Hi Jeffrey,

Google puts 99% of their algorithm weight on content, engagement, and the overall user experience on your website. Adding an SSL (secure socket layer, or otherwise known as https) certificate to your site is not going to magically move anyone up the ranks. Google must always deliver the BEST results, and just because one site might have SSL, it does not make it better than a non-SSL site.

Google's ABSOLUTE #1 priority is to deliver the best results, so focus on your content, and you will rank on the first page of results in very high positions. Although they may factor in SSL for a site that collects personal data such as financial data, it's not going to affect your website that has no use for SSL.

For instance, Google will rank a site that is collecting credit card data higher if it's SECURE (SSL), than a site that collects credit card data that is not secure. But for an affiliate site where you are not collecting financial data or data that needs to be secured, you're not going to be affected by this at all. Less than 1% of sites will be affected by this.

To put this into context, it means that ONE site may average a very slight higher rank out of the first 10 pages of Google results (100 sites). SSL is not a ranking tool, or a magic way to get higher ranks. Focus on what we're teaching here at WA and you will outrank every single SSL site because your content is going to be better.

Also, keep in mind that SSL certificates cost hundreds of dollars and require quite the technical knowledge to install them. You do not need SSL on your affiliate site. You would see much bigger boost rankings by simply getting a couple of comments on your site vs installing an SSL certificate and spending hundreds of dollars doing so.

Here are a few of the largest sites on the net that rank very well and have hundreds of millions of dollars to invest into their businesses.

http://cnn.com
http://huffingtonpost.com
http://online.wsj.com (Wallstreet Journal)
http://apple.com

All of these are NON SSL.

If you haven't already checked out our brand new training in course #5 of the Certification set of courses, go check it out because it's exactly what you need to rank in position #1 for your desired keywords.

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/the-business-of-content-achieving-maximum-success-through-content-creation

Carson

Interesting, I think this makes sense. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for sharing!