New innovations continue to shape the landscape of technology. The Internet is ever evolving and in response to that reality, website owners need to keep pace with these fast-moving times. One of the latest innovations affecting the online world is the growing importance of HTTPS.
HTTP precedes every web address but many people are completely unaware of what HTTP even stands for. It is an acronym for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. Now, HTTPS takes things a step farther by adding the word Secure to that acronym (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure). And so the world has been introduced to HTTPS, which is intended to make for a more secure connection.
What makes the connection secure is a code that contains scrambled messages. The encryption aims to keep hackers out and keep your information safe.
Google is continually seeking out new means of improving its security. With HTTPS, the use of Google search, G-mail and Google Drive all have a secured connection. Google is also urging website owners to switch to HTTPS. Rewards are expected to come in the form of higher rankings. Websites using HTTPS as opposed to HTTP will see a nudge in their ranking.
Right now the rankings boost is not a huge jump, although Google may decide to strengthen the HTTPS signal as a form of encouraging more website owners to switch over. In time, HTTPS could go on to become a primary component of every SEO plan.
Google’s claimed intention is to make sure websites that are accessed through its search engine are secure. However, Google’s powerful influence once again emerges. Although Google cannot control the entire web, its rankings are of the utmost importance to businesses, which includes law firms.
Therefore, Google has the unique ability to dictate the ebb and flow of certain trends. Simply urging website owners to switch over to HTTPS may not be incentive enough. But the benefit of higher rankings makes switching over a lot more enticing.
Security still steps to the forefront as Google has not been exempt to computer hackers. Furthermore, Google knows all too well having their very own security breaches. In 2011, Google’s Android operating system proved vulnerable to attacks. Google remedied that problem but it is evidence that even the worldwide Internet leader needs to continually maintain and upgrade its security.
But HTTPS is not a new concept and has been around for quite some time. Facebook began implementing HTTPS in 2013, although many of its users are unlikely to have ever noticed that fact.
A year later, it makes sense for businesses to upgrade to HTTPS, particularly law firms. Confidentiality is considered a prerequisite when conducting any kind of business with a law firm. It also doesn’t hurt to give Google what it wants when it comes to rankings.
SEO is often designed to speak the language Google wants to hear. Now, Google apparently wants to hear that websites are switching over to HTTPS.
Google is expected to publish recommended strategies for website owners to employ when switching over to HTTPS. One of those strategies is ensuring web pages are capable of being indexed by search engines while also making sure their setup does not restrict crawling. More of these important guidelines will continue to emerge as HTTPS broadens its reach.
Google continues to reiterate that security is the company’s No.1 priority. It uses more than 200 signals to rank pages and now HTTPS is part of that vast community. While security is always a concern for law firms and other businesses, so are rankings.