Google announced that it will give secure, encrypted websites priority in its searches – which could give brokers an advantage over those who choose to ignore taking the recommended security precautions.
Google Inc said it is encouraging website developers to make their sites secure for visitors by using site encryption as one of the factors to determine search ranking.
“Over the past few months we've been running tests taking into account whether sites use secure, encrypted connections as a signal in our search ranking algorithms,” the world's No. 1 search engine operator said in a recent blog post.
Google is urging website developers to adopt HTTPS, a form of website encryption that secures data send over the web, to protect user data from hackers.
For a broker who relies heavily on the internet to drive business, Adam Mitchell, of Mitchell & Whale Insurance, in Whitby, Ont., a website with secure encryption is essential to business and building client confidence.
"When Google speaks we listen so we will be moving to an HTTPS site to gather any edge it might offer," says Mitchell. "Right now I think it is a pretty small factor as outside of our chat box, which is encrypted, we don’t gather any info from clients on our site."
While credit card forms always need to be encrypted, Mitchell told Insurance Business, "outside of that we are only doing it to appease Google."
Mitchell & Whale processes an estimated 150 leads a day through the internet. (continued.)
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One Google user commented on the blog post, saying “without knowing about the technical details behind this move; as a principle I find it excellent.”
Developers compete fiercely with each other and tweak every small aspect of their websites to get a top search ranking. With Google making web encryption a factor in ranking, many would likely make their websites more secure for visitors.
The security of a website will carry less weight in ranking compared with other factors such as high-quality content, but its importance might increase over time, said Google.
