SSL Certificate Install Conerns

[Q-TCM]

Hi guys

I've recently had an EV security certificate installed on the site and have seen a drop in search visibility ever since. It was installed on Nov 27th.

Though I was expecting some tracking hiccups as a result of the install and that this is a particularly competitive time of year (I know that others are bidding more aggressively on our brand terms which constitute the vast majority of our traffic) I have been quite concerned by the following:

• Under Acquisition > SEO > Landing Pages this has dropped to 0.
• In GWT, the certificate has been identified as self-signed which we know not to be the case. We've checked with the SSL provider that the certificate has been properly installed and obviously with our developers.

We're just at a bit of a loss as to whether there is actually an issue and it's not just due to tracking issues and external factors.

Does anyone have any advice as to confirm the existence of a problem with the install?

Or how to rectify the GWT error as obviously if Google thinks it's self-signed we're not going to get the ranking benefits we were expecting?

Thanks in advance for your time.

Kind regards

[Njnbiure45r4]

How is the rest of your visitors seeking out natural, is it declining for different pages or sub folders as nicely? I've in no way visible Google Analytics no longer attributing the right visit to the right pages so I doubt that could be the case.

[Highland]

Sorry for the late response.

What SSL Labs is telling you to do is disable SSLv3. You should be using only the more secure Transport Layer Security(TLS) 1.0 or higher (if you're running credit cards then PCI compliance will force you to use only 1.2 soon). I would also disable RC4 if you can (only affects IE6 users)

[Q-TCM]

I've passed this onto our developers so hopefully they can do something with that.

Thanks very much for your time.

[Mobilio]

I got PM. But will post response here.

So there are two situations in SSL (there are much more but it's complicated) - SNI or w/o SNI.

With SNI on one IP you can use many TLS sites. Because in process of handshake browser put hostname and server knows this request for what site inside is. But some browsers doesn't support SNI - Windows XP, IE6, Android 2.2/2.3 and few more. For that you need dedicated IP just they can connect correct on your site.

I think that you have issue with SNI. Because if you trying to open your IP - http://212.48.85.138/ you get warning (about host mismatch) and self-signed certificate (on some machines).

Also you need to tighten your secure connection - stop SSL (it's 15 year old and it's now deprecated), you should support only TLS. Also enable forward secrecy, OCSP stapling and TLS session tickets. It's long but you can see all recommendations here:
https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=quellabicycle.com

I hope that implementing few of them will bring GoogleBot back in site w/o warnings.

[Q-TCM]

Hi Highland

Thanks for your response. I've done as you suggested and put our domain through the SSL Labs Tool. Again, nothing is jumping out at me. Except of course the fact we're vulnerable to a POODLE attack for which the suggestion is simply to disable SSL?

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[Q-TCM]

I had added to the search console the HTTPs versions of the site so we have:

• https://www.
• https://non-www
• http://www
• http://non-www

Do I need both HTTP & HTTPs?

& Does it matter which of either www or non-www I select as the "Preferred domain"?

With regards to your second point, I'm fairly confident that our visitors are getting no such warning as there is nothing to suggest to me, other than what is said in the search console, that it is a self-signed certificate. I've checked it on multiple computers/browsers. But as you say, as it does say it in SC then it may be the case!

I've messaged you with the site details. Thanks very much for your help and time!

[Mobilio]

So this is two issues:

1. You should verify in SearchConsole new site https:// and link this site with Analytics to get Landing Pages. Please check for correct sitewide 301 redirect from http:// to https:// on ALL your assets. This can be CSS/JS/canonicals/images/local links between pages, etc.
2. You should track down this ASAP because of SC show that certificate is self-signed probably same can be seen on your users computers/devices. And this also can lead your visits to 0 if some "warning" was shown. Probably your certificate isn't installed correct on server.

You can PM me with site so i can make quick test.

[Highland]

I would highly recommend you run your site through SSL Labs tool. It should help you identify any problems with your SSL install.

Also, make sure that you're loading GA in a secure manner. If it's not loaded securely and someone says not to load insecure assets then it won't show up.