Will Having a Secure Site Gain You Future Favor with Google?

At the recent SMX West conference, Matt Cutts explained the importance of making your Web site secure (SSL enabled). When asked if Google was going to make SSL a future ranking factor, Cutts replied that it would already be a ranking factor if it were up to him, but at the current time, it isn't.

As you may already know, Google has moved most of their products over to SSL enabled sites. This fact, plus Cutts' thoughts on the subject, may be enough of a nudge. Maybe it's time to start thinking about making your site secure, as this may become a ranking factor down the line.

However, before you do we want to share these common drawbacks that come with a secure site.

• Issues with mixed secure/non-secure elements, such as images generating non-secure warnings. For example, images that are on a secure page usually throw up a browser warning to visitors that kills your conversions.
• Problems with expired certificates, or other certificate problems, which also generate a traffic killing browser warning.
• Cost of the certificate is an add on that many small businesses are caught off guard by.
• Speed issues, IBM says SSL increases network traffic three-fold and can hurt server response time two - ten times.
• Requires a dedicated IP, which will likely increase hosting costs, or require you to move to a different host altogether.