HTTPS continues to generate a lot of ink. A lot of information has been circulated on the subject: some are true, others less so. Here are a “top 7” of things to know about HTTPS:
Reading “HTTPS as a ranking signal”: http://t.co/nEjcGhm8bJ
— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) August 7, 2014
So obviously:
“the little green padlock that appears when pages are in HTTPS will always be more reassuring for the Internet user. Especially if it is an e-commerce site”
Aymeric Bouillat
Technical innovations
Switching to HTTPS allows you to take advantage of the latest browser features (such as Brotli compression, HTTP/2, and service workers). This is particularly useful for progressive web apps.
Google Analytics “(not provided)” keywords remain “(not provided)”
We have all experienced the switch to “(not provided)” in Google Analytics (and the frustration that goes with it).
While we might have thought that by switching a site to HTTPS, the percentage of “(not provided)” would have decreased*, this is not the case. In fact, the referrer, which allows web analytics tools to indicate the source of a visit, is transmitted from an HTTPS page to an HTTPS page (but not from an HTTPS page to an HTTP page). However, Google has chosen to have Internet users pass through an intermediary page.
Thus, only traffic from an AdWords campaign contains this information. Sites that exclusively practice SEO will continue to make do with “(not provided)”.
AdSense ads may generate less revenue on HTTPS than on HTTP
Google has updated the AdSense ad code so that HTTPS sites can also serve SSL/TLS compliant ads.
But there’s a downside: HTTPS sites require all content on the page, including ads, to be secure. That’s why ads that don’t support SSL/TLS will no longer be able to compete on AdSense. This will reduce the pressure on the auction, which can lead to lower AdSense revenue.
HTTPS doesn’t protect you from all security issues
By migrating to HTTPS, you protect the connection between your browser and your server, which is already an important element. But this does not mean that you are protected from all security issues.
FREAK (2015) and DROWN (2016), vulnerabilities in the encryption of SSL/TLS connections, are proof of this. was also made public earlier this month.
So you must continue to be vigilant.
Although migrating to HTTPS is not (yet) mandatory, it is still strongly recommended by all web professionals, particularly for sites that exchange confidential data (bank cards, passwords, member areas, etc.).
HTTPS is in fact widely acclaimed by web players such as Let’s Encrypt , Google, Firefox and WordPress .
Want to migrate to HTTPS?
