Did HTTPS help your rankings at all?

bartosimpsonio

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I keep checking most the SERPs for niches I track and out of the top 10 sites, at least 7 on average are NOT https enabled.

Did you perceive any difference at all when you switched to https?
 
Honestly, I've tried using https on most of my sites but never really felt any bump in ranking compared to my http sites... So this might be an seo myth.
 
Absolutely no difference for me, but to be honest it's a very lightweight signal according to most studies so I wasn't expecting much.
 
A client of mine had a https site - from what I observed they do the same as normal http
 
I've tried it on 5 different sites.

The results were negligible.
 
Short answer, yes.

Long answer, might not really matter for some time.

From Google:

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. For now it's only a very lightweight signal — affecting fewer than 1% of global queries, and carrying less weight than other signals such as high-quality content— while we give webmasters time to switch to HTTPS. But over time, we may decide to strengthen it, because we’d like to encourage all website owners to switch from HTTP to HTTPS to keep everyone safe on the web.

Another reason to utilize https, at least on PBN sites, is that many hosts will assign a dedicated (unique) IP for sites with SSL. For instance, you could have 10 sites on a very respectable webhost (not noted by google as PBN-ridden), all with different IP addresses. Usually, you can get this type of IP for like $1-2/mo per IP.

10 Sites x $2/mo x $10 per SSL Cert = $340/year For HTTPS on a 10 Site PBN
 
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Its bullshit, used on blogs and didn't see any improvement. But using on eCommerce for customers trust.
 
Supposedly they do, but I don't see much of an improvement. But now you can get free ssl's with lets encrypt so might as well.
 
I dont think having https will do much, its just one of the 200+ little things google looks for.

If you have it good job, if not good job.
 
Not worth switching, or at least not for SEO.
 
It's not that great of a signal, but it's a piece of the puzzle. However the importance of f will grow HTTPS and it will be a bigger ranking signal than now.
 
Short answer, no.

It will help with customer trust, which will help bounce rate (somewhat), which in turn will help ranking, in a minor way.

It does surely help conversion, tho.
 
Not for me, it has been a pain to switch 200+ pages into https.. i can't imagine those with thousands! Once again thanks for nothing Google.
 
Curious as to how it would be a pain (to redirect), why not use htaccess? Just curious, that's all.
 
For proper business, mainly local and above business types https works

General blogs, nope
 
Curious as to how it would be a pain (to redirect), why not use htaccess? Just curious, that's all.
It's not so easy.. yes the htaccess help, but considers that i had all my images under a cdn .. i needed to change many external url from normal http to https protocol manually (because the page invalidate if you have external link that are not secured).. multiply this for hundreds of pages.
 
i have done some tests and didnt notice BIG changes, but it helps a little
 
Might have some weight but I've never felt the difference. The only reason I use HTTPS is to make the site more authentic/professional, a boost in visitors trust.
 
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