A website can score highly and stand out on search engine result pages by using a skill set called search engine optimization (SEO). The ranking of a website for appropriate search terms is determined by thousands of variables.

With billions of websites competing for users’ attention, even the smallest element can have a significant impact. SSL is one of the countless minor ranking variables used by Google, the busiest search engine on the internet.

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Google made this announcement a few years back in an effort to persuade or prod website owners to install SSL certificates. Web traffic is to be secured by SSLs. As a result, it is now highly prevalent on the internet.

Does your website’s SSL certificate help it rank higher in search engines? The short answer is yes, given that everything else is equal. The website with SSL will rank higher for the exact keywords if two websites with the same advantages, but only one has SSL installed for web traffic.

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Does it matter whether kind of SSL is installed? No. Almost any SSL certificate that has been installed will affect ranking. In this situation, even the most affordable SSL is as effective.

The goal is for consumers to be able to access any website using https://youwebsite.com as a result, search engine rankings do not take the SSL type into account.

Google: SSL Certificate Does Not Boost SEO

On Mastodon, a member of the group called EncryptedFence posted:

“A must-have security measure will improve the SEO and reputation of your website: Certificate for SSL – https://certerassl.com/blog/ssl-a-must-have-security-measure-for-websites-seo Do not pass up the advantages! Get an SSL certificate right once to protect your website.

John Mueller, a Senior Search Analyst and Search Relations Lead at Google, answered: Sorry, but this does not “Boost your website’s SEO,” @EncryptedFence.

SSL Certificate Does Not Enhance SEO?

Secure Sockets Layer, or SSL, is an encrypted communications standard (sometimes known as a protocol) for private Internet connections. An SSL certificate is a digital certificate that authenticates the identity of a website and confirms that a browser is connecting to the right server. The secure transmission of data over the Internet is greatly aided by the SSL certificate.

Does Google Encourage HTTPS?

For a number of reasons, primarily for user security and privacy, Google gave the Internet a substantial push to encourage it to provide data securely. The procedure for getting an SSL certificate was a barrier to the adoption of HTTPS because it was fairly technical and perplexing.

Since the standard did not seem necessary for websites that did not handle financial transactions, many publishers opted to delay adopting it. In 2014, Google replied by encouraging the adoption of secure technologies by including HTTPS as a ranking feature.

By indicating that HTTPS might become a more important ranking part, Google enthused the SEO community.

Does SSL Really Help Your SEO?

Why did John Mueller claim that SSL certificates do not improve SEO if HTTPS is a ranking factor?

Google utilizes a ranking component, after all, to determine where a website appears in response to a search.

So it seems to reason that anything that influences rankings will benefit SEO, right?

That is not the case, though. Some determining elements for rankings, like HTTPS, are really minimal. Everyone knows that external links play a significant role in rankings. Therefore, it is not a stretch of the imagination to think that other ranking indicators are so insignificant as to have little bearing on how highly a website would rank.

The fact that almost all websites employ HTTPS today should be taken into account when evaluating HTTPS as a weak SEO boost. As a result, any ranking advantage that comes from using HTTPS is effectively eliminated.

The relative inadequacy of the HTTPS ranking signal has been a point that John Mueller, a Google employee, has consistently made. For instance, he responded to a query about SSL certificates in 2019 when a business claimed that

The claim was:

“Google is likely to remove your website from search results if it lacks an SSL Certificate.”

Mueller’s reply was:

“Yes, it is incorrect. No consideration is given to HTTPS when determining whether or not to index a page. Being HTTPS is great for users, and we do utilize it as a lightweight ranking factor. It is equally effective to use a free certificate from Let us Encrypt.

Although it is difficult to see what ties HTTPS could possible break today given how widely it is utilized. It may be simpler to comprehend if one considers that if links can be a strong signal, other elements, such as HTTPS, might also be weak signals without providing any real SEO benefit.