Google Favors HTTPS Pages over HTTP Pages In its Updated Indexing System
Google recently announced in the Google Webmaster Central Blog another update in its indexing system – it will prioritize indexing HTTPS pages over the regular HTTP ones. Although, Google has already started doing this last year when they started using HTTPS as a ranking signal, it was just recently that they announced the change to their indexing system.
Zineb Ait Bahajji of Google said, “we’ll start crawling HTTPS equivalents of HTTP pages, even when the former are not linked to from any page… When two URLs from the same domain appear to have the same content but are served over different protocol schemes, we’ll typically choose to index the HTTPS URL.”
Eight Conditions for HTTPS Priority Indexing
Google crawlers will choose to index HTTPS urls when a domain’s URLs have the same content but are served over different protocol schemes if the following criteria are met:
1. It doesn’t contain insecure dependencies.
2. It isn’t blocked from crawling by robots.txt.
3. It doesn’t redirect users to or through an insecure HTTP page.
4. It doesn’t have a rel=”canonical” link to the HTTP page.
5. It doesn’t contain a noindex robots meta tag.
6. It doesn’t have on-host outlinks to HTTP URLs.
7. The sitemaps lists the HTTPS URL, or doesn’t list the HTTP version of the URL
8. The server has a valid TLS certificate.
What to Do if Your Website Is not on HTTPS
1. Get an SSL Certificate
You need to secure an SSL certificate for your website. The following is a list that my web host provider, Big Scoots, offers:
SSL Certificate Types
*Rapid SSL
*GeoTrust TrueBizID with EV (Extended Validation) SSL
The image below shows how EV SSL looks like on your web browser’s bar.
*Comodo Essential Wildcard
*Comodo Premium Wildcard
2. Set UP HTTPS on your website
I recommend Cyrus Sheppard‘s article in MOZ about SEO tips on using HTTPS on your website.
These two simple steps can help you make the necessary adjustments as Google favors HTTPS pages over HTTP ones. Need help with setting up HTTPS on your website? Inquire about our services at inquire@redlettersph.com.
