Recently Google announced that they would be using HTTPS results in their rankings. What does this mean to you exactly as a website owner?
Well, if you do not presently have a website and were just about to start one in the short term future, then there is some good news. By simply adding an SSL certificate to your site, you can potentially get some additional SEO points from Google.
If you are an existing website owner and already have some good SEO results, then the process is not that difficult. We simply purchase the SSL certificate for your site, configure it on the server, and then ensure all the site pages work correctly. We also will want to go back and ensure Google has an up to date site map of your website structure.
What are the costs you ask? Well, SSL certificates range in value from $50.00 a year up to a few hundred dollars a year based on a few key items. We will discuss more about the exact differences in a future post, but for now let’s keep it simple.
If you have an informational only website and you want to take advantage of this Google announcement, then you can probably just get a cheaper SSL certificate since you are not actually accepting personal information from your clients.
A normal SSL certificate gives the desired end result of https instead of just http in your browser address bar.
The total effort and cost to have the SSL installed and then added to your site can be very simple for basic sites but will require a little more effort for larger sites. Here at Delta Decisions we can ensure we handle all the redirects and setup correctly so that you get the most SEO points.
At the end of the day it is simple, a website with SSL is always more secure than a site without an SSL certificate.
Having the SSL will help your Google ranking (which is always a good thing) and ultimately it will deter hackers from being able to gain access to your server (this too is another good thing).
Have any questions or comments about this article? Contact us today, we are your website management experts and we are always here to help you move your website forward.
