SEO Benefit to SSL Certificate

[Kingalan1]

Our site does not have an SSL certificate. I have read that in the process of adding one of URLs need to be redirected and that some link equity can be lost.

Implementing an SSL certificate sounds somewhat complicated and far from risk free.

Is there a tangible SEO benefit to upgrading to SSL? Will doing so help SEO in a tangible manner that justifies the cost, time and aggravation?

Thanks,

Alan

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi there

Yes. Google has stated they consider this a ranking factor. While not a huge one, it's still considered one, and they have come out and said "Hey, we value this, and consider it in our rankings".

A couple of resources for you:
Search Engine Land
Moz

[Kingalan1]

Hi Patrick:
Google has hundreds of ranking factors. Do you know of anyone who has implemented this switch to SSL certificate witnessed a ranking/traffic improvement as a result?

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi there

I have not directly, I am just going off of what Google has publicly stated.

I will say this - if you are collecting information or taking transactions, HTTPS is a best practice for those types of sites. It shows you have taken the proper steps in securing user information.

[Dr-Pete]

I'm afraid the short answer is that we don't really know. Google is pushing that direction, but sites that have taken the plunge aren't reporting much in the way of verifiable gains. As you said, there is a real risk, too, and it can complicate some things.

As Patrick said, there are many legitimate business cases for having SSL, and if you're dealing with commerce or private data, you really should look beyond the SEO aspects. If you're only doing this for SEO benefits, though, I think there are better places to spend your time and money. Google may turn up the volume on this factor over time, but the evidence for major benefits is still lacking.

[PatrickDelehanty]

"If you're only doing this for SEO benefits, though, I think there are better places to spend your time and money. Google may turn up the volume on this factor over time, but the evidence for major benefits is still lacking."

^ This. This. This.

[Alick300]

Hi,

I have implemented SSL certificate three months ago but I haven't seen any tangible SEO benefits on my site.

If you are running E-commerce site then you should implement it .

Thanks

[TheWebMastercom]

I have implemented SSL about 5 months ago, and have not seen much of a benefit.  Also you have to consider that sites running SSL are invariably slower as well, although Cloudflare can help with that.

The only thing I currently like about SSL are the EV SSL certificates (the green bar with your company name) as I believe these allow some sense of authority to be seen by users.

[paints-n-design]

I only know clients wich are using ssl since google considers it.
I have some insights to these sight, there ist no visible change in traffic or ranking.

It is not better, but its also not worser (but implemention is done right, I read that here over 60%
do it in a wrong way). What I mean - done wrong may be bad for your ranking.

[LinkWheelOldSchool]

Just like everyone else here responded, ssl is no major ranking factor. Implemented ssl on 8 websites during the last 4-6 months and there was no change in ranking.