Some time ago, Google announced that they planned to use HTTPS as a ranking signal. Later, Google said they they started indexing HTTPS pages by default.
The importance of having a secure website
Google made it clear that secure websites are important for them:
“At Google, user security has always been a top priority. Over the years, we’ve worked hard to promote a more secure web and to provide a better browsing experience for users. […]
We also started giving a slight ranking boost to HTTPS URLs in search results last year. Browsing the web should be a private experience between the user and the website, and must not be subject to eavesdropping, man-in-the-middle attacks, or data modification.
This is why we’ve been strongly promoting HTTPS everywhere.”
If your website does not use HTTPS, Google does not rank it as well as it could. Even if it did not affect your search engine rankings, a secure website is a good thing. Consumers prefer secure websites that they can trust.
How to check the security settings of your website
Checking the security settings of your website is easy if you have a SEOprofiler account. Among many other important things, the Website Audit tool in SEOprofiler also checks the security settings of your server:
You get a detailed check of the security settings of your website, as well as tips on how to improve these settings.
The Website Audit tool in SEOprofiler checks many things that can influence the position of your web pages in search engines. If you haven’t done it yet, create your SEOprofiler account now and check the security settings of your website as well as many other factors:
