SEO

HTTP vs HTTPS: How Both Can Effect Your SEO

Published

3 years ago

January 30, 2021

HTTP vs HTTPS: How Both Can Effect Your SEO

Did you know that every year, one in three Americans will face a hacker attack on the World Wide Web? That’s one hacker attack every 39 seconds.

In order to prevent these attacks, it important to make sure your website is as secure as possible. But how do you ensure site security?

If you want a more secure site, you need to understand the difference between HTTP vs HTTPS websites. Knowing the difference, and knowing when to make the switch, can ensure that you are protecting your site visitors. You’ll also be improving your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) efforts in the process.

So, let’s break it down.

HTTP vs HTTPS: What’s the Difference?

In the early days of the Internet, there wasn’t an “https vs http” issue as almost every website used HTTP to transmit information from the server to your browser. However, more and more websites are switching to HTTPS. In fact, back in 2014, Google started offering minor rating bumps to any website that made the switch.

But why? What’s so special about HTTPS?

Well, in order to understand the increasing popularity of HTTPS, it’s important to understand what exactly each one is. And, perhaps more importantly, what they can offer your site.

What is HTTP?

HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol. It’s been used since the dawn of the World Wide Web to transfer data from web servers to browsers. This allows any user to view web pages.

Basically, HTTP enables different systems to communicate with one another. Pretty much every early website used HTTP. Many still use it to this day.

The main problem with HTTP is that there is very little privacy. This means virtually anyone can see the information that is being transmitted through HTTP. This also means that it’s much easier to alter the content that is visible on a site or gain access.

What is HTTPS?

HTTPS stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure. Essentially, it does the same thing as HTTP, but with an added layer of security. This means that unlike HTTP, HTTPS encrypts the information that is flowing between the server and the browser.

This extra layer of encryption makes it harder for hackers to steal visitor information. Originally, prior to 2014, mostly e-commerce websites used HTTPS to protect payment information. But, as websites and the information that flows between them becomes more complex more sites are making the switch to HTTPS.

HTTPS secures information by using an SSL (secure sockets layer) certificate. This forms a secure encrypted connection between the server and the browser. As potentially sensitive information flows between the two, this protects it from being stolen.

What’s the Difference?

Both HTTP and HTTPS are used to send information from the webserver to the browser. The important distinction between the two is HTTPS’s use of an SSL certificate. This is especially important for websites collecting credit card information or other types of sensitive information such as social security numbers or passwords.

An SSL works by taking the information and encrypting it. Encryption translates information into a secure code. This means that even if the information is stolen, it’s unlikely the hackers will be able to understand it thanks to the secret code.

In addition to this extra secure layer, HTTPS is also secured by a TLS (transport layer security) protocol. TLS protocol provides additional data integrity. This means that the corruption, possible watering hole attacks or modification of data transfers is prevented.

Another advantage of TLS is it’s added site authentication. This proves to users that they are communicating with the correct, intended website. Site authentication lets site visitors know that their information is going where it is supposed to.

Which is Better?

Obviously, HTTPS has a major security advantage over HTTP. But, HTTPS is most useful for e-commerce sites, or those sites that accept otherwise sensitive information. If you’re not one of these sites, switching to HTTPS can come with some serious hassles.

Still, in most cases, switching to HTTPS can be in your best interest. In addition to added security, HTTPS can give you a boost in your SEO efforts. That’s welcome news for any company trying to leave a serious technological footprint.

HTTPS and Your SEO Efforts

If you’re trying to give a boost to your SEO efforts (different than PPC), there are several reasons to switch over to HTTPS. Each of them will help you keep your visitors, and even score new ones. The SEO boosters offered by switching to HTTPS include:

Increases Your Website Ranking

As previously mentioned, Google offers a slight ratings boost to any website that makes the switch from HTTP to HTTPS. But, that’s not the only way that the HTTPS switch increases your long-term Google rankings.

Switching to HTTPS can lead to long-term website growth because your guests are more likely to stick around a secure website. More frequently, website visitors look for the lock symbol in their browser. This lets them know they’re on a secure site.

