View Full Version : SSL Certificates - their types and effects on ranking
Simon Young
03-03-2010, 03:59 AM
Hi,
Can someone please explain to me in laymans terms the difference between all the different SSL certificates avaialble?
The reason I ask is my certificate is just about due for renewal and there is a very large choice of various types of certificate - all with different price tags.
There is a thread running on this site discussing the relevance of cheap hosting with regard to search engine ranking - the conclusion seems to be in general that the hosting you have has little or zero effect on ranking.... but my question running on from that discussion would be - Does the type of SSL certification your site holds effect ranking at all?
vivesoftech
03-03-2010, 04:38 AM
No SSL Certificated won't affect your rankings. But if you are excepting credit cards or requesting some info from customers then they can have more trust on your website.
Generally speaking, there are two types of SSL certificates. A basic certificate encrypts the data as it is transmitted between the client and the server, and gives the user a way of confirming that the data is going directly to the intended domain. The other type of certificate is an Extended Verification Certificate (EV-SSL), which is only issued following an investigation of the site obtaining the certificate, to ensure that the certified site actually represents the company it claims to represent. This extra check is done to help prevent phishing attacks.
Beyond these two options, different SSL packages are distinguished by additional services that are offered. For example, some offer higher levels of encryption (128-bit is the absolute minimum you should use) and others are for different types of servers or for sites with multiple subdomains, etc.
As Vivesoftech mentioned above, search engines really do not care about SSL, whether you have it or what type. However, I should note that most of your content should not be protected by SSL - only sensitive data, which should not be spidered anyway. Search engines don't like crawling encrypted content, and encrypting non-sensitive data will increase your bandwidth and server resource usage.
Simon Young
03-03-2010, 11:13 AM
Just wondered if in this day and age that Google might say 'Hey this site has EV certification and thats a good thing so lets give it a little extra joose!
SemAdvance
03-03-2010, 05:08 PM
Just wondered if in this day and age that Google might say 'Hey this site has EV certification and thats a good thing so lets give it a little extra joose!
There ya go.. the more things you do to make things secure for your visitors when they should be, the better your SEO scoring will be. The SE algorithms are made up of 100 different functions that score individual elements of your web hosting, server structure, website pages and links.
While the price of hosting has no effect on rankings, who you host your site with can.
If you use a cheap host and so do most of the spammers in the world... then the server will have a 'bad neighbor' scoring, and that would be associated with your site in turn.
deepsand
03-03-2010, 08:57 PM
Just wondered if in this day and age that Google might say 'Hey this site has EV certification and thats a good thing so lets give it a little extra joose!
Bear in mind, though, that any certification is only as reliable as the root authority from which it stems.
And, the presence of any SSL certification does not evidence a functional need for such; i.e., it may just be window dressing designed to impress.
With that in mind, make your choice based strictly on the needs of yourself and your customers, bearing in mind that most customers have little to no awareness and understanding of SSL.
Clint1
03-04-2010, 05:48 AM
Hi,
Can someone please explain to me in laymans terms the difference between all the different SSL certificates avaialble?
The reason I ask is my certificate is just about due for renewal and there is a very large choice of various types of certificate - all with different price tags.
There is a thread running on this site discussing the relevance of cheap hosting with regard to search engine ranking - the conclusion seems to be in general that the hosting you have has little or zero effect on ranking.... but my question running on from that discussion would be - Does the type of SSL certification your site holds effect ranking at all?
A lot of good info was covered here but I didn't see anyone mention private and shared SSL. But since you already have one I guess you already know that. ;)