For years, HTTPS has been around, predominantly as a way to verify that a website is both secure and legitimate – as opposed to some websites that operate as a fly-by-night entity. While it is relatively easy to obtain a HTTPS certificate for your domain, this has still served as a decent metric of a website that is run by professionals and has a basic amount of credibility, as opposed to a sketchy attempt by amateurs. As it turns out, HTTPS can have several uses for legitimate webmasters, but many are not aware of their uses. Below, we will discuss the benefits that HTTPS can bring you in the modern era, and why you should fork over the small amount of cash to obtain one of these certificates.

Google Is Beginning to Notice

Recent news from Google suggests that the use of HTTPS can bring small but consistent SEO results. The exact announcement from Google told us that just by having a HTTPS certificate, your website can receive a potential boost in ranking (in around one percent of all global search queries). This certainly means that it carries less weight than many of the other metrics Google uses when pinging websites, but it should be noted that this has only recently become a metric that Google is using. The lesson: Google will very likely continue to place emphasis on the HTTPS factor as a way of deriving more quality results for its users.

Emphasis on Security

The biggest advantage of having HTTPS is being able to guarantee to your visitors, customers and users that their data undergoes at least a basic level of encryption when it is being sent and received. Many online storefronts have HTTPS certificates for this very reason. Nobody wants to be transmitting their credit card information across insecure servers and connections; you may find that operating an online store without this feature becomes quite difficult if the right people notice and leave reviews about it on the right review websites. Considering that an HTTPS certificate is remarkably cheap, it simply makes sense from a security standpoint to purchase this feature.

People Know It’s You

Last but not least, having an HTTPS certificate will identify your website to those who visit at the top of their browsers. With a variety of phishing and spoofing schemes in play today, it comes as no surprise that many people are duped into transmitting private information to unknown sources – thinking that the source that is receiving the information is legitimate. Regular users who are pinging websites like yours will grow subconsciously aware of the notification that is displayed via HTTPS certificates, and this will in turn reduce the instances of fraud potentially committed by others while pretending to be your website.

Conclusion

When it comes down to it, any professional website needs to consider the use of an HTTPS certificate in order to avoid fraud, boost security and add potential SEO benefit for the future. People will quickly learn how to identify your website in any situation, sensitive financial and personal information will be protected while being transmitted, and Google will give your site more credence in search engine results. It just makes sense to act upon this (unless you have something to hide)!