Https Loss of Search traffic
-
Hey guys,
We moved our site to from http to https. We subsequently lost 25% in our search traffic in 1 Month. We changed a few other pieces such as images, added new content etc.
Has anyone got any suggestions on how we start to understand what happened?
Thanks in advance.
-
I would also set up your HTTPS site as a new one in Google Webmaster Tools and Bing Webmaster Tools (Bing automatically does it), but set it up in GWT. Once you have done that, make sure your sitemap is added and crawled again.
Get GWT to crawl the sitemap again from your non HTTPS account too, so redirects are recorded.
-
Hi
I can see that Tom and Ryan have done a great job of handling the most obvious issue that may have caused your site to drop in terms of changing to HTTPS. You have also mentioned the fact that you have changed some significant on-page factors which could definitely be the culprit.
However I thought I would just add this - I saw someone move to HTTPS and they did implement the correct redirects and then register both versions of the site in webmaster tools and so on. However they still saw a noticeable drop in their organic traffic which turned out to be caused by a significant drop in site speed after moving to HTTPS.
You may have already checked and your site may seem fast but I would double check the speed of your site with Google Page Speed Insights and GTMetrix (another speed tool I like). If your site seems slow look at what you can do to improve it with the recommendations on these tools (as this will help your site whatever) - also speak to your host and explain you are seeing a decrease in speed can they help.
This tactic worked in this case and I just thought I would mention it as another angle to approach this.
Hope this helps!
-
Great! It sounds like you're on the right track John, especially considering that there are some title and H1 changes took place. Cheers!
-
Hey Ryan,
Thanks for the answer and the link, We will add it to that pingfarm. Thanks guys but we need to make sure this is in order.
-
Hi Tom,
Thanks a million for the great answer. I missed that in my description, we have added in 301 redirects for all links but still saw a drop. My apologies, I left that out initially.
We have also identified that we are missing a number of H1's and have changed our title tags.
-
To follow up on Tom's great response, even with the 301 redirect in place, you could still be experiencing the delay typical to redirection. Pinging the new domain may help you speed up that process. To do so create a list of the site pages and submit them to PingFarm and 247pinger. Those will help to verify the new site and de-index the old URLs.
Also, as a reference, here's Google's over view of transitioning to HTTPS: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6073543. Cheers!
-
Hi John
The first thing I would ask in this situation is - did you 301 redirect the non SSL (http) versions of your pages to the SSL (https)?
If you didn't - that could be a big problem. First of all, that could run into a couple of duplicate content issues and canonical issues, as you would have two versions of each page battling each other for prominence. However, what I think would be more of an issue is the fact that if you didn't redirect the pages and if you didn't change any of your inbound links - the links that you had pointing to the website might now be pointing to inactive pages, and the link 'equity' your site had may now be lost.
This might be a redundant point as you may have implemented the redirects - but it's always the first thing that I look out for.
If you're looking to redirect all of the http pages, this bit of code is something you can add to your htaccess file to redirect all URLs on your site:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI}Again, apologies if you have already done this but if not, I hope it helps.
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 -
Http > https Switch Before Platform Migration?
We are planning a series of large site migrations over the next 12-18 months, moving from one platform to another. It's likely the first will be completed by around Aug this year, with the process running until the back end of 2018. The sites are currently on http, and the plan is to first of all migrate all sites to https in the next couple of months. The concern is that, due to the http>https 301 redirects that will be in place, are we putting ourselves at unnecessary risk by effectively carrying out 2 migrations in the space of a year (in terms of loss of potential authority caused by redirects)? Would we be better to wait, and implement https at point of platform migration instead? Thoughts appreciated.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Sayers0 -
My site lost a lot of traffic in the lastest update - what to do?
Hi all, there seems to have been an algorithm update on February 7. One of my big sites www.poussette.com, lost about 25 % of its organic traffic afterwards and has not revovered yet. What are the best steps to take right now? It is 7 years old we continuously did conservative SEO (technical, link building, adding content). Thanks in advance. Dieter
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Storesco0 -
HTTP → HTTPS Migration - Both Websites Live Simultaneously
We have a situation where a vendor, who manages a great deal of our websites, is migrating their platform to HTTPS. The problem is that the HTTP & new HTTPS versions will be live simultaneously (in order to give clients time to audit both sites before the hard switch). I know this isn't the way that it should be done, but this is the problem we are facing. My concern was that we would have two websites in the index, so I suggested that they noindex the new HTTPS website until we are ready for the switch. They told me that they would just add cannonicals to the HTTPS that points to the HTTP and when it's time for the switch reverse the cannonicals. Is this a viable approach?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AMSI-SEO0 -
How to get product info into Google Search Result box
Hi, in the last couple of weeks I get more and more search results with a product and prices of retailers below (see sample attached). Are there Schema parameters one could use to have a bigger chance to appear there? Thanks in advance Dieter Lang 0EYJtRJ
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Storesco1 -
Something unintelligible in google search results.
In the last month i see something that i can't explain, from nowhere the first search result for the keyword Name Necklace is an Etsy shop, (I attach an image). I try to find out why google gives this online shop the first position and i have no idea why is that. Please, any suggestions? mnbAIrY.png
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Tiedemann_Anselm0 -
How to show country name in google search result
I have a site with tld .com but my target country is United kingdom so i want to show United Kingdom in SERPs.How can i show it ? I have already set target country United Kingdom in Webmaster tools but still it is not showing.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Alick3000 -
Image Search algo changes
Just seen the image algo changes that have apparently been put into place in the last 3 months My spam tester image site didnt seem to feel anything. Did anyone feel image search change (for better or worse?) And on what dates? Cheers Stephen
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | firstconversion0