In response to positive results during the initial introduction, Google is proud to allow secure sites better ranking within their site. Now, switching to HTTPS – a secure version of your site security updated with SSL 2048-bit key certification – is able to give you a minor edge on your competition and ranking.

Google explains to users that the website will be giving a small ranking benefit, when webmasters switch their encryption. This however, is not to overshadow the high quality content signal that is interpreted by Google Search engines when searching for sites with relevant information. Google has admitted that they are considering giving more weight to the signal applied when HTTPS is identified, mostly because they would like to get all sites to use HTTPS and improve the safety of using the web.

Google has reported that since the new installment, the HTTP signal marker is showing positive results, meaning that the sites being returned are increasingly more relevant and higher in the search results.

So, do you need to be concerned with these changes? 

Not really. 

Honestly, Google has been asking webmasters to update their site security to HTTPS for a really long time. If you take the proper steps to make sure your traffic doesn’t suffer, switching to HTTPS should really be a better ‘selling point’ for you and your visitors. After you’ve updated, be sure to let Google know so that you can take advantage of the small ranking boost.

Here are some tips recommended by Google to keep your site running smoothly and keep your rank improving:

• Get the right kind of certificate: Wild card, Multi-Domaina and Single are all different types of certificates. Be sure to select the one is right for you.
• Make sure the certificates you’re using are 2048-bit key encryption.
• Use relative URLs for any resources that reside at the same, secure, location.
• Allow as many sites to index your page as possible. Avoid using a meta tag including ‘noIndex’.
• Using Google Webmaster Tools, you should be able to view your analytics and track your switch from HTTP to HTTPS.
• If you need to, ask for help to change your site address to reflect your new updated security status.
• Do not block your HTTPS site from crawling when using robots.txt

Good luck making the switch! If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below!