This lock symbol only appears for HTTPS sites. It’s Google’s way of letting them know they’re safe and their information is secure. Switching to HTTPS can make visitors more comfortable, which means they’re much more likely to stick around.

Builds Visitor Trust

In addition to the comfort of the lock symbol, HTTPS sites offer guests lots of added security. Sites protected with HTTPS encryption not only protect visitors’ sensitive information but their browsing history, as well. Privacy while browsing means that anything your guests download, purchase, or sign up for won’t put them at risk. This gives them an added peace of mind, thus building their trust in your site. Trust in your site often leads to added trust in your organization at large.

Additionally, HTTPS protects sites from added security breaches that could put guests at risk. Security breaches can damage your reputation as an organization. In some cases, they can even cost you extra money and valuable time.

Eligibility for AMP

It is becoming increasingly important for sites to be able to create AMP (Accelerated Mobile Page) pages. As more and more people browse from their smartphones, you’ll want a site that is quick and easy to access on mobile. But, if you want an AMP page, you’ll need an HTTPS site.

AMP is basically a stripped-down version of HTML. This means faster loading for mobile and a fit-to-screen view of your webpage. However, it is impossible to generate an AMP page without an HTTPS protected site.

If you want a better experience for mobile users, you’ll need to make the switch to HTTPS. It’s more important now than ever before to have a mobile-friendly site, especially for your SEO rankings.

Mobile search rankings and local SEO matter for your website rankings. This is a major reason to make the switch to HTTPS if you want to boost your SEO efforts.

SEO Concerns When Switching From HTTP

It’s not always easy to make the switch from HTTP to HTTPS. In fact, in some cases, making the switch can negatively impact your SEO efforts. If you want to avoid these pitfalls, keep these tips in mind:

Inform Google Your Site Has Made the Switch

Google won’t automatically be notified that you’ve switched to HTTPS. They won’t be aware of it until the next time they crawl your site. That can take quite a while, with your SEO dropping every day.

If you want to avoid this lengthy process, inform them of your switch right away. This way, they can give you your ratings boost and your site can be on its way to long-term rating boosts.

Make Sure Your Certificates Are in Order

There are a few other certificates to be aware of other than SSL. These include:

Single Domain: Issued for one domain or subdomain
Multiple Domain (aka Unified Communications Certificate): Secures a primary domain and upwards of 99 additional subject alternative names
Wildcard SSL: Secures website URL and unlimited subdomains

Make sure that you have the right certificates for your domain needs. This will keep your SEO boosts from being slowed down by technical errors.

Don’t Prevent Google From Crawling Your HTTPS Site

If Google can’t access your robots.txt, they can’t get clear crawling instructions. This could prevent you from improving your SEO. If Google can’t crawl your site, it could negatively impact your potential search rankings.

Usually, this happens right after you’ve made the switch to HTTPS. Don’t forget to update your test server to allow bots. This will eliminate hang-ups.

Allow Search Engines to Index Your Page

Not allowing search engines to index your page could have a negative impact on your SEO. This could wipe out your rankings. Getting your rankings back can take a really long time, so you’ll want to get this in order.

Track Your HTTP to HTTPS Shift

Use Google WebMaster tools or any other analytics software to track your progress. This ensures everything goes smoothly. It will also catch any issues that arise as soon as possible, ensuring they don’t hurt your SEO.

Ready to Make the Switch?

Now that you understand HTTPS vs HTTP, and how they can impact your SEO, you’ll know if your company needs to make the switch. In almost every case, moving to HTTPS is in your best interest. From increasing your visitors’ trust to improving your website rankings, HTTPS can bring tons of benefits to your site.

If you’re ready to make the switch to make your site more secure, unlike the complexity of JSX in web development, this switch is less complex which you can do this in-house or outsource it the task. They can help you make the switch effortlessly, and ensure the best outcome for your SEO efforts.

Author: Randy Soderman

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SEO

Google On Hyphens In Domain Names

Published

12 hours ago

April 16, 2024

Max

What Google says about using hyphens in domain names

Google’s John Mueller answered a question on Reddit about why people don’t use hyphens with domains and if there was something to be concerned about that they were missing.

