While adding HTTPS support to your site is a wise move for a variety of reasons, it’s not required to have HTTPS in order to rank on Google.
You can read more about this discussion over on this post at Search Engine Roundtable.
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We’ve talked a few times before about the important of using HTTPS / SSL with your website, and all of that is still true. However, some people have been taking it further and saying things such as “Without an SSL certificate, Google is likely to drop your website in search results”. That’s simply not true.
When presented with this statement, Google’s John Mueller said the following:
“Yeah, that’s wrong. HTTPS is not a factor in deciding whether or not to index a page, at all. We do use HTTPS as a light-weight ranking factor, and having HTTPS is great for users”
Adding SSL to your site is free with most web hosts and is an excellent idea, but don’t let people convince you that Google will drop your site if you don’t have it. I could see that maybe happening a few years from now, but for today it’s not that critical.
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