Trouble with https
-
A new client of mine utilizes a ssl certificate, so his domain starts with https, it seems to be messing up the seo. I just ran a check with site explorer and if I copy and paste the https url into site explorer, it is not found. when I enter http, I get 1 backlink, no facebook likes and no internal links, all which are totally incorrect. Where do I start to sort this out?, htaccess, and what is the best strategy to take?
Thanks so much for your assistance! Carin
-
Also should I make not of that redirection in google webmaster account too? Like a canonical redirect can be noted?
-
I would like to redirect all https links that have been built to http and make sure http is always served up, not https as it is now. there is no real need for a secure connection as the forms all just ask for email or phone number, no personal information. right now htaccess shows the following: Any help would be appreciated!
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} -
I have never done SEO on an https page, but there are quite a few https pages that rank well. Here are some more notes: http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/seo-for-https-with-s-like-secure
-
I guess it is being redirected in htaccess, he doesn't have a cart its an insurance site, and there is really no need for ssl in my understanding. I have already built links to the https, so I guess I could just redirect them to http. Its worth a try.
But I still don't understand if having https: is a confusing element in seo and dilutes and hides links?
-
The site has been live for a couple of years, I can find it without the https. but the data is not complete. How often approximately does the database update, for facebook and other link data?
-
How long ago was the site launched? I ask this because Seomoz uses a database. What happens if you do a link: www.example.com?
-
Normally I just use https for the pages that require it, like during the cart process. That means the top level pages are http only and SEO isn't affected. Could you do that?
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
-
Losing backlinks between http and https
Late last year, Shopify moved all their sites from http to https. I did an audit of a Shopify site recently and discovered the following... The https version of the site has just 13 backlinks from 5 domains The http version of the site has 568 backlinks from 48 domains So I went into the blog (which is on a different domain - long story) and changed all the backlinks from http to https. One week later... the https version of the site now has 278 backlinks from the same 5 domains. I've been told that Google doesn't worry about this when it comes to rankings. Not sure if this is true or not. But I definitely believe this DOES affect MOZ Domain Authority. Can anybody confirm or deny this? If the backlinks do not change from http to https following a migration, does this impact MOZ Domain Authority and/or Google rankings?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | muzzmoz0 -
Rel Canonical for HTTP and HTTPS pages
My website has a login that has HTTPS pages. If the visitors doesn't log in they are given an HTTP page that is similar, but slightly different. Should I sure a Rel Canonical for these similar pages and how should that be set up? HTTP to HTTPS version or the other way around? Thank you, Joey
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JoeyGedgaud1 -
Redirect HTTP to HTTPS
Hello, Simple question - Should we be redirecting our HTTP pages to HTTPS? If yes, why, if not, why? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | HB170 -
Faulty title, meta description and version (https instead of http) on homepage
Hi there, I am working on a client (http://minibusshuttle.com/) whose homepage is not indexed correctly by Google. In details, the title & meta description are taken from another website (http://planet55.co.uk/). In addition, homepage is indexed as https instead of http. The rest of the URIs are correctly indexed (titles, meta descriptions, http etc). planet55.co.uk used to be hosted on the same server as minibusshuttle.com and an SSL certificate was activated for that domain. I have tried several times to manually "fetch by Google" the homepage, to no avail. The rest of the pages are indexed/refreshed normally and Google responds very fast when I perform any kind of changes there. Any suggestions would be highly appreciated. Kind regards, George
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | gpapatheodorou0 -
Is a rebranding that calls for a domain change a good time to sneak in a change to HTTPS?
Assumed: The material around good migration/redesign practices recommend, logically enough, to change as few things as possible in any given step, thus giving search engines as little trouble as possible identifying and reindexing changes. So if someone is doing significant changes to content, including uri changes, and a rebranding that requires a domain migration, they are generally better off doing one, than the other. 1) Beyond immediate testing and checking for correct crawl health being reestablished after one change, any thoughts on rules of thumb for when to do the second change? Do you do it as soon as you see your rankings/traffic turn the corner and confirm an upward trend after the drop, or wait till you have it all back (or at least hit a plateau)? In the absence of data or best practice I'm thinking of just letting 1/3rd to 2/3rds come back. Is a change to HTTPS small enough/similar enough from the search engine's perspective that it makes more sense to do that at the same time as the rebrand driven domain change? Does this create any special risks or considerations beyond those that arise from the individual components of the change?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JFA0 -
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 -
Switched to HTTPS, now Google ALWAYS changes Page Title & Meta in SERPs
Wordpress website using Yoast. Website switched over from HTTP to HTTPS successfully about 6 months ago. Noticed after the fact that Google almost never displays the Page Title or Meta Description I've created in Yoast. Yoast is the only SEO plug-in enabled. Yoast is set to Force Rewrite the Page TItles. The Page titles & Meta Descriptions are always within the character limit. They also contain either an exact or partial match the queries in which Google shows a different Page Title & Meta Description. For some Queries, Google will display the URL as the Page Title for certain queries. Concrete example, search for: public administration jobs Screenshot of results attached. First time working with HTTPS. The redirects appear to be have done correctly. I'm not sure what the issue is. uOnFjNt
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | 2uinc0 -
Best practices for handling https content?
Hi Mozzers - I'm having an issue with https content on my site that I need help with. Basically we have some pages that are meant to be secured, cart pages, auth pages, etc, and then we have the rest of the site that isn't secured. I need those pages to load correctly and independently of one another so that we are using both protocols correctly. Problem is - when a secure page is rendered the resources behind it (scripts, etc) won't load with the unsecured paths that are in our master page files currently. One solution would be to render the entire site in https only, however this really scares me from an SEO standpoint. I don't know if I want to put my eggs in that basket. Another solution is to structure the site so that secure pages are built differently from unsecured pages, but that requires a bit of re-structuring and new SOPs to be put in place. I guess my question is really about best practices when using https. How can I avoid duplication issues? When do I need to use rel=canonical? What is the best way to do things here to avoid heavy maintenance moving forward?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CodyWheeler0