Over 33% of all Pages Ranking 1, 2 or 3 Use HTTPS

Google has come out and said that HTTPS is a confirmed ranking factor. That said, they haven’t actually confirmed how much this impacts search rankings. From the dataset analyzed, there was visible correlation between HTTPS and ranking higher in Google.

All of this to one side, HTTPS is likely only going to get more important. Google is pushing the message of secure browsing particularly hard at the moment, and they will soon be showing much more obvious warning messages to Chrome users when they visit HTTP sites - as you can see below.

One would assume that this shift towards HTTPS stretches far beyond just security, but rather opens up the opportunity of greater browsing speeds through the rollout of HTTP/2.

Considering that at least 33% of all webpages ranking in position 1, 2 and 3 were using HTTPS, it’s relatively clear to see that this is the way the web is heading, and more importantly, the standard that is being set for websites looking to rank well in Google.

Action: 

If your current website isn’t using HTTPS then you should start scoping out a migration. A good guide on switching over to HTTPS can be found here that will go through the necessary steps involved.