With constant news of hacks and loss of passwords or other sensitive information, then this isn't such a surprise and is a welcome move from Google.
Google has been advocating sites use HTTPS (ie ensuring your website has a security certificate that says you are who you say you are, data is secure and encrypted).
Google has now announced it will reward websites that utilise HTTPS with a small ranking boost, as a sweetener. But more importantly has confirmed security will become a much bigger ranking signal in the future, and we should start looking to make all of our web pages secure.
This is from the Google Blog: 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 — while we give webmasters time to switch to HTTPS. But over time, we may decide to strengthen it, because we’d like to encourage all website owners to switch from HTTP to HTTPS to keep everyone safe on the web"
So if you are planning a new website, then it's time to factor in HTTPS and invest in an SSL certificate. When Google says they "may" do something, then it's time to pay attention.
We utilise HTTPS on sensitive pages, such as edit listing or edit profile pages, or backend administration, so meet the early criteria. If you're confused, it's the "https" you see in your web browser, and (depending on browser) the certificate information, in our case registered to Lowi Ltd.
But the argument always used to be securing all of your webpages caused more load on your server, slower page performance due to encryption, when at the time it was always about serving your web pages as fast as possible. There also used to be SEO arguments that HTTPS pages couldn't get indexed or could harm indexing.
It looks like the old argument's and myths are being laid to rest and there is a campaign Google is promoting to re-assure people that performance is no longer a problem - Is TLS fast yet?
Interesting stuff, and a lot of people may not absorb it for a while, but this could become a very important change and a landmark moment for the internet as it matures. Rewarding secure sites makes perfect sense, and what better reward than Search Engine rankings?
Hat tip to Search Engine Land where I saw it first reported.
If you are ensure if your site meets the new secure standards, then Google recommends you test your site using the SSL Server Test from Qualys SSL Labs.
Any reaction or thoughts? Good bad or indifferent? Will you be investigating securing your website, or just something to consider in the future?