Domain Names With Hyphens For SEO

I’ve been working online for 25 years and I remember when using hyphens in domains was something that affiliates did for SEO when Google was still influenced by keywords in the domain, URL, and basically keywords anywhere on the webpage. It wasn’t something that everyone did, it was mainly something that was popular with some affiliate marketers.

Another reason for choosing domain names with keywords in them was that site visitors tended to convert at a higher rate because the keywords essentially prequalified the site visitor. I know from experience how useful two-keyword domains (and one word domain names) are for conversions, as long as they didn’t have hyphens in them.

A consideration that caused hyphenated domain names to fall out of favor is that they have an untrustworthy appearance and that can work against conversion rates because trustworthiness is an important factor for conversions.

Lastly, hyphenated domain names look tacky. Why go with tacky when a brandable domain is easier for building trust and conversions?

Domain Name Question Asked On Reddit

This is the question asked on Reddit:

“Why don’t people use a lot of domains with hyphens? Is there something concerning about it? I understand when you tell it out loud people make miss hyphen in search.”

And this is Mueller’s response:

“It used to be that domain names with a lot of hyphens were considered (by users? or by SEOs assuming users would? it’s been a while) to be less serious – since they could imply that you weren’t able to get the domain name with fewer hyphens. Nowadays there are a lot of top-level-domains so it’s less of a thing.

My main recommendation is to pick something for the long run (assuming that’s what you’re aiming for), and not to be overly keyword focused (because life is too short to box yourself into a corner – make good things, course-correct over time, don’t let a domain-name limit what you do online). The web is full of awkward, keyword-focused short-lived low-effort takes made for SEO — make something truly awesome that people will ask for by name. If that takes a hyphen in the name – go for it.”

Pick A Domain Name That Can Grow

Mueller is right about picking a domain name that won’t lock your site into one topic. When a site grows in popularity the natural growth path is to expand the range of topics the site coves. But that’s hard to do when the domain is locked into one rigid keyword phrase. That’s one of the downsides of picking a “Best + keyword + reviews” domain, too. Those domains can’t grow bigger and look tacky, too.

That’s why I’ve always recommended brandable domains that are memorable and encourage trust in some way.

Read the post on Reddit:

Are domains with hyphens bad?

Read Mueller’s response here.

Featured Image by Shutterstock/Benny Marty

SEO

Reddit Post Ranks On Google In 5 Minutes

Published

1 day ago

April 15, 2024

Max

Google apparently ranks Reddit posts within minutes

Google’s Danny Sullivan disputed the assertions made in a Reddit discussion that Google is showing a preference for Reddit in the search results. But a Redditor’s example proves that it’s possible for a Reddit post to rank in the top ten of the search results within minutes and to actually improve rankings to position #2 a week later.

Discussion About Google Showing Preference To Reddit

A Redditor (gronetwork) complained that Google is sending so many visitors to Reddit that the server is struggling with the load and shared an example that proved that it can only take minutes for a Reddit post to rank in the top ten.

That post was part of a 79 post Reddit thread where many in the r/SEO subreddit were complaining about Google allegedly giving too much preference to Reddit over legit sites.

The person who did the test (gronetwork) wrote:

“…The website is already cracking (server down, double posts, comments not showing) because there are too many visitors.

…It only takes few minutes (you can test it) for a post on Reddit to appear in the top ten results of Google with keywords related to the post’s title… (while I have to wait months for an article on my site to be referenced). Do the math, the whole world is going to spam here. The loop is completed.”

Reddit Post Ranked Within Minutes

Another Redditor asked if they had tested if it takes “a few minutes” to rank in the top ten and gronetwork answered that they had tested it with a post titled, Google SGE Review.

gronetwork posted:

“Yes, I have created for example a post named “Google SGE Review” previously. After less than 5 minutes it was ranked 8th for Google SGE Review (no quotes). Just after Washingtonpost.com, 6 authoritative SEO websites and Google.com’s overview page for SGE (Search Generative Experience). It is ranked third for SGE Review.”

It’s true, not only does that specific post (Google SGE Review) rank in the top 10, the post started out in position 8 and it actually improved ranking, currently listed beneath the number one result for the search query “SGE Review”.

