How Dedicated IP Address and SSL Certificate Affect Google Rankings?
Optimizing your website to appear in the top position of Google engine search results has always been the main objective of the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) initiatives. With more than 200+ SEO ranking factors that help search engines determine which websites should show and how they should rank, website speed and HTTPS are two important factors contributing to the ranking. Here we take a look at how these two elements could help your website appear higher on Search Engine Results Pages (SERP).
As Google does not release as much information on ranking factors, which makes it all the more important in giving an insight into how the algorithm works. Below are two important SEO ranking factors to be explored in this article:
- Dedicated IP Address that affect the page speed
- SSL Certificate that ensures the safety of the website
1. Dedicated IP Address that affect the page speed
Almost every business nowadays needs a website, which also means that every business requires a web hosting plan. However, most of the time, these businesses do not pay attention to the kind of IP address as assigned to their hosting account, and are not sure whether it is a “dedicated” or “shared” hosting IP address.
A shared IP address is a common string that can be assigned to multiple websites. It is common to find shared IP addresses with shared hosting providers or managed WordPress hosts with a cloud-based tech stack. The hosting server will determine which website to display based on the URL that is entered. While for dedicated hosting, a unique IP address is allocated for a website. Typing in the URL of the website or its IP address would take people to the same website. Two of Dataplugs’ hosting plans, namely Expert and Enterprise Plans, provide 1 free dedicated IP address to our clients for their web hosting accounts. And even if you opt for a shared hosting plan, we are pleased to assign a dedicated IP as an add-on service.
A dedicated IP address enables your website to have a direct connection to the server without interference. It will not only enable the loading speed of your website but also lower the chances of site crash during peak traffic hours. In other words, a dedicated IP address can increase your website loading speed, which is one of the criteria for deciding the SEO ranking.
So it is recommended that you make sure the IP address which you subscribe to your web hosting provider is a dedicated IP address if your plan is a dedicated server plan.
Another point worth noting is that if your website is hosted on a shared server with a website considered as “spammy”, your website ranking could be negatively impacted even though Google is sophisticated enough to pinpoint an individual domain’s action. To put simply, one of SEO factors looks at the credibility of your website with regards to security of your site. So if you are on a dedicated IP address and do not produce or disseminate spam, viruses or other malicious codes, your ranking would not be affected.
2. SSL Certificate that ensures the safety of the website
An SSL certificate is a digital certificate that authenticates a website’s identity and enables an encrypted connection. SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, a security protocol that creates an encrypted link between a web server and a web browser.
With Cybercrime strife nowadays, the threat posed is real and growing. Data encryption through an SSL certificate is a must-have for every website in a time when cybercrime is rampant. It serves as the backbone of Internet security and plays a crucial role in protecting sensitive information.
The benefits of using an SSL Certificate is not limited to website safety, it also provides better rankings in Google as well. In April 2011, Google announced they would be crawling, indexing and storing data on SSL certificates found on the web. And later in August 2014, Google introduced HTTPS as a ranking factor, where websites encrypted with the secured protocol are given a slight boost in SEO rankings.
And recently in July 2021, Google Chrome is said to be getting an “HTTPS-only mode” soon. It aims to protect users’ web traffic eavesdropping by upgrading all connections to HTTPS. This may imply that in future, if a particular website does not have an HTTPS version, Chrome will show a warning page before going back to the HTTP version of the website.
Since search engines want their users to visit trustworthy websites, it is crucial for websites to have an SSL certificate for security reasons. In order for a website to have an SSL Certificate, it needs to have a dedicated IP address or static IP address, which in turn leads to other improvements in SEO.
Back in 2014, Google has included HTTPS as a ranking signal for websites. Since then the prominence of HTTPS as a SEO ranking factor has been identified as Google has pushed for universal encryption. Some experts estimate HTTPS encryption can provide up to at least 5% boost in SEO, and consider having an SSL Certificate is one the easiest ways site owners can do to achieve higher SEO ranking.
While most online payment services require online websites to use SSL/HTTPS before one can receive payments. Google search engines heavily favor HTTPS-encrypted websites and will give them a higher ranking in search results. The trend has now been elevated for secure domains using encrypted code on an SSL server to scramble the information sent from a user’s computer to the website they are accessing. Secure URLs allow for customers personal and payment information to be safe and secure from hacking. Secure domains have become standard practice and also one of SEO essential boosting factors.
Dataplugs can help you installing the SSL Certificate and Dedicated IP Address
To appear on the first page of Google’s search results depends on many factors but you need a reliable and professional dedicated hosting provider, Dataplugs can help you to setup hosting, install your SSL Certificate and Dedicated IP Address, which would in turn improve your SEO efforts. For enquiry, please feel free to contact us by email sales@dataplugs.com.