No one has ever imagined that one letter difference can bring such revolutionary changes in the web history. But, this has happened and with positive perspectives. Now, this is what needs to be explored in-depth.
Actually, the transformation from HTTP to HTTPS brought a lot of favorable changes to the websites that are worth discussing to make other web owners aware of its qualities. Today, web owners are surrounded by the problem of website security where they often face hacking and data breach issues. Google has primarily initiated the campaign of HTTPS to keep websites updated and secured for long. The company decided to make HTTPS a standard web protocol for all the websites running over the web. It has been verified that apart from security, it provides a new level to the website along with improved SEO benefits. This ultimately results in good ranking and increased conversions.
At present, when it comes to ranking good on search engines, it is all about changing the domain from HTTP to HTTPS. For example, if you are on the verge of competition with your rival and you both are battling for the prime keyword. Having the domain registered in HTTPS instead of HTTP may become the major factor that can take your website to the tip. It is said that if the two websites are equal in all manners, then it will be the domain including “S” which will win the race. In short, Google will prefer that website first which has the URL including HTTPS.
Let’s have a look at the other SEO benefits that can be in our lap when we switch our website from HTTP to HTTPS:
1. Security Reasons
As we all know that the concept of adding “S” to the HTTP reflects Security. Hence, it is clear that the core reason behind this big change is the website’s security. To get security for the website, you need an SSL certificate which signifies that your website is running with safe operations. Today, the users have also become smart and access the websites that have transformed to HTTPS. SSL certificate builds trust which attracts visitors towards the website to explore for more. This, as a result, maximizes the reach of your business.
2. Better Referral Data
Google gave another valid reason to switch from HTTP to HTTPS is the confirmed referral data. When a website is running over HTTP, sometimes the transferred data is blocked in Google Analytics. It is about compatibility as when an HTTP interface operates or share information with an HTTPS website, there are chances that the data will be lost and the traffic that was supposed to come would end up. It’s not beneficial for the brands having domain name followed by HTTP. In the case of HTTPS, referral data will be passed in all situations. There will be no interruptions in when it comes to getting better referral data for the associated operation.
3. AMP Aspects Perform Well On HTTPS
The increasing number and growing popularity of mobile devices the only reasons behind the introduction of AMP pages in the market. This concept was also introduced by Google for smooth content delivery on mobile devices. The idea behind it was to provide exceptional user experiences to all the smartphone users across the globe. Today, most of the traffic comes from the mobile devices. In this context, an introduction of AMP pages turns as a great SEO benefit.
As per the stats, approx 1.5 billion AMP pages have published that marketers are still embracing it to make CMS and analytics program run faster. It has also become a new standard among web owners to create AMP pages to divert traffic for better insights. The major point which brings us here to define the importance of HTTPS is that there are many values in AMP URL that use HTTPS. Thus, it has been used as a supporting argument for the website to move to another secure protocol.
4. Increased Prominence of HTTPS
Trust and loyalty are the terms that make HTTPS much-appreciated concept for both the web owners & users. Behind HTTPS transformation, there is SSL which brings credibility among people. By knowing the advantages and qualities of an HTTPS website, users tend to look for the green padlock every time they browse a website for information. Being a website owner, it is your duty to let your visitors know that they are exploring a highly-secure site. It simply means that if they share any type of information, it will also be safely transmitted to the server.
Go through a few points that need to be kept in mind when switching from HTTP to HTTPS:
- While switching, make sure that every element of your website uses HTTPS. The process should be applied to JavaScript, widgets, CSS files, images and also your content delivery network.
- You need to use 301 redirects to show that your website is under observation. In this case, the redirects should switch users to the page the information which defines the narration for the error redirect.
- All canonical tags should also point to the HTTPS version of the URL.
- Registering the HTTPS websites on both Google and Bing Webmaster Tools is also crucial.
- Update your robots.txt file and add a new sitemap for the newly registered website.
These are a few factors that a webmaster needs to focus on while switching from HTTP to HTTPS. There are many other technical aspects that are still not discussed here. You can explore them through any of the well-written blogs.
Closing Thoughts
After this detailed description, we don’t think there is still any doubt left in your mind. Hope we made all the readers, webmasters and marketers convinced through our groundbreaking examples and proven factors. So, don’t wait and switch your website from HTTP to HTTPS to get exceptional SEO benefits.