In a recent study from MOZ, it showed that 32.5 percent of all page one results in Google are now utilizing the HTTPS protocol.
The data from Dr. Pete’s blog post discusses the data that has been tracked by Google since August, 2014, when it announced HTTPS was going to be a light ranking system.
The blog and it results abut SEO made some question about switching their existing sites to a secure protocol.
HTTPS
When accessing a website, the standard form is HTTP. HTTPS utilize an added layer of security by sharing a hard to hack key with the destination and encrypting in SSL.
This was Google’s 2014 announcement regarding HTTPS:
“We’re starting to use HTTPS as a ranking signal. For now, it’s only a very lightweight signal, affecting fewer than 1% of global queries, and carrying less weight than other signals, such as high-quality content.”
Obviously now it is much more popular, and its seems that Google is truly improving security over the Web as time goes on.
2014 Ranking Signals (HTTPS)
After Google’s announcement, there was hardly a difference between HTTP and HTTP; it only affected about 1% of the results – as per Searchmetrics. Moz also found that HTTPS increased from 7% to 8% a week after Google’s announcement.
So with these numbers, many individuals may have implemented, while many others did not. In either case, no one thought much of it.
HTTPS in 2016
Fast-forward to today and now MOZ has discovered that about one-third of first page Google results now use HTTPS.
Here are how the numbers look according to Moz’s results:
As you can see from Moz’ graph, this has been a steady climb that shows that pro-HTTPS campaigns from Google have been working.
Dr. Pete states:
“They’ve successfully led search marketers and site owners to believe that HTTPS will be rewarded, and this has drastically sped up the shift.”
If these numbers continue, projections could see HTTPS go up to 50%. Dr. Pete is predicting potential changes in algorithm that could boost HTTPS – in around year or so.
