Can SSL hurt rankings?

I know that it's considered as a weak ranking factor, but I'm asking because you might lose more with the url change than win with the SSL.

Rule of thumb SSL can't hurt, but only help a little.

Especially now you can get it for free from cloudflare or lets encrypt, there's no reason not to use it.
 
Of course it won't affects your rankings if 301 is done properly. Google is forcing all websites in the internet to move to SSL and they already said they will prefer these instead of non-SSL websites. Just go for it.
 
Has anyone actually worked out how big of a difference it makes to have ssl everywhere?

I only have it on pages that it was actually meant for on my websites. I just don't see the point of having it on a small blog about cats or something.
 
Rule of thumb SSL can't hurt, but only help a little.

Especially now you can get it for free from cloudflare or lets encrypt, there's no reason not to use it.

Do you think those free services are as good as paid ones? For example Hostgator (it's what I use usually for hosting) has 2 types of SSL for ~$40 and for ~$300. Can those free ones compete with these?

Has anyone actually worked out how big of a difference it makes to have ssl everywhere?

I only have it on pages that it was actually meant for on my websites. I just don't see the point of having it on a small blog about cats or something.

I think it's worth having when you use payment gateways. I don't think you'd need that for a cat blog :D Altough dropshipping cat products could be profitable...
 
Do you think those free services are as good as paid ones? For example Hostgator (it's what I use usually for hosting) has 2 types of SSL for ~$40 and for ~$300. Can those free ones compete with these?



I think it's worth having when you use payment gateways. I don't think you'd need that for a cat blog :D Altough dropshipping cat products could be profitable...

Nowadays, I think the best approach, to keep things a little cheap is to use CloudFlare's flexible SSL option.

For websites not using payment gateways, it will probably still give some buff in terms of rankings as Google also stated they want websites to use site-wide SSL. They are even calling this "HTTPS everywhere".

"We want to go even further. At Google I/O a few months ago, we called for “HTTPS everywhere” on the web.
We’ve also seen more and more webmasters adopting HTTPS (also known as HTTP over TLS, or Transport Layer Security), on their website, which is encouraging.
For these reasons, over the past few months we’ve been running tests taking into account whether sites use secure, encrypted connections as a signal in our search ranking algorithms. We’ve seen positive results, so we’re starting to use HTTPS as a ranking signal."
 
I will be implementing this month SSL on one of my main websites online since 2012, along with a better server. I might post the results here.
 
Do you think those free services are as good as paid ones? For example Hostgator (it's what I use usually for hosting) has 2 types of SSL for ~$40 and for ~$300. Can those free ones compete with these?

the more expensive one is for ID verification. you'll need to send them a bunch of id's. if you're a bank or something you might want that. for normal sites a free ssl will do.
 
If you going to accept payments online you should use SSL period.
 
On Google it is easier to rank with a SSL site
 
Crikey, there's some serious rubbish posted on here. And that's not even including posters who are posting any old tripe to up their post count so they can PM (such as imjs above).
 
Crikey, there's some serious rubbish posted on here. And that's not even including posters who are posting any old tripe to up their post count so they can PM (such as imjs above).
Okay, then would you share your thoughts just so we get a better understanding?
 
The only hurting you are going get from SSL is when you move from http to https or non-SSL to SSL
Your rankings will most likely drop, but it should move back up, if you transfer it properly.
Otherwise, given that SSL is pretty much free or $1 at places like namecheap. i don't see a reason not to use it
Especially with google purposely shaming or rather pointing out sites in their chrome browser (which most normal people use) that this site does not use SSL.
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3 Ways using SSL Incorrectly can destroy your rankings:
Improperly Redirecting Pages
Forgetting to Change Canonical Tags
Migrating During a Busy Season
 
Lol, agree wtih the poster above. All of you are so sure about a rankings boost, but across 3 sites I've used it on it has done fuck all for rankings. Actually I took a hit at first and then recovered most of my keyword positions, minus about 1-2 spots. Few keywords have moved up or had a positive impact, which is more likely from links that I've built. I only did so because I am OCD and I like things to look good on my sites. A crappy grey icon in chrome and firefox compared to the nice green lock builds trust.
 
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