On August 6, 2017 everyone’s favorite search engine, Google, made a small change that has had an impactful outcome on many small businesses. Without much (public) notice, they concluded that - in the best interest of their consumers (those who are searching and surfing the web) - an SSL certificate would now carry greater SEO value than ever before.
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SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which is a set of practices you should follow to best optimize your website and web content to have the greatest likelihood of appearing in organic search results related to your business or industry.

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An SSL is your Secure Sockets Layer, also known as your https vs your “http”, which appears at the top of your website URL in all browsers. It is the standard technology used to encrypt and secure your website - and it's one of Google’s favorite ranking features. In short, optimizing your website from http to https (via an SSL) will help protect your website visitors by encrypting the data that goes from their computer to your website and back. Every time a user enters information into your site, your SSL makes sure it can securely travel from their browser to your web server. You will know you are viewing an authenticated (secure) site when you see a small padlock symbol next to the web address you are visiting (like ours: https://www.h1webdev.com). In order to better understand the Google ranking changes, it's also important to understand why Google puts so much value on this small amendment.

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In a world where nearly anyone with a web connection and a few dollars in their pocket can put nearly anything online, it is the job of authorities like Google to clarify how reliable (and authentic) an internet source is. While the standards and algorithms used to quantify these reliability measures are numerous, knowing that you are a secure, encrypted website, Google has deemed as one of the most important measures in establishing site trustworthiness. Having an SSL certificate assures Google that you care about your visitor's data and want to protect it as much as possible. It also makes you less susceptible to hacking, which increases your sites trustworthiness. An additional SSL perk is the speed of delivery.  A secure connection will always perform more rapidly, delivering content to the user quickly and reliably.  (And Google bots love speed--not to mention your users!).
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The best part about an SSL?  They are generally inexpensive and hassle free to attain.  For $5-20 (depending on your host), and about 5 minutes of your time, you can purchase an SSL certificate for your business website, and certify your domain. (Or, work with us and an SSL certificate will come included in the cost of your website!)

Know it's time to get secured, but feeling overwhelmed? We’re always here for you!  Reach out to H1 Web Development, and we will get you set up and secured for success!