Moving to TLS and disavow file
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I'm considering the move to TLS/SSL obviously will be setting up the version in Search Console, do I need to re-upload the disavowal file previously generated before the move?
Look forward to your response.
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I appreciate your comprehensive article, However, may I kindly point out my question was to do with Disavow in Google Search Console, Not the implementation of secure.
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1. Get and Install Certificates
Buy a 2048-bit TLS/SSL SHA-2 secure certificate from a Certificate Authority (CA)
Generate some documents so that the CA can issue a signed certificate
Send the CA what they need (your public key and certificate signing request)
Install certificates on your servers
2. Enable HTTPS on Your Servers
Configure your server for HTTPS. Check out these configuration tips for popular servers.
Test properly functioning using an external testing tool. Here’s a good one.
Set a reminder to update your secure certificate before it expires.
3. Code & Configuration Changes
Update site content to request https resources
Update internal links to point to https pages or consider making internal links relative
Use protocol relative URIs. Example: (see note below)
Add self-referencing rel canonical tag to every page, pointing to your HTTPS URIs
Change all Ad calls to work with HTTPS
Update any internal tools, such as Optimizely or CrazyEgg, to work with HTTPS
Update legacy redirects to eliminate chained redirects (see note below)
Update OpenGraph, Schema, Semantic markup etc. to point to HTTPS
Update social sharing buttons to preserve share counts
4. Robots.txt, XML Sitemaps, Search Console and Analytics
Create and verify a new property for the HTTPS site in Google Search Console
Create a new XML sitemap file that points to your HTTPS URLs and upload it to the new property in Search Console
Create a new robots.txt file for the HTTPS site and copy over all existing rules. Include a Sitemap link to the new HTTPS XML sitemap.
Remove all rules from the HTTP robots.txt file, except for the Sitemap link, and leave it in place. This is to encourage bots to crawl and follow all redirects.
Copy any existing disavow file and upload it to the new HTTPS property in Search Console
Note: Don’t use the “Change of Address” feature in Google Search Console. That’s used for migrations to new domains.
5. Redirect HTTP to HTTPs
Deploy the redirect code
Redirect HTTP to HTTPS on IIS (7.x and higher)
Redirect HTTP to HTTPS on Apache
Redirect HTTP to HTTPS on Nginx
Include exceptions to any global redirect directives for your existing robots.txt and XML sitemap files
6. Follow-Up (after the release)
Use a tools, like SSL Check, to scan your site for non-secure content
Check HTTPS redirects and legacy redirects to ensure they work correctly. Check for long redirect chains using a tools that captures the header responses (I like Redirect Path by Ayima). Check for proper redirect functionality from both www and non-www, with and without trailing slashes, etc.
Use “Fetch as Google” tool and submit your Home page and other key pages to speed up the indexing process. I use the “Crawl this URL and its direct links” option.
Monitor the Index Status report in Search Console. The HTTP property should eventually go to zero, and the HTTPS should increase. Take this a step further by calculating the indexation rates of each XML sitemap and monitor them over time.
Monitor the Crawl Errors report in Search Console and address errors, as appropriate
When most new (HTTPS) URLs are already indexed, remove the legacy sitemap link from Robots.txt
Update incoming links that are within your control to point to HTTPS (eg. links to your site from social media profiles)
7. Turn on Strict Transport Security (HSTS)
Once you’re absolutely sure the entire site is working with HTTPS, use HSTS to improve performance by ensuring the browser “remembers” to send all requests to your site to https based on a policy you set. Keep in mind that this means your site will only use HTTPS, so make sure it works! (source).
here is another an good written guide for you.
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Hey there,
You absolutely do need to. One of the biggest mistakes people make is not migrating their disavow file when they switch domains/encryptions.
Sean
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