Help Center•March 22, 2026
HTTPS Security: The Trust Foundation for AI Crawlers
Why HTTPS is a baseline trust requirement for AI systems to cite your content.
What it measures
This check verifies whether your site uses HTTPS (secure HTTP) with a valid SSL/TLS certificate.
Why it matters for AI
HTTPS is a baseline trust signal for both users and AI systems. Sites without HTTPS are flagged as insecure, and AI crawlers may deprioritise or refuse to cite content from insecure sources. It's also a requirement for many modern web features that AI crawlers rely on.
How to improve
- Install an SSL certificate — Free certificates are available from Let's Encrypt
- Redirect HTTP to HTTPS — Ensure all traffic is served securely
- Enable HSTS headers — Strict-Transport-Security tells browsers to always use HTTPS
- Check for mixed content — Ensure all resources (images, scripts) also load via HTTPS
💡 Quick win
If you're not on HTTPS yet, most hosting providers offer one-click SSL setup — it takes minutes and removes a major AI trust barrier.