SEO Security: All You Need to Know

[guest post by Joan Herbert]

Whether you are a business owner with a website or a freelancer with an online portfolio, you need a good website, and you need that website to be seen by as many people as possible. With the savvy usage of search engine optimization you can easily climb up the rankings, which is also why SEO security should be also be a top priority.

However, knowing all of the ins and outs of SEO security can be a little complicated, which is why in this article you will see all that you need to know about the subject so you can make some informed decisions and do the best by your website.

Having a vulnerable site

To truly understand the importance and the objectives of SEO security, you first have to understand what it means to have a vulnerable website.

As you may well know, hacking is, and always has been, a problem but the specifics of what hackers can do and what information they gain from your site has changed astronomically.

If you have a vulnerable site, hackers can post harmful links to your page without your knowledge and can even steal your traffic using malware. Your search engine ranking will rapidly decrease and you will lose control of your site which is why you need to stay on top of security.

HTTP vs HTTPS

HTTP stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol. Its focus is to handle how information is presented to the user and doesn’t really care about how data gets passed around. HTTPS, often refereed to as “secure HTTP,” facilitates the secure exchange of confidential information, preventing unauthorized access.

While HTTP and HTTPS are essentially the same thing, HTTPS has the added benefit of working in conjunction with another protocol, SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) which allows it to transport data safely in a way that HTTP can’t match, making it Google’s preferred option. It’s also the smart option if you run a website that takes credit card info, as it allows you to exchange sensitive information with little risk.

Google

It should come as no surprise to you that Google prefers sites that are secure and protected. So much so, in fact, that they have said websites that use HTTPS will see a small increase in SEO ranking. You should bear in mind that the increase Google gives you is very small and that alone won’t help your site that much. The fact still remains that having quality content helps a lot more than simply switching to HTTPS. However, Google has suggested that based on their early tests, HTTPS signals showed decent results in terms of ranking and relevancy.

SEO advantages of switching to HTTPS

There are many SEO advantages of switching to HTTPS; the most obvious, as mentioned above, was the rankings increase, but it doesn’t stop there. A big plus is referrer data which makes sure that the secure referral information is preserved. Another big benefit is security and privacy; from being able to encrypt all of your information to becoming a verified website, being secure boosts your SEO.

After reading this article you most likely came to the conclusion that switching to HTTPS is a smart move. It will help you stay in Google’s good books and has a long list of added SEO benefits which could even increase with time. As mentioned above, security should always be a major concern for your website as well as anyone who uses it, and it seems that switching to HTTPS will go a long way to putting your mind at rest. However, the final decision is up to you.

** About the Author: Joan Herbert is an Assistant Manager at Bank-Opening-Times.co.uk, a curious individual, an avid reader, and a passionate creative writer.