{"id":8202,"date":"2014-09-13T15:25:29","date_gmt":"2014-09-13T15:25:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.123print.com\/blog\/?p=8202"},"modified":"2015-07-17T20:21:46","modified_gmt":"2015-07-17T20:21:46","slug":"https-should-you-make-the-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/https-should-you-make-the-change\/","title":{"rendered":"HTTPS – Should You Make the Change?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Google is now rewarding secure sites<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last month Google announced that the secure HTTPS protocol will be now be used as a light ranking signal in its search algorithm. For those who aren\u2019t familiar with HTTPS, it stands for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure and, as the name suggests, is a more secure way of transferring data over the internet.Perhaps Google\u2019s encouragement to move to HTTPS and subsequently adding a SSL-bit key certificate to sites shouldn\u2019t be that big of a surprise. They have been hinting at the importance of secure HTTPS encrypted websites for some time now.\u00a0 Before Google\u2019s Matt Cutts left on his sabbatical earlier this year, he stated his support for SSL as a ranking factor<\/a>. \u00a0Similarly, in June at their I\/O developer conference, Google continued its quest by adopting the parole \u201cHTTPS everywhere<\/a>\u201d.\u00a0 Google\u2019s call seems to have been heard. According to Cyrus Shepherd, 24% of webmasters<\/a> recently polled by MOZ plan on switching their site to HTTPS and 17% profess to already be using HTTPS in some shape or form. Despite the trend, it\u2019s important to note that for SEO purposes HTTPS remains only one of 200 or so signals in Google\u2019s search algorithm. Additionally, it\u2019s a ranking signal which affects less than 1% of global queries.\u00a0 With that said, Google seems to be pushing hard for the change. Not only have they made it a light ranking signal as stated on their webmasters blog, but have said they may strengthen the signal down the road. \u00a0Of course, Google has been known to lead SEOs and webmasters down certain paths which ultimately led to dead-ends (see Authorship).<\/p>\n

Why is Google pushing for a switch to HTTPS?<\/p>\n

If you listen to Google it\u2019s all about web security. But even \u2018web security\u2019 is a nebulous concept for most. To break it down, HTTPS secures sites against eavesdroppers and so-called Middle Man attacks, where information is intercepted during transfers. HTTPS encrypts all communication which also means browsing history, credit card numbers and passwords are safe.\u00a0 However, as Dan Cristo points out<\/a>, HTTPS doesn\u2019t protect sites against hackers, denial of service attacks and scripting or database exploits. Simply put, it\u2019s not the be-all and end-all in web security.<\/p>\n

Is a switch from HTTP to HTTPS worth it?<\/p>\n

For some it may be an easy answer \u2013 if your site is one that transfers sensitive and or personal information over the web, then the answer yes. Most of these types of sites are already using HTTPS if only on the login, cart and order processing landing pages. \u00a0Webmasters just developing their websites also should strongly consider opting for HTTPS. \u00a0Why not get in on the ground floor especially when the potential for change in the future is certainly a possibility? For bigger and more established sites that have thousands of pages indexed, the answer might be more complicated. Here are some things to consider in making your decision:<\/p>\n

1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It can be costly, depending on your budget. \u00a0Although there are free SSL certificates out there, most cost money, and this usually hinges on the validation duration of the certificate you choose. Just as importantly, IT resources or \u2018technical debt\u2019 will surely come into play for bigger sites.<\/p>\n

2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The change may slow down your site speed.\u00a0 Data will need to be encrypted so this could be a factor, but then again if everything is as it should be, most argue site speed shouldn\u2019t be an issue. Don\u2019t forget<\/p>\n

3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The change will take time to complete.\u00a0 There are many changes that will need to be done, 301 redirects aside, webmasters will need to ensure that every element on the page is HTTPS compliable whether it be image URLs, java script etc. Not to mention changes that will need to be done to robots.txt files, xml sitemaps and so on.<\/p>\n

I think I agree with most when I say \u2013 do what\u2019s best for your website and the goals you associate with your website. If you are switching solely for a boost in SEO then it\u2019s probably the wrong thing to do.<\/p>\n

Will you change your site from HTTP to HTTPS? If so why?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last month Google announced that the secure HTTPS protocol will be now be used as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1448,1455],"tags":[1778,1779,1780,1781],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8202"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8202"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9139,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8202\/revisions\/9139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}