Should I get an SSL if my non-SSL site is ranking well?
-
I have a client with a local divorce law business. He's ranking really well, and I don't want to do anything to jeopardize that rank. His site does not have SSL. I feel like it would be good to get rid of the "not-secure" message from Chrome, but not important enough to risk ranks. Would love to get thoughts from this forum on this.
Thanks!
-
Google Chrome shows "not secure" today forms don't matter If you look at the example website it does not have a certificate or is it using HTTPS
Because lawyers websites are considered "money or life" sites they hold more weight with Google & the public. meaning they need to be secure and trustworthy.
Hopefully, he is already updated his site if not make sure he does.
Respectfully,
Thomas
-
Just a word to the wise from the not as wise....is it possible that there is a slower time of year for a divorce lawyer? I would certainly aim the transition for a slower time if possible. If you do it all perfectly, you may not take a hit. But, I don't know about you...but I'm not perfect.
-
I agree with the others. Your client is going to have to convert, it's just a matter of when. The site reputation, and by association, your client's reputation, is at stake.
If you're concerned about rankings, set up a staging area and do the conversion and testing there. Baseline some key performance indicators which you can use to help determine root cause if problems arise. Hire a consultant to double check your work before you hit the migrate button. Set expectations by letting your client know that he or she may experience some short-term movement in rankings but will recover.
-
PS you can use https://www.cloudflare.com/ssl/ or Let's Encrypt for free SSL certs but if you buy this has very good pricing for paid SSL certs. https://www.ssl2buy.com/
-
I have the same ( I never do local but was talked into it same type of law business)
_ "but not important enough to risk ranks."_
He needs to understand today Google will not hurt you for moving to https if done correctly see the guide below under to fix use.
As you see now "Not secure" is only on forms In July 2018 all non-https sites in Google Chrome will show up as "Not secure.” This warning will show for all HTTP websites. That will cost someone in Law a lot.
See photo 1 will be in July 2018 & photo 2 sometime after. 3 is google
- https://i.imgur.com/wYMb88P.png
- https://i.imgur.com/ZVeyTuy.png
- https://i.imgur.com/HVsVKAO.png
- SEE https://transparencyreport.google.com/https/overview
To Fix this use
- https://www.aleydasolis.com/en/search-engine-optimization/http-https-migration-checklist-google-docs/
- https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XB26X_wFoBBlQEqecj7HB79hQ7DTLIPo97SS5irwsK8/edit#gid=1975121463
- https://www.semrush.com/blog/http-to-https-a-complete-guide-to-securing-your-website-semrushchat/
- tools to know it worked.
- Moz crawler
- https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/
- https://deepcrawl.com
- SEMrush
Google’s announcement was firm about their goal to warn users of insecure sites, with the intent of further shepherding more web publishers into upgrading to HTTPS.
“Chrome’s new interface will help users understand that all HTTP sites are not secure, and continue to move the web towards a secure HTTPS web by default.”
Cite: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-sets-https-deadline/236225/
- https://www.searchenginejournal.com/how-https-works/220347/
- https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-is-requiring-https-for-secure-data-in-chrome/183756/
Hope this helps,
Tom
-
Personally, I believe that making a site https is something that majority of the sites in the world should do. Google gives a slight ranking boost and slowly customers are trusting https sites more, with Google transitioning to "not secure" then it makes it even more of a reason to do so.
In majority of cases, https is quite a simple process if you're using a common cms. Just check that all of the scripts are functional and redirects are in place, once you've done that submit the sitemap and wait for Google to recrawl your site.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
GMB Account Fallen Off Rankings in past 24 hours
My map pack presence has fallen off the face of the earth over the last 24 hours. My location The Escape Game Chicago was top 3 yesterday for 'escape room chicago' and now they only show up when searching for the exact brand name. What's weirder is I still rank #1 organically for that keyword.I have looked through the account, nothing seems to be totally amiss. Google has not notified me of any issues or penalties. I have no clue what happened.Can anyone point me in the right direction or provide some insight as to how I can recover my ranking?
Local Listings | | danieldaher0 -
I have a site with a lot of subdomains and I want to see what keywords each is ranking for.
Do I have to enter them manually, one at a time, in the keyword subdomain search or is there a way to submit a list of subdomains and have Moz generate a report of the results?
Local Listings | | thallstd0 -
Why is my local page is ranking better than yellow pages for that particular search?