Screenshot Of Reddit Post That Ranked Within Minutes

Anecdotes Versus Anecdotes

Okay, the above is just one anecdote. But it’s a heck of an anecdote because it proves that it’s possible for a Reddit post to rank within minutes and get stuck in the top of the search results over other possibly more authoritative websites.

hankschrader79 shared that Reddit posts outrank Toyota Tacoma forums for a phrase related to mods for that truck.

Google’s Danny Sullivan responded to that post and the entire discussion to dispute that Reddit is not always prioritized over other forums.

Danny wrote:

“Reddit is not always prioritized over other forums. [super vhs to mac adapter] I did this week, it goes Apple Support Community, MacRumors Forum and further down, there’s Reddit. I also did [kumo cloud not working setup 5ghz] recently (it’s a nightmare) and it was the Netgear community, the SmartThings Community, GreenBuildingAdvisor before Reddit. Related to that was [disable 5g airport] which has Apple Support Community above Reddit. [how to open an 8 track tape] — really, it was the YouTube videos that helped me most, but it’s the Tapeheads community that comes before Reddit.

In your example for [toyota tacoma], I don’t even get Reddit in the top results. I get Toyota, Car & Driver, Wikipedia, Toyota again, three YouTube videos from different creators (not Toyota), Edmunds, a Top Stories unit. No Reddit, which doesn’t really support the notion of always wanting to drive traffic just to Reddit.

If I guess at the more specific query you might have done, maybe [overland mods for toyota tacoma], I get a YouTube video first, then Reddit, then Tacoma World at third — not near the bottom. So yes, Reddit is higher for that query — but it’s not first. It’s also not always first. And sometimes, it’s not even showing at all.”

hankschrader79 conceded that they were generalizing when they wrote that Google always prioritized Reddit. But they also insisted that that didn’t diminish what they said is a fact that Google’s “prioritization” forum content has benefitted Reddit more than actual forums.

Why Is The Reddit Post Ranked So High?

It’s possible that Google “tested” that Reddit post in position 8 within minutes and that user interaction signals indicated to Google’s algorithms that users prefer to see that Reddit post. If that’s the case then it’s not a matter of Google showing preference to Reddit post but rather it’s users that are showing the preference and the algorithm is responding to those preferences.

Nevertheless, an argument can be made that user preferences for Reddit can be a manifestation of Familiarity Bias. Familiarity Bias is when people show a preference for things that are familiar to them. If a person is familiar with a brand because of all the advertising they were exposed to then they may show a bias for the brand products over unfamiliar brands.

Users who are familiar with Reddit may choose Reddit because they don’t know the other sites in the search results or because they have a bias that Google ranks spammy and optimized websites and feel safer reading Reddit.

Google may be picking up on those user interaction signals that indicate a preference and satisfaction with the Reddit results but those results may simply be biases and not an indication that Reddit is trustworthy and authoritative.

Is Reddit Benefiting From A Self-Reinforcing Feedback Loop?

It may very well be that Google’s decision to prioritize user generated content may have started a self-reinforcing pattern that draws users in to Reddit through the search results and because the answers seem plausible those users start to prefer Reddit results. When they’re exposed to more Reddit posts their familiarity bias kicks in and they start to show a preference for Reddit. So what could be happening is that the users and Google’s algorithm are creating a self-reinforcing feedback loop.

Is it possible that Google’s decision to show more user generated content has kicked off a cycle where more users are exposed to Reddit which then feeds back into Google’s algorithm which in turn increases Reddit visibility, regardless of lack of expertise and authoritativeness?

Featured Image by Shutterstock/Kues

SEO

WordPress Releases A Performance Plugin For “Near-Instant Load Times”

Published

2 days ago

April 14, 2024

Max

WordPress released an official plugin that adds support for a cutting edge technology called speculative loading that can help boost site performance and improve the user experience for site visitors.

Speculative Loading

Rendering means constructing the entire webpage so that it instantly displays (rendering). When your browser downloads the HTML, images, and other resources and puts it together into a webpage, that’s rendering. Prerendering is putting that webpage together (rendering it) in the background.

