Way back in 2014 Google announced their intention to use HTTPS as a Ranking Signal, since then a great majority of websites have made the switch, but not all.

We're still surprised at how many sites we see that haven't yet gone secure even as the browser warnings keep getting scarier. And, since the previous version of this article has remained one of our most popular, we figure that it's important to keep this valuable resource completely up to date. Therefore, you can know with confidence that the advise you're getting here is the latest and greatest and provides you with all the information you need to know to get the job done right.

All that said, if you're working with a website that hasn't updated yet, it's way past time to get it done — and there are many good reasons to do so, all of which we covered in-depth within our article, Google says "Time to Go Secure!", such as:

• A URL Specific, Lightweight Ranking Boost.
• Improvement in Trust Level in your website, important for ALL types of sites regardless if you have a shopping cart or not!
• The ranking boost is NOT what makes this change so important! It's the browser warnings that Chrome and other browsers display to people trying to visit your site that will kill your traffic first! These warnings have gotten more and more visual over time and continue to get scarier.

Browser warning example

The switch to HTTPS is possibly the biggest update that Google has ever done because it affects every single website evenly across the boar...