My search query is "façadier bastogne" in google.be which in English would translate as "plasterer" and bastogne being the local city I am targeting. I can't seem to understand why my site peintre-plafonneur-facadier-bastogne.be/fr would rank higher than our local directory "Pages d'or" (Yellow Pages) which has a high DA and almost always ranks first for similar searches as "peintre bastogne" (painter)? Not to mention my site was created by Pages d'Or. How did they manage to rank this so high whereas if you look at it you'll see that they have not made any SEO work on it whatsoever. Could anyone help me understand this or tell me which way to look in order to get that information? I really need this as I am paying a lot to this directory for my site and was planning to launch my own WordPress website.
Local Listings | | Thomaspdt1 -
Should I claim a non-local Google business listing?
If I have a business which is non-local, but has one location and is showing up with the address and directions already in the knowledge panel, should I claim the business? Eg: the company manufactures a single product and ships directly to customers all over the world. On the one hand, of course it seems I should claim it and get more control. On the other hand, part of that process is setting a service area and I worry that by doing so I may be making the company seem less relevant outside the service area in Google's eyes.
Local Listings | | PlusROI0 -
How do I rank inside the knowledge panel in the "people also search for" section?
Hello fellow Mozzers, In Google's knowledge panel there is a section at the bottom that says "people also search for" and a list of competitors is displayed. I'm hoping to get some information I can use to get my client listed there on top of the local organic results. The more SERP presence, the better. Attached image should provide clarity to those who are confused. I suspect I know the answer to this question, but since I can't find a source to verify my beliefs, I'm crowdsourcing. Thanks in advance! NhoihY1
Local Listings | | brettmandoes0 -
Google Local Changes Randomly & Our Site Keeps Dropping Off Search
I work for a university where we have 2 law schools. We have our one school on the other side of the state that has been around for a very long time, and then a newer school that is right on our main campus that has been around for about 5 - 10 years now. The newer of the 2 schools is having so much trouble being able to claim the name of the school in google search. If you type in the name of the school the other school (the one that has been around longer) was coming up in the google local on the right of the screen and their web URL was never showing up in search. This is a huge problem because the accreditations of the 2 schools are different, and students are showing up at the wrong school for their interviews. Search will only show a domain name that used to be owned by the older school but now gives information for both of the schools. So it'll show up in search results, but only under that other domain and not their own domain that has their name in the domain name. This school has an updated google mybusiness listing, and a google+ page with the correct listing. I've added some schema data around the business address on their site and JSON for the google+ page, and have re-indexed their sitemap a few times after some changes have been made and we are using their name more in the site. This fixed everything for a short while and we were getting the appropriate google local listing and their site was appearing in search results above the site that advertised both schools. Now, after about 3 months, it has reverted. I had the older school showing up in the google local, and the site that advertises both schools is the ONLY domain appearing. I've re-indexed the site after finding out that Drupal's timestamps that they automatically add to sitemaps aren't optimized for how google reads it. This has gotten the local listing back, but I still have the wrong domain appearing, it is the one advertises both schools instead of the domain that has this school's information. I don't mind that the one advertising both shows up, but if a user is searching for that particular school I would really like to get that domain to appear first above the one advertising both schools and the older school. Right now the new school isn't even in search results except for being under the site that advertises both. I wasn't sure if this was something that Moz Local could help me fix by adding the listing across the web, or if there is something else on the sites I can be doing to help them solidify their name in google search/local. Also - is this subdomain that is advertising both of them hurting them or help them? I was thinking about taking that domain down to one page that acts as a direction source to the 2 domains rather than having a ton of information and keywords that take over the results for their name since that domain is older (and used to be associated with the old school only before the new school was built) Thank you for any advice on this issue as I'm still pretty new to SEO and to the university. Thanks again!
Local Listings | | amaray4030 -
Reliably Tracking Google Snack Pack Rankings
I have yet to find a way to reliably see my "snack pack" standings without going all out and using a VPN. I have moz pro and it looks like I can only track organic and local organic rankings. Anyone have a solution?
Local Listings | | zact10240 -
How does the new local pack change rankings?
So I just saw this afternoon that google has changed how the local pack displays listings, only 3 listings now show. Also Google continues to distance itself from Google+. Now it seems getting in the top 3 of the local pack is going to be even more competitive. What should the strategy be now for competing in the local pack? Has it changed? Or just stick to tried and true local optimizations?
Local Listings | | websitemusclemarketing0