Let’s face it, if you knew of a way to help give you a boost up the rankings on Google, you would take advantage of it, right?
Well, in August 2014, Google quietly mentioned on their official blog that sites that use an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate had become another metric that on how high your site would rank.
SSL is the technology that makes the padlock sign appear when you browse a website and these have historically been used on e-commerce sites or banks; until now. When a user visits your site, a secret handshake takes place (like this one) between the browser and web server until both parties are convinced that it is indeed the right server to be delivering this content.
In the past, users online were told to look out for the padlock sign before submitting any sensitive information, especially banking information, so the minds of many have been brainwashed to feel comfort when this padlock is shown. Whilst this might appear to be witchcraft, it’s actually much easier than it’s ever been to add this to your site, and costs less than a meal out and a cinema visit for two.
How much does it cost?
Costs do depend on how many web addresses you want to cover by the certificate, but assuming you want to cover just a single web address this can be from as little as £50 a year + VAT (if bought for three years at a time).
When you consider that paying someone to help you jump up the rankings might cost their day-rate, this is a very affordable way of getting a quick boost over your competitors.
Why should you consider this?
At the moment, adoption of SSL certificates in the financial industry is very, very slow, so being one of the early adopters will give you a big advantage in the search engines. This is even more pertinent if you are trying to get your site to appear for competitive search terms.
Even when others catch up, you would have already established your site on Google, and for that they’ll reward you with more Google juice. Sounds like a no-brainer to us!
Can we help?
If you would like any assistance adding SSL to your site, just say hi as we'll be more than happy to SSL you happy!