{"id":15006,"date":"2022-06-24T00:00:48","date_gmt":"2022-06-23T16:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/sg\/?p=15006"},"modified":"2023-02-28T20:46:44","modified_gmt":"2023-02-28T12:46:44","slug":"ssl-certificate-boost-search-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/sg\/blog\/ssl\/ssl-certificate-boost-search-rankings\/","title":{"rendered":"Does an SSL Certificate Boost Search Rankings? The Answers May Surprise You"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SSL, search engine optimisation \u2014 these may all sound like jargon. But when you\u2019re trying to grow your business online, you\u2019ll need these two factors to amplify your brand and turn your website into a conversion machine.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most new website owners see SSL and SEO as opposite sides of the spectrum. While SSL, as its name implies, enhances your website security, SEO focuses on optimising your website for users <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">search engines.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While they&#8217;re technically two different things, they impact each other in more ways than you think. Keep reading to learn how a feature-rich SSL certificate helps you boost your search rankings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15008\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2022\/06\/person-using-laptop-on-white-table.jpg\" alt=\" person-using-laptop-on-white-table\" width=\"640\" height=\"482\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2022\/06\/person-using-laptop-on-white-table.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2022\/06\/person-using-laptop-on-white-table-300x226.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Photo by<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/VHXiGXxwOQ4\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Myriam Jessier<\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> via Unsplash<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<h4><strong>But First: What Is SSL, Anyway?<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SSL, which is an abbreviation for Secure Sockets Layer, safeguards sensitive data that are sent between two systems. This could be data sent between a server and a client or a server and another server.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A common example is when you visit a shopping website. That padlock you see next to the website URL indicates that the site has an SSL certificate installed. It\u2019s basically a symbol of trust \u2014 telling you, the user, that it\u2019s safe to input your data on this site.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When looking for an <\/span><a style=\"color: #f4662d;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/support\/help\/types-of-ssl-certificates-which-one-do-you-need\/\">SSL certificate<\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for your website, you should understand the different authentication types and see if it meets your business requirements:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Domain Validation (DV) SSL certificates<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> provide the most affordable industry-standard encryption. In addition, they\u2019re the easiest to install (literally minutes!) because they only require a one-step domain verification process. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DV SSL certificates are best for blogs and personal websites.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Organisation Valid (OV) SSL certificates <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">are an upgrade from DV SSL. They require extra validation steps to obtain them and are issued to registered organisations only.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Extended Validation (EV) SSL certificates <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">communicate the highest level of trust to users. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Like OV SSL, obtaining an EV SSL certificate requires extra steps to validate your identity. Out of all the certificates on the list, EV SSL works best for websites that handle online transactions and user logins.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a style=\"color: #f4662d;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cloudflare.com\/learning\/ssl\/what-is-ssl\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SSL<\/a> prevents criminals from accessing the information transferred from your browser to the server. But it also does more than encrypting payment details, SSL encrypts personal information like a user\u2019s address and contact details as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That said, SSL is a great investment for website owners, especially when you\u2019re running an online store.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15009\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2022\/06\/man-hacking-cyber-black-and-white-crime.jpg\" alt=\"man-hacking-cyber-black-and-white-crime\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2022\/06\/man-hacking-cyber-black-and-white-crime.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2022\/06\/man-hacking-cyber-black-and-white-crime-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Photo by <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/photos\/hacking-cyber-blackandwhite-crime-2903156\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Robinraj Premchand<\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> via Pixabay<\/span> <\/em><\/p>\n<h4><strong>Which SSL Certificate Works for My Website?<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To come up with a sound decision, you\u2019ll need to evaluate your business objectives.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first and probably most important reason is that you want to ensure website security. While you technically can operate online without an SSL certificate, you\u2019ll need to decide if it\u2019s worth risking your confidential data and business reputation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hopefully, as a website owner, you have this reason as a top priority!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Next, you\u2019ll need to analyse your business setup. Do you have multiple domains that would need SSL? Also, what kind of website are you running \u2014 is it a personal website or an online store?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once you\u2019ve decided, make a list of online solution providers that offer SSL. Most <a style=\"color: #f4662d;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/sg\/web-hosting\/\">web hosting providers<\/a> have <\/span>SSL included in their hosting packages<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of course, you\u2019ll need to check on the provider\u2019s reviews and the after-sales support it provides as well.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15010\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2022\/06\/person-holding-white-smartphone-in-white-shirt.jpg\" alt=\"person-holding-white-smartphone-in-white-shirt\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2022\/06\/person-holding-white-smartphone-in-white-shirt.