Google Says HTTPS Is Not A Requirement To Rank In Google Search

Google’s John Mueller was asked if Google still ranks sites that are on HTTP (not over HTTPS), i.e. insecure sites. John said yes, being on HTTPS is not a requirement to rank in Google Search he explained.

The question asked was “do you still RANK non-https sites in 2022?” John responded on Twitter saying, “Sure. There are a lot of great & old websites on HTTP. It’s not a requirement to be on HTTPS.”

Here are those tweets:

Sure. There are a lot of great & old websites on HTTP. It’s not a requirement to be on HTTPS.

— 🥔 johnmu of switzerland (personal) 🥔 (@JohnMu) August 5, 2022

While it might be rare to see HTTP-only sites in Google Search, it can happen. The reason it is rare to see HTTP sites is that most active and maintained sites are on HTTPS, not because Google won’t rank them.

Yes, there is a minor HTTPS ranking boost in Google Search.

Forum discussion at Twitter.