What this plugin does is to enable the browser to prerender the entire webpage that a user might navigate to next. The plugin does that by anticipating which webpage the user might navigate to based on where they are hovering.

Chrome lists a preference for only prerendering when there is an at least 80% probability of a user navigating to another webpage. The official Chrome support page for prerendering explains:

“Pages should only be prerendered when there is a high probability the page will be loaded by the user. This is why the Chrome address bar prerendering options only happen when there is such a high probability (greater than 80% of the time).

There is also a caveat in that same developer page that prerendering may not happen based on user settings, memory usage and other scenarios (more details below about how analytics handles prerendering).

The Speculative Loading API solves a problem that previous solutions could not because in the past they were simply prefetching resources like JavaScript and CSS but not actually prerendering the entire webpage.

The official WordPress announcement explains it like this:

Introducing the Speculation Rules API
The Speculation Rules API is a new web API that solves the above problems. It allows defining rules to dynamically prefetch and/or prerender URLs of certain structure based on user interaction, in JSON syntax—or in other words, speculatively preload those URLs before the navigation. This API can be used, for example, to prerender any links on a page whenever the user hovers over them.”

The official WordPress page about this new functionality describes it:

“The Speculation Rules API is a new web API… It allows defining rules to dynamically prefetch and/or prerender URLs of certain structure based on user interaction, in JSON syntax—or in other words, speculatively preload those URLs before the navigation.

This API can be used, for example, to prerender any links on a page whenever the user hovers over them. Also, with the Speculation Rules API, “prerender” actually means to prerender the entire page, including running JavaScript. This can lead to near-instant load times once the user clicks on the link as the page would have most likely already been loaded in its entirety. However that is only one of the possible configurations.”

The new WordPress plugin adds support for the Speculation Rules API. The Mozilla developer pages, a great resource for HTML technical understanding describes it like this:

“The Speculation Rules API is designed to improve performance for future navigations. It targets document URLs rather than specific resource files, and so makes sense for multi-page applications (MPAs) rather than single-page applications (SPAs).

The Speculation Rules API provides an alternative to the widely-available <link rel=”prefetch”> feature and is designed to supersede the Chrome-only deprecated <link rel=”prerender”> feature. It provides many improvements over these technologies, along with a more expressive, configurable syntax for specifying which documents should be prefetched or prerendered.”

Performance Lab Plugin

The new plugin was developed by the official WordPress performance team which occasionally rolls out new plugins for users to test ahead of possible inclusion into the actual WordPress core. So it’s a good opportunity to be first to try out new performance technologies.

The new WordPress plugin is by default set to prerender “WordPress frontend URLs” which are pages, posts, and archive pages. How it works can be fine-tuned under the settings:

Settings > Reading > Speculative Loading

Browser Compatibility

The Speculative API is supported by Chrome 108 however the specific rules used by the new plugin require Chrome 121 or higher. Chrome 121 was released in early 2024.

Browsers that do not support will simply ignore the plugin and will have no effect on the user experience.

Check out the new Speculative Loading WordPress plugin developed by the official core WordPress performance team.

How Analytics Handles Prerendering

A WordPress developer commented with a question asking how Analytics would handle prerendering and someone else answered that it’s up to the Analytics provider to detect a prerender and not count it as a page load or site visit.

Fortunately both Google Analytics and Google Publisher Tags (GPT) both are able to handle prerenders. The Chrome developers support page has a note about how analytics handles prerendering:

“Google Analytics handles prerender by delaying until activation by default as of September 2023, and Google Publisher Tag (GPT) made a similar change to delay triggering advertisements until activation as of November 2023.”

Possible Conflict With Ad Blocker Extensions

There are a couple things to be aware of about this plugin, aside from the fact that it’s an experimental feature that requires Chrome 121 or higher.

A comment by a WordPress plugin developer that this feature may not work with browsers that are using the uBlock Origin ad blocking browser extension.

Download the plugin:
Speculative Loading Plugin by the WordPress Performance Team

Read the announcement at WordPress
Speculative Loading in WordPress