Are you wondering about how to improve SEO strategy in 2021?
We got your back –and perhaps you only need an SSL Certificate to boost your Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) rankings.
There are many benefits of SSL certificate. Lets see from the beginning.
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What is an SSL Certificate and How does it Work?
Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is a digital security protocol. It helps in encrypting all the communications between your website and the customers/visitors on the site.
During encryption, the Secure Socket Layer aka SSL certificate converts all the plain text information that’s fed on your website by the visitors into encoded formats that interceptor won’t interpret. This is critical in safeguarding your customers’ confidential data, especially in situations where online attackers try to sniff on your traffic to steal highly sensitive information like user passwords and credit card information, etc.
This form of attack is known as a man-in-the-middle attack. To activate this security functionality on your website, you must install the digital security certificates known as the SSL Certificates.
In this article, we go in detail to explore with you how SSL Certificates are essential for SEO, how to get, install, and activate an SSL Certificate on your website.
Benefits of SSL certificate and Improve SEO
When you install and activate the SSL Certificate on your website, Google marks the site as secure. Your domain name URL will now change from HTTP to HTTPs. Here’s a breakdown of the top three ways SSL Certificates boosts SEO.
1. User Security and Privacy
It’s worth pointing out that an average internet user is already aware of online security threats. Because of this, they won’t proceed to browse your website when they think that it is suspicious.
Most web browsers today will also alert website users that the website they’re trying to access isn’t secure if you haven’t installed these digital security certificates. From Google Chrome to Internet Explorer and Firefox, etc., they’ll all relay warnings to any website visitor that the website isn’t safe.
This is harmful to your SEO because your target audience will see the warning first. These warnings instill fear in most cases, thus making the visitors navigate away quickly (bouncing off).
With high bounce rates, the search engine spiders may begin to ‘think’ that your website offers less value or spam content and push you down the SEO rankings. To solve this, it’s essential that you get an SSL Certificate to remove the warnings and reduce bounce rates.
2. User Confidence
A competent Certificate Authority (CA) will issue you with the SSL Certificate and security seals to display on the website. These seals act as solid proof to your website visitors that you care about their security and online privacy.
Once they’re sure about their safety online, their engagement on the website will improve. Search engines like Google also consider audience engagement as a ranking factor.
They ‘believe’ that you’re offering valuable content to the website users and will, therefore, push you up the SERPs so more people can find the ‘valuable’ content you share.
3. HTTPS is a Ranking Factor
In a bid to ensure consumer safety, search engines like Google are trying to get rid of insecure websites. These engines achieve this by introducing security filters for secure sites.
It’s for this reason that Google made HTTPS as a ranking factor. Recent studies also show that webmasters that offer the same quality content but still have their sites running under HTTP rank below other webmasters that have implemented HTTPs.
Indirectly, adding the SSL certificate to your website is one of actionable SEO tactics to increase the website traffic.
How to Get an SSL Certificate for Your Website?
To get an SSL Certificate for your website, you’ll have to order for it from a Certificate Authority (CA) or resellers. You may have to go through a verification process to be cleared to get the certificate depending on the type of certificate that you need for your website.
When shopping for SSL Certificates though, it’s important to note that they’re available in two distinct groups.
Both certificates encrypt all the data shared on the website. The difference only comes in when you check the added features. The highest-level validation SSL Certificates, for example, EV SSL offers the protection but also may show your domain name, and country in the URL to make it easier for your target audience to distinguish your brand from other competitors.
The medium level of validation, on the other hand, will only provide security but not show the country where the business is registered or the company’s domain name in the address bar. Because of the extra features that come with EV SSL Certificates, they can be a bit pricier, especially if you wish to secure multiple domains.
That shouldn’t discourage you, though. If you wish to secure unlimited subdomains using top-level SSL Certificates like Organization Validation (OV) SSL Certificates, your best option would be to go with Wildcard SSL Certificate for the type of certificate that you need.
It will help you secure multiple subdomains and still provide the same level of security you’d get with multiple single SSL Certificates for different domains at a lower price.
How to Install and Activate SSL Certificate on Your Website?
After getting an SSL Certificate from a CA, you can install it on your own server for example, in the cPanel or Web Host Manager or ask your web hosting company to do it for you.
Most businesses prefer letting the web hosting companies they’re affiliated to do the installation for them. If you wish to install the certificate on your own, though, you’ll have to navigate to your guideline then install the digital certificate from there. If you have purchased from SSL resellers or direct CA, you can contact their customer support for further guidance.
We have a full page dedicated to SSL Certificate installation. Learn how to install Security Socket Layer (SSL) certificate in your cPanel here.
Bottom Line
The internet is a flaky place. You work hard to increase your website traffic. Your rankings could be high today and drop the next day without you understanding what’s going on.
One of the benefits of SSL certificate is securing your website and user data.
Besides following white hat SEO techniques, the basic rule of thumb is to ensure that the website is safe and adopt the clean design for a better user experience. Being an SEO specialist, be sure to also keep up with the latest Google webmaster guidelines.
