Does making your website HTTPS really improve rank?

[Broaster]

Does it make a huge difference or what anyone saw a difference in ranking?

[QuaterPan]

I predict non-secure pages will be purged from the index in the not-so-far-away future. Google will not want to send users to unsafe destinations.

Agreed. Also, a big message box on Chrome to obtain the explicit consent before accessing a non HTTPS site.

[Bewenched]

Interestingly we just made the switch last week, and I didn't realize that we needed to register the https version of the site in webmaster tools. I did that 6/27/18, in four days 54,200 of 112,346 pages have been indexed. It's the same exact number that Google Webmaster tools shows for the non ssl version of the site. The clicks are different, but that's only because it's just been a few days.

We also implemented the advised Meta Tag
<META name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
it's really for mobile browsers, and our site is not entirely mobile friendly, but it's supposed to help. At least the site is not squished super tiny.

[Broaster]

thanks for the reply guys I'm using a dream host server for dream press, I'm wondering if they offer a free SSL Im not going to ask them yet because they might try to charge me if I ask lol, a lot of these people will be slick and charge, curious first if anyone knows if they offer a free one on dream hosts, the lets encrypt one is free but you have to keep renewing it which seems like a pain in the butt

I'm not good at these things Ive already been lost and confused reading some of your replies on the jargon used lol, I'm one of those people who knows how to build homes and work with my hands when i used to do carpenter work, but my brain aches learning SEO and internet I cant do it for some reason no matter how hard I try so many different terms that it confuses me Wish they had a laymans book like a for dummies guide online to keep it super simple.

[tangor]

Https is the next step. Coming soon to all isps everywhere (after all, it's just a protocol!) and somewhere along the way soakers will emerge with surcharge here and there.

Do the freebie for now, especially if your are ecommerce and collect PII. Otherwise, taking a nap for a few days is not out of the question.

[jmorgan]

Well, my SSL site just started outranking my non-SSL competitor. With the newly released Google-rater guidelines having a heavy emphasis on trust, I wonder if the fact that my site is SSL had anything to do with it.

[lucy24]

the lets encrypt one is free but you have to keep renewing it

No, you don’t. Your host will automatically renew it until you ask them not to.

[Dimitri]

I wonder if the fact that my site is SSL had anything to do with it.

(TLS) . It's definitively helping. It might not be the only reason you are outranking your competitor, but it sure contributed.

[arunpalsingh]

I recently changed from http to https and Google updated the algorithm just after I switched. The site took a hit.
So I do not know if https is helping now but it seems it will, in the long run.

[Dimitri]

You said it yourself:

Google updated the algorithm just after I switched

So obviously your switch to HTTPS was not yet taken in consideration by Google. It takes weeks, or months, before Google handles a change at a site. First of all, your switch is resulting in 301 redirects (if you did things right), so this will cause a period of transition, as Google will progressively replace your page in its index, and recomputing ranking factors.