45% of the top search results on Google are HTTPS sites, and it’s a number that’s been climbing pretty rapidly.

Have a look at the Moz graph below:

Last week, Dr. Pete from Moz sent out a Twitter post predicting that June 2017, 50% of the top search results that come up in Google will be of sites over HTTPS, not HTTP.

“Page-1 HTTPS results topped 45% in our 10K tracking set. Trendline predicts we’ll hit 50% in three months…”

Google have said that more than half of all Chrome desktop pages are already served over HTTPS, which shows just how much momentum the HTTPS movement has gathered.

Why Should You Care?

Currently, only sites that collect passwords or credit cards are required by Google to be HTTPS – but that’s going to change in the near future.

Have a look at this quote from Google:

“Our plan to label HTTP sites more clearly and accurately as non-secure will take place in gradual steps, based on increasingly stringent criteria…

Eventually, we plan to label all HTTP pages as non-secure, and change the HTTP security indicator to the red triangle that we use for broken HTTPS.”

If you change early, is there anything in it for you?

Google have said that there is a tiny ranking benefit that comes with switching – but for now it’s only a very lightweight signal — affecting fewer than 1% of global queries.

Most webmasters have reported that they don’t notice any change (in fact, many have reported that they see a drop in rankings right after that make the switch).

However, seeing how much momentum it’s gained already, we’d recommend you make the switch, and do it soon – even if you aren’t collecting credit card or password info..  

We’ve made the decision to do it here at CleverClicks.

We’ll keep you updated on how the process goes for us, but if you want to get in on the action in the meantime, have a look here:

https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/security/encrypt-in-transit/enable-https?hl=en

Tags: google, http, https, website