The fastest way to lose trust in your brand is not to show that your storefront is secure. Over time, search engines have pushed for sites to move to HTTPS. Google has stated that HTTPS would be a factor in its search ranking algorithms. Also, with the release of Chrome 68, Google labels any site not using HTTPS as "not secure."
By default, BigCommerce stores have sitewide HTTPS already enabled. This means that all pages are encrypted, not just pages where secure information is entered, such as the checkout or customer account pages. Having sitewide HTTPS will display a padlock on all pages on several popular browsers, giving shoppers confidence in your brand and improving your SEO ranking in Google.
Benefits of HTTPS
As mentioned above, HTTPS is a search ranking signal. Even if the boost is small, it might be the difference between ranking on the first page or falling behind. Web users are taught to look for the lock in the address bar to ensure that the sites they visit are secure. With HTTPS, a lock next to your URL will give shoppers peace of mind that their information is safe, which will increase your conversion rate.
HTTPS will also improve your analytics data. Non-secure HTTP sites strip away referral information when traffic is passed from a secure HTTPS site, which shows in your analytics data as 'Direct.' However, referral data is preserved when traffic passes to an HTTPS site, even if that traffic originated from an HTTP site. Having accurate analytics data can help you make better business decisions.
Search Engine Recommendations
Your store's robots.txt file is configured by default to allow search engines to crawl your store. If you need to revert the robots.txt file to its original values, you can use the list of values in the Default Search Engine Robots File.
Recommendations for Google
We recommend adding a new property to your Google Search Console for the HTTPS version of your site. You'll also want to resubmit your sitemap and crawl your website with the URL inspection tool.
Recommendations for Bing
We recommend for your to submit a new sitemap to Bing and verify your site.
Monitoring
Whether you're using Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools, check for warnings.
When using sitewide HTTPS, all elements in a page need to use HTTPS in the URL or protocol agnostic URLs like (//cdn.examplesite.com/lib/script.js). We recommend using a service like SSL Checker to help identify content which isn’t secure.
You may also want to update any outgoing and incoming links that you own, such as posts, social profiles, paid marketing, or email campaigns.
