Search Engines & Your Users Will Love You for This

HTTP or HTTPS? What’s the Difference?

As far back as I can remember, web addresses were formatted as https://www.something.com. Everybody knows the www stands for “world wide web” and .com is short for “commercial,” which indicates a business domain. But then there’s that weird initialism at the front.

HTTP, which is short for hypertext transfer protocol, refers to what was the default standard for transferring information online.

And then a new standard took over: HTTPS, or hypertext transfer protocol secure. And who would have thought adding one little letter would make such a big difference?

Well, a lot of people, actually. HTTPS offers several advantages that make it a better choice for webmasters. We’ll get into that, but before we do, let’s briefly discuss how information is sent via the web.

Pro tip: If you have a Google Search Console account, you can check to see if you have any HTTPS issues across your website or by visiting your HTTPS reports here.

How HTTP Works

The basics of how the internet works are as follows: as an internet user, you want to interact with a web page. When you type in the address or click a link, your web browser sends an HTTP request to the server that hosts that website. A connection is established, and the server sends back a response, making the page accessible.

It’s a bit more technical than all that, but that’s the basic principles.

What Makes HTTPS Different?

You’ve probably already inferred that the secure “S'' on the end of HTTPS means it’s a more secure way of transferring data. This is accomplished by using a key to encrypt and validate data, usually via a SSL (secure sockets layer) or TLS (transport layer security) certificate.

Because regular HTTP doesn’t include this security layer, it means cybercriminals can intercept this data. While that might not be a big deal if you’re just reading reviews of a vacuum cleaner, it’s absolutely an issue once you’ve entered in your credit card details and are in the midst of buying that new Hoover.??

Google is aware of this and warns users that sites are unsecured with an open lock icon in the address bar. It has also strongly advocated for all sites to switch to HTTPS, because this protocol secures your information in three ways:

1. Authentication – HTTPS ensures that websites are what they’re claiming to be. This eliminates bad actors and helps build trust.
2. Encryption – This prevents your activity from being tracked and your credentials from being stolen.
3. Data integrity – HTTPS’ encryption prevents files from being corrupted when transitioning between the server and the site.

Which is Better for SEO?

There is a definite answer to which is better for search engine optimization: HTTPS is better for SEO, and it’s not even close.

There are several reasons for this, the first being the security issue we discussed earlier. Google has made it no secret that it has been using HTTPS when determining search rankings since 2014. And it’s slowly been making the push for the entire internet to switch to HTTPS.

Another SEO advantage of HTTPS over HTTP is the increased clarity it gives to referral data. HTTPS makes it easier to identify which referral sources your traffic is coming from, allowing you to formulate better, more effective SEO strategies.

HTTPS is also faster, which factors into both load time and user experiences. HTTP can only handle one outstanding request per connection, which can slow down load times and make them more resource-intensive.

HTTPS pages, on the other hand, have shorter load times, which generally leads to a higher ranking than slower competitors.

Should You Use HTTP or HTTPS?

By this point, you may be thinking HTTPS is the clear winner in the battle of transfer protocols. So why is anyone still using HTTP? There are a few advantages to using the old standard, namely:

• HTTP can be implemented with any other web protocol
• Because pages are stored on the user’s computer and internet cashes, they are quickly accessible
• It doesn’t need any runtime support
• You can use HTTP over firewalls, making global applications possible.

Theoretically, you could use both, loading some resources over secure connections and others over your HTTP connection. This is called “mixed content,” and because the initial request is sent via HTTPS, it’s secure.

However, this could lead to vulnerabilities in your site, in which a hacker could find a weakness and exploit it to steal data. As such, some browsers have begun blocking mixed content.

However, don’t let this dissuade you. There are a few minor benefits of using unsecured transfer protocol, but the fact of the matter is this: HTTPS is better for both security and SEO purposes.

How to Convert Your Site to HTTPS

Now let’s discuss how you can switch your HTTP site over to HTTPS. Don’t worry – it’s not nearly as complicated as you may think.

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Plan the switch – Try to schedule your shift during a time in which your website is usually not busy. There may be some downtime and you don’t want to frustrate your customers or visitors. If your website is large, you may consider making the move in stages.
2. Buy and install your SSL – There are three main types of SSL: Domain Validated, Organization Validated and Extended Validation. All three use the same level of encryption, but require different verification processes to obtain. Once you have obtained yours, your web host should install and configure it for you.
3. Enable HTTPS – Once your SSL certificate is installed and running, you should be able to view your pages as HTTPS.
4. Set up your redirects – If you don’t have a CMS that will automatically redirect traffic from your HTTP pages to their HTTPS counterparts, you should set up manual 301 redirects. These tell Google that your site has changed and that they need to index it under the new protocols.

HTTPS Best Practices

Here are some additional tips to help you get the most out of migrating your HTTP site to HTTPS:

• Use a quality SSL – Not all certificates are created equal and you usually get what you paid for. Make sure you’re doing the research before buying an SSL.
• Tell Google how to crawl your HTTPS pages – Add your HTTPS pages to your sitemap and robots.txt file so search engines understand how to crawl your site.
• Stay up to date – Errors can happen, SSL certificates can expire and website info can be incorrectly registered. Make sure you always know what’s going on with your pages.

Take the Confusion Out of SEO

If you’re not a full-time SEO professional, the jargon and technical talk can be overwhelming. But that’s what makes Evisio so great ( evisio seo software ) for small businesses and online marketers.

You don’t have to have a computer science degree or know HTML from HDTV to have your site shooting up the rankings. Evisio scans your website, then gives you clear, actionable, step-by-step instructions to help you optimize your pages.

Everything is designed to be easy to understand, so you can reap all the benefits of SEO, without the need to do everything manually. See it for yourself. Contact me for a free trial today ( Michael Ramirez ).?

#seotips #digitalmarketing #doseo #learnseo #https