How to properly implement HTTPS?
-
We are looking at implementing HTTPS for our site. I have done a little research but can't find anything recent, http://moz.com/community/q/duplicate-content-and-http-and-https is the most recent thing I found.
Does everything in the answers still apply? Should I just do a 301 redirect to all new https? Or add a canonical tag?
-
Hi,
You shouldn't have to do anything in WMT as there isn't an option for preferred URLs between HTTPS and HTTP (whilst there is an option to say if you prefer http://site.com/ or http://www.site.com/). Google should pick up and acknowledge the 301s if you choose to do this, ranking only your HTTPS URLs.
It used to be the case that this wasn't recommended for SEO, but Google has come a long way with dealing with secure URLs. Just a quick search for inurl:https will show you how many sites are indexed with SSL URLs. Some have done it properly; some have not.
-
The first thing he talked about was 301s. If I did 301s would I have to do anything else? Is there anything I would need to do in Webmaster tools?
-
Matt Cutts talked about this on topic. I would pick only one and run with it (i.e. all SSL) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeFo4ytOk8M
Also a small public service announcement, please make certain your host is all patched up from Heartbleed.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
HTTPS & Redirects
Hi We're moving to https imminently & I wondered if anyone has advice on redirects. Obviously we'll be redirecting all http versions to https - but should I be checking how many redirects are in each chain and amending accordingly? If there's 4-5 in a chain, remove the middle unnecessary URLS ? Advice please 🙂
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BeckyKey0 -
Re: Inbound Links. Whether it's HTTP or HTTPS, does it still go towards the same inbound link count?
Re: Inbound Links. If another website links to my website, does it make a difference to my inbound link count if they use http or https? Basically, my site http://mysite.com redirects to https://mysite.com, so if another website uses the link http://mysite.com, will https://mysite.com still benefit from the inbound links count? I'm unsure if I should reach out to all my inbound links to tell them to use my https URL instead...which would be rather time consuming so just checking http and https counts all the same. Thanks.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | premieresales0 -
Http to https what should one look out for
Hi, we are moving our site from http to https and would like to know what should one look out for. What are the things that can go wrong, and what is the best way to go about it. Regards Tai
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Taiger0 -
Http vs. https - duplicate content
Hi I have recently come across a new issue on our site, where https & http titles are showing as duplicate. I read https://moz.com/community/q/duplicate-content-and-http-and-https however, am wondering as https is now a ranking factor, blocked this can't be a good thing? We aren't in a position to roll out https everywhere, so what would be the best thing to do next? I thought about implementing canonicals? Thank you
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BeckyKey0 -
Implementing Multiple Itemprop Elements in a Single Span
Hi All, I'm trying to figure out whether or not my developer is properly implementing Itemprop elements in code. Here is an example of where my confusion lies: "If you're taking an itemprop=" name drugClass" itemtype="http://schema.org/DrugClass">antiepileptic drug" When the span opens both recommended itemprops "name" and "drugclass" are listed together. Does this allow both to be properly read or is it effectively creating an itemprop that does not exist? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CMIMedia1 -
Https & http urls in Google Index
Hi everyone, this question is a two parter: I am now working for a large website - over 500k monthly organic traffic. The site currently has both http and https urls in Google's index. The website has not formally converted to https. The https began with an error and has evolved unchecked over time. Both versions of the site (http & https) are registered in webmaster tools so I can clearly track and see that as time passes http indexation is decreasing and https has been increasing. The ratio is at about 3:1 in favor of https at this time. Traffic over the last year has slowly dipped, however, over the last two months there has been a steady decline in overall visits registered through analytics. No single page appears to be the culprit, this decline is occurring across most pages of the website, pages which traditionally draw heavy traffic - including the home page. Considering that Google is giving priority to https pages, could it be possible that the split is having a negative impact on traffic as rankings sway? Additionally, mobile activity for the site has steadily increased both from a traffic and a conversion standpoint. However that traffic has also dipped significantly over the last two months. Looking at Google's mobile usability error's page I see a significant number of errors (over 1k). I know Google has been testing and changing mobile ranking factors, is it safe to posit that this could be having an impact on mobile traffic? The traffic declines are 9-10% MOM. Thank you. ~Geo
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Geosem0 -
Why is a site no longer being indexed by Google after HTTPS switch?
A client of ours recently had a new site built and made the switch to HTTPS. We made sure to redirect all of the HTTP pages to HTTPS and submitted a new sitemap to Google. GWT says the sitemap was submitted successfully but only 4 pages have been indexed where there should be over 2000. This has led to a plummet of organic traffic and we can't find the issue. Has anyone else had issues/success with doing a HTTPS switch that knows how to fix this problem?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ATMOSMarketing560 -
What are the best way to get a new subdomain ranked properly
Our main site (blog with 700 high quality articles) ranks pretty well and we recently launced a rapidly growing forum (55.000 posts in the first 11 weeks) on a subdomain. What would be a good strategy for ranking the forum quickly
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | xpd1