And why do you need it on your website? Well, there are many reasons, but with the help of my aforementioned colleague, we identified five of the more important ones. 5 Reasons Why HTTPS Should Be Enabled on Your Website 1) It’s good for search. Every minute -- no, second -- Google’s algorithm requires sites to essentially battle it for top search rankings. 2) It’s better for users. It’s the technology that makes certain pages load almost instantaneously on mobile. But in order for something to be labeled as AMP, it requires SSL. 4) Google is indexing mobile. So, that thing we just said about the importance of mobile? These are just a few reasons why https is so important.
If you’re anything like me, there’s been a time in your life when you’ve asked, “What the heck is https?”
What’s that extra “s” for? Well, it turns out that the “s” stands for “SSL,” which stands for Secure Sockets Layer — the technology that encrypts your connection to a website, so that hackers can’t intercept any of your data.
The whole concept of https is a pretty interesting topic on its own, and my colleague, Jeffrey Vocell, talks more about it here. But in addition to what it actually means, why is it so important? And why do you need it on your website?
Well, there are many reasons, but with the help of my aforementioned colleague, we identified five of the more important ones. (Spoiler alert: A lot of them have to do with your search performance, so have a good look at what they mean for you.)
HubSpot Marketing customers: SSL is included free of charge with the Website Add-On, and the number of domains on which you can enable SSL depends on your subscription type. Learn more here.
5 Reasons Why HTTPS Should Be Enabled on Your Website
1) It’s good for search.
Every minute — no, second — Google’s algorithm requires sites to essentially battle it for top search rankings. I love that visual: two websites that could both rank for a user’s query, essentially running toward the finish line of top results. But what happens if there’s a tie? Do the sites battle it out in a “sudden death” round?
Kind of — there is a tiebreaker involved, and it’s https. The way Google’s Webmaster Trends Analyst Gary Illyes explains it, “If all quality signals are equal for two results, then the one that is on HTTPS would get … or may get … the extra boost that is needed to trump the other result.”
It all goes back to the idea that Google is constantly solving for the user, and makes frequent changes to its algorithm that create a better experience. Which is why our next point makes sense.
2) It’s better for users.
I couldn’t tell you the last time I heard about a hacking incident in which thousands of records were stolen — because they seem to happen so frequently. In fact, such data breaches jumped 29.5% between 2014 and 2015.
But SSL helps to prevent these “man-in-the-middle” attacks — “a form of eavesdropping where communication between two users is monitored and modified by an unauthorized party” — and keeps user information…
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