The main theme you will witness in organic search engine optimization (SEO) is that search engines will always do what they can to return the best results for what people want. They have to. If search engines like Google or Bing ever started to return websites that had no relation to your search they would no longer serve their purpose and they would fail. Doing the best for the searcher is best for business.
⏳ The SSL Timeline
- 2014 — Google started implementing warnings that websites were not secure. Google announced HTTPS as a way to promote website encryption. HTTPS websites with an SSL were given a 1% boost in search rankings.
- 2017 — Google starts marking HTTP websites with no SSL that collect passwords or credit card information as unsafe. SSL certificate effect on websites increases.
- 2020 — Google and others restrict multi-year SSL certificates to 398 days to promote web safety. This also helps reduce the chances of giving a closed business a higher ranking than an open business.
🔒 Why SSL Matters for Your Rankings
It isn’t always that not having a Secure Sockets Layer or SSL certificate is bad. It is more that other websites that have this inexpensive certificate are going to be placed higher in search engine results, because they are safer for people to visit. Passwords and credit card information is encrypted in transit making it more difficult for hackers to steal.
Search engines have prioritized SSL certificates that have been renewed every year. This helps searchers only find businesses that are still open. It was a simple problem. Searchers would go to businesses that were no longer open, but they had a security certificate. Multi-year SSL certificates could be purchased at the time. It was a headache for some companies including Fluid Web Concepts as I had finally considered the cost savings and purchased a five year certificate only weeks before the change was announced. Now, a security certificate has to be purchased every year reducing the likelihood that a closed business would be given a high search engine rank over an open business.
Without an SSL certificate, most search engine optimization (SEO) trackers just stop. Fluid Web Concepts doesn’t just stop with one test. I created tests to grade your website on various content individually even if you don’t have an SSL certificate.