Live data from Hacker News

HTTPS as a ranking signal

googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com

171–180 of 212 posts

Re: HTTPS as a ranking signal

#171

I hope that at least one site runs without https so that when I am using airport/airline/FlyingJ/Starbucks/etc wifi, I can access it and be presented with the button I need to press to access the network. I currently use http://xkcd.com for this purpose.

Funny; google.com works fine for me for this, even though it's definitely https.

Re: HTTPS as a ranking signal

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry to jump in with a tangential reply, but BEWARE of the following! Google treat the http and https versions of a domain as SEPARATE PROPERTIES. This means that even if you 301 every http page to https when you transition, all of your current rankings and pagerank will be irrelevant. You can verify this behaviour for yourself in webmaster tools. I suppose this is because it's possible to serve up different content…

The Google blog says that TLS is a (presumably positive) ranking signal, they do not state whether leaving the site available unencrypted is a negative signal. Until they clear up that ambiguity it seems risky to go TLS only for exactly the reason you cite.

If X is a positive signal, then not-X is a negative signal.

Re: HTTPS as a ranking signal

#173
post #150
post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget you have to manage your certs. It's an extra burden. Let's say I am a freelancer, I make website for small restaurant. Until now I could make a website with frontpage, menu and gallery put it on a server and be done with it and collect a monthly fee. Now, you have to manage the cert, that is say every year re-issue a new cert and invalidate the old. It adds costs. Without much if any benefits for some cl…

I'm a freelance web developer for dozens of restaurants. They pay for the site, then a yearly hosting fee every year after launch. They get a basic CMS so they can update their hours/menus/etc. I host all their sites on a few VPS servers. Some of my contracts require support for IE 7 or IE 8 on Windows XP, and those browsers don't support SNI. So in addition to what you've mentioned - maintaining certificates and los…

A few people I've talked with told me the same. For now they won't care. But as told me a friend, if too much client start to ask for it will be troubles for him.

But that is to be kept in mind : "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."

Re: HTTPS as a ranking signal

#174
Usefulness of SSL aside, is anyone else terrified that Google can essentially dictate what it wants developers to do, with low search rankings as the penalty for not following them? In my opinion, this sets a scary precedent.

Re: HTTPS as a ranking signal

#175

I was involved in this launch and I want to address a very common misconception I'm seeing here and elsewhere. Some webmasters say they have "just a content site", like a blog, and that doesn't need to be secured. That misses out two immediate benefits you get as a site owner: 1. Data integrity: only by serving securely can you guarantee that someone is not altering how your content is received by your users. How man…

So Google's position is that SSL is such a high priority for content sites that they will officially incite a mad scramble for every content site on the planet from big media companies to hobby blogs to secure their page behind https to keep their ranking, but yet doesn't see anything wrong with the fact that every Blogger blog and even the Google Online Security Blog that it is announced on, is insecure. Nice.

Re: HTTPS as a ranking signal

#176
post #19

My issue with SSL everywhere is that I have to effectively buy my domain twice: once for the domain, and one again for the certificate. My registrar should give me a wildcard certificate good for the time I've paid for my domain.

This is my concern too. I manage 100+ clients registered and hosted in a variety of places (often because I'm inheriting their choice of host, registrar, etc). It's painful enough without adding SSL to the mix for even the littlest of sites.

Re: HTTPS as a ranking signal

#177
Do you have to throw out all your social rankings?

I've been wanting to switch to HTTPS but have been avoiding it due to significant accumulation of Facebook likes and some +1's. Last I checked, you had to do some big hacks to maintain your Facebook like count. Has anybody found a good way to handle this or do you just have to start over?

Re: HTTPS as a ranking signal

#178
post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google is not "enforcing" anything, people react like if you are not going to show up in the results at all, or Chrome won't work via HTTP. HTTPS is signal, just like having a link from a well ranked website like HN is a signal, and probably dozens other. The points you mention are in fact indicators that someone has put care and resources to make their site work more securely, which says a good thing about the site,…

Right, you will not disappear from the results. The reaction (granted maybe overreaction) is about Google pushing HTTPS hard for security (which could be good but not automatically so) and not caring in areas where it is as important if not more. You are just proving my point. Google rewards the richest, those who have the resources as you say. As for care, I would be clad if people were not going to do it for the wr…

> Google rewards the richest

Oh come on.. if multiplying your ranking by 0.01 (now) means that much to you, then probably you're making enough money you can afford a cert - or you probably have one in place.

Re: HTTPS as a ranking signal

#179

Usefulness of SSL aside, is anyone else terrified that Google can essentially dictate what it wants developers to do, with low search rankings as the penalty for not following them? In my opinion, this sets a scary precedent.

Yes. Fortunately, they're doing it in the name of improving the web.

So far.

Re: HTTPS as a ranking signal

#180
post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google is not "enforcing" anything, people react like if you are not going to show up in the results at all, or Chrome won't work via HTTP. HTTPS is signal, just like having a link from a well ranked website like HN is a signal, and probably dozens other. The points you mention are in fact indicators that someone has put care and resources to make their site work more securely, which says a good thing about the site,…

Right, you will not disappear from the results. The reaction (granted maybe overreaction) is about Google pushing HTTPS hard for security (which could be good but not automatically so) and not caring in areas where it is as important if not more. You are just proving my point. Google rewards the richest, those who have the resources as you say. As for care, I would be clad if people were not going to do it for the wr…

> Google rewards the richest, those who have the resources as you say.

Google doesn't care who is it rewarding, google cares about the users that search, they've said that multiple times. And yes, people with better resources build on average better things than people without them.

> I am not against HTTPS. Just saying that rewarding HTTPS is not enough. It's worst actually, some will set it up quickly and badly just for the extra ranking points and not the actual security it should be providing.

Even then, still 10 times better than plain text HTTP so my whole office can see what I'm browsing with a simple console command.

> What is the point of HTTPS if I receive my password by mail ?

Your email inbox should be accessed via TLS, it's something up to you. And while you don't control the origin (nobody can without breaking compatibility) intercepting a message in transit like that if not exactly something most people I know can do. While getting that password over HTTP is almost trivial for anyone sitting around me.

> As for enforcing, HTTP2 (that is SPDY) IS enforcing HTTPS.

The day you can only see a website via SPDY then I would call that enforcing it. Yes if you want to carrot (performance) you have to pass through the hop (security), nobody forces you to eat the carrot.

> IMO, Good HTTPS where it matters is more important then Crappy HTTPS everywhere just is ridiculous and could even be dangerous thanks to a false sense of security.

I really can not get which scenario you are picturing here. Setting it up is not rocket science.

Post reply on HN