Research performed by Moz has found that the average number of HTTPS pages on a Google search results page is likely to surpass 50% by mid-2017. Since the search engine announced that it would be giving a boost to such pages, the amount has increased by as much as 20% since July 2016. Pete Myers, who revealed the data, said in a Twitter post that he believed the increase was due to “sites switching” to HTTPS following Google's announcement, rather than a new algorithm making such a difference. However, he did add that he believed that in the near future, the search engine would “crank it up”. Myers added that “HTTPS for SEO was mostly hype”, but that it was important that businesses did not “hide their heads in the sand” regarding the effects of Google's updated algorithms.Â
