Internet giant Google has called for websites to do more to protect user data on the web, and has revealed that it will start to promote sites that are actively trying to increase security.

In a post on the company’s official blog, the search engine said that from now on, sites that used the secure HTTPS connection to encrypt data on the page would be pushed higher up Google search results.

HTTPS appears at the beginning of web addresses that use encryption − which is the practice of scrambling data as it passes between a personal device and a website server to make it less vulnerable to hacking.

Using the encryption is not mandatory and some sites have been put off by the cost of the upgrade, as well as complaints it can slow down service. Google also uses it as default across its web services like Gmail and Drive.

“Security is a top priority for Google. We invest a lot in making sure that our services use industry-leading security, like strong HTTPS encryption by default. That means that people using Search, Gmail and Drive, for example, automatically have a secure connection to Google,” said the post.

The company behind the Google Glass headset said that the change would not greatly affect search results initially, but its influence will be increased over time.

“For now it’s only a very lightweight signal-affecting fewer than one per cent of global queries, and carrying less weight than other signals such as high-quality content-while we give webmasters time to switch to HTTPS. But over time, we may decide to strengthen it, because we’d like to encourage all website owners to switch from HTTP to HTTPS to keep everyone safe on the web.”

Earlier this year the Heartbleed bug was discovered, which was a flaw in web encryption that had gone unnoticed for more than two years. The bug led to several major sites being compromised. Hundreds of sites had to issue ‘patches’ or fixes to deal with the flaw.

The policy change from Google is likely to see an increase in the uptake of HTTPS, as websites battle to stay close to the top of search results from the technology giant.

David Emm, senior security researcher at security software company Kaspersky Lab said: “When people are entering confidential information on a web site – for example, passwords – it’s imperative that they only do so on secure sites.

“In light of this, the fact that Google will prioritise sites using HTTPS in search results is a very positive, praiseworthy move.”