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2022\/06\/person-holding-white-smartphone-in-white-shirt-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Photo by<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/q8U1YgBaRQk\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> NordWood Themes<\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on Unsplash<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<h4><strong>3 Ways SSL Affects Your Website\u2019s SEO<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now that you know how SSL works <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the different authentication types, it\u2019s good to understand how its benefits go beyond website security.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While it doesn\u2019t magically send your website on the first page of search engines, having SSL installed is beneficial to your website\u2019s SEO score in many ways.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Search engines look at multiple ranking factors before deciding where a website appears in the search results.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Aside from major ranking factors like keyword relevance and speed, search engines like Google prioritise a web page\u2019s security and accessibility too.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With security being at the very core of SSL, having it installed on your website directly impacts your website\u2019s rankings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Below, we\u2019ll explore this in detail.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>1. Google mandates websites to equip SSL<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If there\u2019s one thing to know about Google it\u2019s that they\u2019ll always prioritise their users over anything else. So it should come as no surprise that every update Google rolls out centres on improving user experience.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2018, Google announced that they were imposing warnings to website users whenever they open an unsecured site. Now, Google Chrome users see a \u201cNot Secure\u201d or \u201cDangerous\u201d warning whenever they visit web pages loading over HTTP.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The bold, red text is enough to leave a negative impact on websites that fail to comply. It also spells bad news for businesses without SSL certificates as they instantly lose valuable web traffic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>So, what exactly is HTTP? And what does SSL have to do with it?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a nutshell, HTTP (or Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is a protocol used to transfer data over a network. This could apply to all sorts of data over the internet, including text, media, and other files that load on your website.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A website equipped with SSL loads over HTTPS instead of HTTP. This means all the data that gets transferred to and from your website are encrypted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a website owner yourself, the last thing you\u2019d want is to get flagged by the world\u2019s largest search engine. So before you even hit that publish button on your website, <\/span><a style=\"color: #f4662d;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/sg\/blog\/ssl\/why-ssl-important-to-website\/\">make sure you\u2019ve got SSL installed<\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>2. SSL helps you improve user experience<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In case you didn\u2019t know, SEO is more than just rankings and conversions. At its very core, SEO is about optimising the user experience to build traffic and conversions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So say your unencrypted website continues to appear on search engines thanks to a great keyword strategy done on your end.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People click on your link <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">but <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">leave immediately once they see a warning, thus increasing your website\u2019s bounce rates.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From here, it creates a ripple effect. With your bounce rates noticeably high, Google\u2019s algorithm automatically demotes your website in search results.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>3. You build trust and ultimately, conversions<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By stamping visual indicators on websites without SSL, Google builds awareness about safe browsing among its users. And an unencrypted website is anything but safe.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So give website visitors (and search engines!) that sign that your website is verified and safe from hackers. This way, you provide them with a good reason to browse through and even purchase whatever you\u2019re offering. You also gain a leg up against competitors who have yet to install SSL on their websites.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15011\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2022\/06\/security-finger-businessman-binary.jpg\" alt=\"security-finger-businessman-binary\" width=\"640\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2022\/06\/security-finger-businessman-binary.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2022\/06\/security-finger-businessman-binary-300x188.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Photo by <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/photos\/security-finger-businessman-binary-2910624\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gerd Altmann<\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> via Pixabay<\/span> <\/em><\/p>\n<h4><strong>Install an SSL Certificate for Your Website Today<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When it comes to collecting customer data online, only trust the highest-level SSL certificates.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CLDY, <a style=\"color: #f4662d;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/sg\/\">Singapore\u2019s fastest-growing hosting provider<\/a><\/span>, provides high-assurance <a style=\"color: #f4662d;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/sg\/ssl-certificates\/\">SSL certificates<\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for various industries \u2014 including IT companies, digital marketing agencies, retail, real estate, and more. Looking forward to hearing from you!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SSL, search engine optimisation \u2014 these may all sound like jargon. But when you\u2019re trying to grow your business online, you\u2019ll need these two factors to amplify your brand and turn your website into a conversion machine. Most new website owners see SSL and SEO as opposite sides of the spectrum. While SSL, as its [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":15007,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ssl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15006"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21060,"href":"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15006\/revisions\/21060"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cldy.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}