SEO Industry Tweets Its Reactions To Google’s SSL Ranking Boost

The SEO industry is abuzz today with the news of Google’s latest ranking signal: Using SSL certificates will provide a boost in Google’s search rankings. (The web hosting industry is all abuzz, too, if you’re curious.) Google says it’s a “very lightweight signal” for now, but one that may become stronger over time because Google wants to all website owners to switch to HTTPS. Lightweight or not, search marketers have been reacting to the news all morning on Twitter. Here’s a collection of some of our favorite tweets so far.

for the record, there’s about 100 things you could do right now that would have a bigger SEO impact than switching to SSL. — Ryan Jones (@RyanJones) August 7, 2014

The information on my site wouldn’t change if it were switched to https, so should https really be a ranking signal? — Bill Slawski (@bill_slawski) August 7, 2014

I wonder how many people at Google today are laughing at everyone ready to jump through hoops again. Next “Now we want floating snowflakes.” — Melissa Fach (@SEOAware) August 7, 2014

Google launches domain registrar. Google encourages use of SSL for SEO that are a massive pain to buy. Next, Google starts selling SSL… — Ben Hall (@Ben_Hall) August 7, 2014

Should have invested in the SSL company instead of sinking all my money into that lousy Google authorship photo service. — Cyrus Shepard (@CyrusShepard) August 7, 2014

I suspect it won’t be long before we start seeing secure certificate ads with “Get your Google ranking boost with our SSL certs!” — Jennifer Slegg (@jenstar) August 7, 2014

Today is a day I wish I was in the SSL Certificate business. — lorenbaker (@lorenbaker) August 7, 2014

Wonder what graph of SSL certificate sales will look like June-Sep for providers — Chris Gilchrist (@hitreach) August 7, 2014

I now offer a new SEO service! SSL Installation. 5 years of experience installing SSL’s at a major web host. Guaranteed top rankings! — Dan Silber (@Dan_Silber) August 7, 2014

@RavenJon if G was really that behind SSL, they’d allow us to switch our sites without it being considered a site “move” #justsayin — Rae Hoffman (@sugarrae) August 7, 2014

@rustybrick it’s just added cost for small businesses, and many have no idea what SSL requires if they don’t run e-commerce sites — Derek Edmond (@DerekEdmond) August 7, 2014

Dear Google, I just implemented SSL and I’m STILL not ranking #1 for ‘cheap plumber in Sheffield’. WTF is wrong with you guys??! — ♛ ingo ☠ bousa ♛ (@supaswag) August 7, 2014

Could you please make it stop now? Thanks :) RT @dejanseo: #https pic.twitter.com/VxBACvHhNg — Aleyda Solis (@aleyda) August 7, 2014

Okay, we’ll stop there. Wait. How about just one more?

if ($ssl_start = “Aug 2014”) {$seo_flag = true}; — Michael Gray (@graywolf) August 7, 2014

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.

About The Author

Matt McGee

Matt McGee joined Third Door Media as a writer/reporter/editor in September 2008. He served as Editor-In-Chief from January 2013 until his departure in July 2017. He can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee.