Website SSL?

Posted: 8 years ago 26 replies

WEB DESIGN

How important is website SSL, moving forward? Is it important for SEO? Is it difficult to change a site to SSL that doesn't already have it? Thank you.

#ssl #website

agmccall

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8 years ago

If you are selling something on your site and accepting payments then it is very important. A site selling something without a SSL might be blocked on many browsers. They are not that expensive.

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ContentGather

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8 years ago

The cost and difficulty to implement is so low that I think most sites should use SSL these days.

Many people say that you only need it if you're recording personal or financial information. I'm of the opinion that any site with user login needs it. Even if you're not protecting sensitive data, you probably still don't want your users' accounts getting compromised. They have a password on them for a reason...to keep people out. And there's always the very strong likelihood that somebody uses the same password on your site that they do for everything else - like bank accounts.

The odds of your site getting hacked because it doesn't have SSL is small, yes....but the cost to add SSL is also small. Why not do it?
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Convergence

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8 years ago

Originally Posted by iconoclast

How important is website SSL, moving forward? Is it important for SEO? Is it difficult to change a site to SSL that doesn't already have it? Thank you.

I've actually heard that Google is going to start giving SSL sites more consideration regardless of whether or not you're actually selling anything from the site. I think SSL is the future from what I've ascertained. Not sure how true the above is, just waht I've read...
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- frankieboy
  
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  8 years ago
  
  That's what I heard (or read) also.
  
  In fact there's an online advertising platform that I use and they've just advised current advertisers to convert their sites to SSL for next month if we still wanted to use the platform.
  
  I think it's a good way to go on all fronts.
  
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shaond

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8 years ago

Google has stated that they may begin to penalise sites which have e-commerce functions or logins that are not protected by SSL (so yes will affect SEO - see [1]) and in general use SSL as a light-weight ranking signal.

Even Wordpress.com turned on SSL for all of their sites.

You can actually get a free SSL cert from Lets Encrypt (backed by Mozilla, Google, Wordpress).

That said, sometimes dealing with SSL certs can be a pain in the butt. We use Cloudflare in front of all our sites (as they provide a free cert as well) and you wont have to do anything special to enable SSL.

[1] https://webmasters.googleblog.com/20...ng-signal.html
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8 years ago

From moz blog:
HTTPS/SSL Update — August 6, 2014
After months of speculation, Google announced that they would be giving preference to secure sites, and that adding encryption would provide a "lightweight" rankings boost. They stressed that this boost would start out small, but implied it might increase if the changed proved to be positive.

So it's a small increase for now, no need to focus on that, there's many more important things to do if you want to rank

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8 years ago

Originally Posted by Yvon Boulianne

From moz blog:
HTTPS/SSL Update August 6, 2014
After months of speculation, Google announced that they would be giving preference to secure sites, and that adding encryption would provide a "lightweight" rankings boost. They stressed that this boost would start out small, but implied it might increase if the changed proved to be positive.

So it's a small increase for now, no need to focus on that, there's many more important things to do if you want to rank

This update was from 2014 - How do you know that the importance hasn't already started to be increased/decreased in the meantime?

I think we all agree that SSL has a small bearing on SEO, but is clearly not a major factor. I, personally, think that sites should have SSL, especially if they hold any type of customer information at all, but for a purely informational website at this time it is not the be all and end all.

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InsureZero

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8 years ago

Yes, for sure with SSL google will rank your site much higher
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rudi

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8 years ago

I have only seen marginal increases in rankings with SSL. However, I believe it will soon be essential. If you sell anything online then it should be used 100%.
In this day and age there is no real cost involved. You can get a free SSL certificate at https://letsencrypt.org/
Most good hosts these days automatically allow you to add a SSL certificate using lets encrypt at the click of a button. Just go to cpanel and look at TLS/SSL button.

If you are using wordpress then you can follow the 2 following videos which make things really easy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUb6Bnu8UmQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDfUz1bcPhQ
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  8 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by rudi
  
  I have only seen marginal increases in rankings with SSL. However, I believe it will soon be essential. If you sell anything online then it should be used 100%.
  
  Agreed. I setup SSL on a site on 1/17 and haven't seen anything above normal regarding SEO impact.
  
  And everyone must implement SSL. Google has made it clear they're going to start showing a red warning on all non-SSL websites. Since I create websites for the lowest common denominator (aka people that aren't tech savvy), SSL is a must. Here's a preview of that it'll look like...
  
