Before moving forward and understanding the relationship between SSL and SEO, let us first know what these terms mean and then know the importance of an SSL certificate. SSL certificate (Secure Socket Layer) is nothing but a certificate that shows an extra level of security you provide on your website. A website that has HTTPS in its link helps to identify that it is a secure website wherein your data given by the online visitors of the website will remain safe as it is encrypted.
Third parties can’t decrypt it without your acknowledgment. Hence, the affair between the server and the user remains private. And SEO (Search Engine Optimization), in simple language, means how we try to improve our website through its content or technical part or quality of links provided to have better search results and visibility of our website whenever searched on Google.
There’s another term called Organic SEO, meaning the higher ranking of any website because of its content, proper keywords, backlinks, and more. In simple terms, higher order is achieved naturally by making so much effort and not paying for a higher ranking. We shall see how an SSL-secured website is SEO-friendly and provide organic SEO. The number of websites using SSL certificates has increased over the period.
Of the 10,00,000 websites, the top 1.9% use SSL certificates. This shows the importance of a secure website. We can simply think that if we enter a particular website that offers that it is unsecured and may harm our privacy, we won’t move further. That’s why most website owners have to buy SSL certificates for more online visitors entering their sites, which leads to attracting potential customers.
Hence, using SSL certificates has benefits and automatically leads to a higher SEO ranking. So, rounding up the necessity of SSL certificate in terms of SEO ranking and that also organically, so benefits are -: it increases the trust of customers, provides a better user experience, reduces bounce rate, increases conversion rates, website loading speed Increases play the role of tie-breaker when competition between two websites authenticates your business and other benefits.
How it happens, let us see into the minor details.
SSL Certificate Increases Trust of the Customers
Let us say you are in a situation wherein you have to select between two websites for online payment of money through a credit card. One website is without an SSL certificate; another is SSL certified and secured. All your credit card information will be encrypted on the second website. Therefore, it is evident that you will opt for SSL certified website for safer transactions. More traffic is automatically generated for SSL-secured websites as it enhances customers’ trust that their data will remain safe and not be mishandled by third parties. In addition, at the end. More website traffic will lead to a higher ranking on Google search results.
SSL plays a tiebreaker role.
Whenever two websites have the same rank, the one with the SSL certificate will have a higher ranking and win the game. Because even Google knows the importance of a secure website and providing a security layer to limit the chances of cybercrimes and fraud. Therefore, the browser will first show the website, which is SSL secured, and this leads to an advantage over non-blocked websites. SSL provides an opportunity for more customer attraction and conversion rates. In the last, it helps to increase higher sales and profit ratio.
Betterment in User Experience
It is observed that users will automatically come out of websites not having an SSL certificate because of insecurity and hence a decrease in visitor traffic.
On the other hand, when online visitors enter the SSL secured website, they get a satisfied and protected user experience just because of the assurance of data safety given by the SSL certificate in a website. Customers, just see whether there is HTTPS and lock sign in the website link, and then take further action. In short, a secure website attracts more users and therefore provides higher organic traffic to that website because of a better user experience. A satisfied customer will have a higher chance of revisiting the website.
Reduction in Bounce rate
If your website is not SSL-secured, it shows warning signs that your data is unsecured here. SSL certificate ensures users that they are on a secure website and their data remains safe on the site.
Online visitors will move out of this website and enter another after seeing it. Bounce rates will increase if your website is unsecured due to a lack of SSL certificates. The websites with more click rates will not be ranked higher because of more bounce rates. As more bounce rates show that more customers are leaving your websites due to security issues, SSL plays an important role here.
It Helps in Higher Conversion Rates.
Your website’s more online visitors will increase the chances of conversion into customers, increasing conversion rates. For more conversion rates, you need to have more online website visitors, which is affected by the availability of an SSL certificate on your website. However, you need to assure customers that whatever transaction they do is safe and encrypted by the SSL certificate and will not be mishandled by any third party. Hence, buy an SSL certificate to increase your website and convert visitors. Here are several certificates available in the market at cheaper and more expensive rates. One of them is the Comodo SSL certificate, which provides the best encryption and boosts your rankings in Google. It increases your conversion rates too.
A higher speed of website loading
With security and higher orders in Google, the other benefit of an SSL certificate is it also increases your speed of loading a website on the internet, giving a better user experience. It is logical that if the site loads within a few seconds, then the customers will stay connected to your site, and if the site does not load quickly, it may reduce customer visits to your sites and decrease your traffic. Traffic reduction will have an impact on your Google ranking of the website. With the introduction of HTTP/2, the site speed is improved and it kills the myth that a site with an SSL certificate has no speed.
Authenticates your business
The CA verifies your organization details and provides you with the SSL certificate. The online visitors can also view the business organization details if it is SSL secured. Hence it gives authentication to your business organization and increases the trust of your customers. In return, it leads to more conversion rates, traffic to the website, and Google ranking. However, an SSL certificate comes with different types of validation including domain validation, organization validation, and extended validation. The extended validation bit carried higher authentication compare to domain validation and organization validation. A website owner can choose the type of validation and SSL certificate for website security.
Once the SSL certificate is configured, it should be installed on the server. Furthermore, once the SSL is set up, hackers will hesitate to hack or mishandle your customers’ data. Therefore, it also provides tight security to your website.
SSL Helps to satisfy PCI/DSS Requirements
PCI/DSS requirement checklist applies to all organizations, which accept online payment. The main motto of this regulation is to control the fraud that happens with credit and debit cards. SSL helps to meet your PCI requirements which means that if your website accepts payments via its website, you must have an SSL certificate. There are 12 criteria that you need to comply with if you want to accept payments on your website.
Secures data
It secures your data very well, encrypted with the SSL certificate. When your website consists of payment options, it becomes essential to safeguard your customers’ interests. They might share crucial data such as credentials to enter, debit card or credit card details, etc. The information transmitted between the user and the server with the browser’s help is encrypted with an SSL certificate. If there is no SSL connection then, the information remains in plain text, which can be easily modified by a hacker. With the help of an SSL certificate, you can avoid such circumstances. Therefore, there won’t be any kind of data stealing by the third pa, so the customers’ interest remains protected.
Free from SSL errors
SSL errors can hamper your business and increases the bounce rate. In the end, it will help to boost your competitors’ sales. According to a study, it is found that 84% of online site visitors always bounce back if they come to know that a particular website is insecure and does not have an SSL certificate. This is because they automatically receive a warning sign from the browser that a specific website is insecure. Therefore, it has become crucial for almost all sellers or business people to have a secure website by purchasing an SSL certificate.
Suppose you discard the errors occurring on your website regarding SSL. In that case, it can be fixed by installing an SSL certificate and renewing it regularly or by diagnosing the problem with the SSL web checker. Hence, to make it an error-free website, SSL must lead to a smooth working website.
Anyways it is a compulsion.
First, It has become mandatory to have a secure website in today’s digital world, where cybercrime can happen at any minute without our notice and may lead to severe problems. However, the SSL certificate has been made compulsory since 2018. As it is crucial to secure the data of website visitors, so might not harm their cyber security. Google has mandated it uses the SSL certificate, so the ranking increases automatically if you have an SSL certificate. Briefly, there are various benefits of using an SSL certificate for your online website, which boosts its overall performance.
Conclusion
Briefly, stay updated and thrive in the digital world by having a secure website so that security issues will not hinder the growth of the firm, as security is the people’s main concern nowadays. In addition, growing your ranking organically is another essential point to consider, as many of them have paid SEO rankings or paid website traffic, but that will not be efficient compared to your website’s organic ranking.
