Does switching to HTTPS affect SEO rankings?
Technical SEO
Yes. HTTPS has been a lightweight ranking signal since 2014, but in 2025 it’s table stakes for trust, conversions, and eligibility for many SERP features. Browsers label HTTP pages as “Not secure,” which can depress CTR and conversions. A clean HTTP→HTTPS migration usually preserves equity and can improve performance via HTTP/2/3.
How to migrate (checklist):
1) Obtain and auto‑renew a TLS certificate (Let’s Encrypt is fine).
2) Force 301 redirects from every HTTP URL to its HTTPS counterpart (one hop).
3) Update canonical tags, hreflang, internal links, image/CSS/JS references to HTTPS to avoid mixed‑content warnings.
4) Regenerate and resubmit XML sitemaps with HTTPS URLs; update robots.txt sitemap pointer.
5) Add the HTTPS property in Google Search Console and verify.
6) Monitor logs, 404s, redirect chains, and Core Web Vitals for the first 2–4 weeks.
Example:
If /pricing loads third‑party scripts over HTTP, the page may show mixed‑content errors; fix by switching those script URLs to HTTPS.
Further reading:
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/security/https