SEO Atlas
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HTTPS

HTTP over TLS, encrypting traffic between browser and server; a lightweight Google ranking signal since 2014 and a baseline expectation today.

In full

Beyond the ranking signal, HTTPS is required for many browser APIs, HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 in practice, and referrer data preservation. SEO issues arise from certificate errors, mixed content, incomplete redirects leaving http URLs live, and canonical tags still pointing at http. Free automated certificates have made HTTPS universal, so its practical value now lies in avoiding the penalty of getting it wrong.

Example

A certificate expires on a Sunday; Googlebot records TLS errors and crawling of the host drops sharply until it is renewed.

Related terms

HSTS

A response header instructing browsers to only contact a host over HTTPS for a set period, eliminating the initial insecure request.

Mixed content

Insecure http subresources loaded by an https page; browsers block active mixed content and may upgrade or block passive content.

301 redirect

A server-side permanent redirect that tells crawlers a URL has moved for good and that ranking signals should consolidate on the…

Page experience

Google's umbrella term for signals about how users perceive interacting with a page, including Core Web Vitals, HTTPS and absence of…

HTTP/2

A binary, multiplexed version of HTTP that carries many concurrent requests over one TCP connection with header compression.

Where to read more