Econsultancy<\/a> this month that measured the effectiveness of HTTPS and the correlation between websites that have moved to using a secured protocol and how they ranked on the SERPs.<\/p>\nThe numbers speak for themselves. In May 2014, just 5.52% of top 100 ranking websites used HTTPS, by November this had grown to an average of 6.93%. Putting this into context, this includes all sectors, initially it doesn\u2019t look like a tidal wave of change, however when you look at the numbers granularly across specific sectors it tells us a very different story.<\/p>\n
The Finance sector has greater demands on security. In May, 10.51% of the top 5 results were running on HTTPS, by November this had grown to 17.41%. There were headlines in the marketing press a few months ago on how Google were going to hit the Pay Day Loan market. Looking at the top 100 results, 25% of results are now using HTTPS, however if you look at the winners (the people who actually get the majority of organic traffic in this space) it tells us a story that cannot be ignored. Over 70% of websites that get top 5 results now use HTTPS, in June this was a mere 36%. Does HTTPS help you rank better? Yes is the short succinct answer. 83% of websites with No 1 positions in the short term loan market use HTTPS.<\/p>\n
Beyond the finance sector, there is still change towards this trend. Research suggests that gambling, legal services, travel and retail websites are all seeing a correlation between improved search positions and using HTTPS. Most of the top 5 ranking positions in these vertical sectors have seen a 2 \u2013 3% rise in websites using secured protocol.<\/p>\n
Does size matter?<\/p>\n
The size of the website does seem to matter. Websites with multiple thousands of web pages (like Travel and Retail websites) do have a wider range of pages and services they can offer. Unlike the smaller pay day loan websites with that one call to action form, there is a good chance that a higher % of pages wouldn\u2019t fall into the high risk category. Added with the problems of an increased load time (another ranking factor) and brand and sector penetration, it takes enough big players to go with the flow before Google will make the algorithmic distinction to say that this is the norm for a specific vertical or sector.<\/p>\n\n \n \n
\n
\n Stay Forward <\/h2>\n
\n Get exclusive insights into digital
media's top-trending topics delivered
directly to your inbox. <\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n