017, Google has been marking sites without SSL as unsafe for users, and this makes the sites’ position drop a lot in search engines. So in the near future, the introduction of SSL certificate for sites will become a necessity. It should also be added that just having SSL does not guarantee a rise to the 1st place in Google ranking, but it significantly facilitates the SEO process. 60% of the surveyed sites did not have HTTPS implemented at all, and as many as 90% had it done incorrectly, so the protocol is both an opportunity to stand out among the competition.

What does an SSL certificate protect users from?

• Theft or falsification of data
• stealing passwords, card numbers, account numbers and using them
• digital crime
• phishing (internet scams)

What else does the SSL protocol provide?

• gives the site prestige
• gives the site reliable security
• implementing it is in compliance with the RODO law (the part about
  data encryption)

How to implement an SSL certificate?

Many service providers offer a free version of the SSL certificate, or Let’s Encrypt, but it is the full version of SSL that gives a guarantee of performance and makes it unnecessary to renew the service (the free certificate is available for 3 months, you have to renew it).

SSL can be enabled automatically after purchasing the service, or you can ask your service provider to install it. The user can also deploy SSL on their own.

SSL Certificate at ITH.EU

In the offer of ITH Hosting we also have SSL installation. We perform the installation on behalf of the client. You are welcome to use our services.

E. Adamska-Cieśla