SSL Certificate

An SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate — more accurately TLS (Transport Layer Security) in modern implementations — is a digital certificate issued by a Certificate Authority (CA) that authenticates a website's identity and enables encrypted HTTPS connections. Google confirmed HTTPS as a ranking signal in 2014, and Chrome marks HTTP sites as "Not Secure."

SSL certificate status and expiry are monitored via SSL Labs' Server Test, Chrome browser security indicators, and uptime monitoring tools. Screaming Frog identifies mixed content issues (HTTP resources on HTTPS pages). Google Search Console tracks HTTPS migration progress through Coverage and Performance reports after protocol migration.