Google announced earlier this month that a small rankings boost would be added to sites that use an SSL certificate (https address). The boost is set to only have a very small effect on a site’s rankings however this could change at a later date. https addresses encrypt a user’s information being sent over the web to stop third parties from being able to read any of the information. The boost is a result of Google wanting to make the web a safer and more secure place, so they are rewarding websites that use secure addresses – albeit very small at this stage.

The boost will only apply to pages that have https, so if only your checkout or customer pages have a https address all other (http) pages will not be affected. Many companies, including ourselves, have opted to implement a site wide https to take advantage of this boost and help re-assure our customers that their data will be kept safe and secure.

More information on this can be found on the Google Webmaster Central Blog

Benefits of having a https address

• Gives visitors more confidence in your website.
• Keeps your customers’ information safe and hidden.
• Small rankings boost from Google.

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