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iconoclast

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8 years ago

Okay, well I'm not selling anything on my site so I'm not going to worry about it for right now. Is it difficult to go back and add it later?
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- Ben Friedman
  
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  8 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by iconoclast
  
  Okay, well I'm not selling anything on my site so I'm not going to worry about it for right now. Is it difficult to go back and add it later?
  
  Depending on the platform that you use, it should be pretty easy.
  
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- richardZ
  
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  8 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by iconoclast
  
  Okay, well I'm not selling anything on my site so I'm not going to worry about it for right now. Is it difficult to go back and add it later?
  
  If your website is not selling anything and not getting important information like bank details, password then not going to worry about but if it takes important information then ssl is necessary as per upcoming update. You can add ssl certificate later too if your website is not accepting confidential information.
  
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rudi

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8 years ago

Its a 10 minute job (and free) just get it done and you are future proofed
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vishwa

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8 years ago

SSL is necessary for sites that have active login pages and sell products or services from their website. Google made it mandatory for eCommerce sites to use SSL.
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Virginia Sanders

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8 years ago

This is excerpted from th HOTH Blog...

In August of 2014, Google announced that it had started using HTTPS as a
signal in their ranking algorithms. This means that if your website still relies on
standard HTTP, your rankings could suffer as a result.
This time last year, HTTPS remained a “lightweight” signal, affecting fewer than
1% of global queries (according to Google). It wasn’t time to freak out just yet.
But in September 2016, Google announced that Chrome will flag HTTP pages
as potentially unsafe starting in January 2017. This is part of a long-term plan to
mark all HTTP sites as non-secure. So if you haven’t thought about encrypting
your site, now’s the time to get moving.

(HubSpot customers: If you’re using the Website Platform, you can get a
standard SSL certificate for free. If you’re a customer but don’t have the
HubSpot Website Platform, SSL is available for purchase. To find out more,
contact your Customer Success Manager, or visit our pricing page.)
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8 years ago

One potential gotcha to look out for is if you use SSL and you link to any 3rd party files (images, scripts, fonts, css, pdfs etc) that are not on an https SSL link then visitors using your https will get a security warning in their browser.

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8 years ago

Originally Posted by Neil Morgan

S3 links are Https.

You make a good point, especially for an existing site with a lot of content.

Newbies, go with SSL from day one.

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8 years ago

Originally Posted by iconoclast

How important is website SSL, moving forward? Is it important for SEO? Is it difficult to change a site to SSL that doesn't already have it? Thank you.

Like others have said, it's important if you're taking credit cards on your site, have user login capabilities or want to stay on Google's good side. I'm using Gumroad right now for payments so they handle the SSL certificate but I'll be switching soon using https://letsencrypt.org/ . This allows you to set up SSL on shared hostings accounts for free.
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Zarine Khan

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8 years ago

Hello Dear,

SSL = Secure Socket Layer

SSL are Used Website Privacy and Data Security.

Thanks.
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mrswagset

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8 years ago

Google has stated that, as of 2017, they will begin to brand sites without an HTTPS classification as unsafe. An SSL Certificate is necessary to receive this HTTPS classification and Google will begin to prioritise sites that have passed their 'safety inspection' and have these SSL Certificates (this will affect SEO).

Unfortunately, some hosting providers charge quite highly for these certificates, like HostGator and GoDaddy. Let's Encrypt has even granted free SSL Certificates, so a hosting provider that charges for these SSLs is just bad.

I know that WPX Hosting offers free and unlimited SSL Certificates and they have a handy installation guide here: https://wpxhosting.com/knowledgebase...-wpx-hosting-/

In 2017, having an SSL certificate on your website will be a necessity. The installation should be simple enough, depending on your hosting provider.
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nguyennguyenhung

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8 years ago

SSL is critical for sites that have active login pages and sell merchandise or services from their web site. Google created it necessary for eCommerce sites to use SSL.
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Cillygurl

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8 years ago

Thanks for this info. I am creating new sites and its asking me if I want it https or not and I am not selling anything, but I will be going with SSL from the get go, especially since my hosting provides it free.
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jhonewill

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8 years ago

SSL is a security provided by the server owners on the monthly or yearly basis charges. SSL is not much important for SEO but preference will be given to https websites instead of http non secure sites.It's not difficult to install SSL certificate but be careful while doing it and do remember to update the redirection rules.
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anexplore

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8 years ago

Maybe its important. But its important for Google Adsense. Few days ago I took SSL for my website.
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motiur

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8 years ago

SSL is important if you want to sell somethng through your website. It also increase your SEO rank. Thanks
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