How does switching to HTTPS effect Google Analytics?
-
We are looking at making our site HTTPS. We have been using the same Google Analytics account for years and I like having the historical data. All of our pages will be the same, we are just going to redirect from the http to https. Does anything need to be done with Google Analytics? What about other addons such as Optimizely, Crazy Egg, or Share this?
-
I'm not a netsec expert or a technical SEO expert, but I'm running SEO for my company and have been looking into this for a while now. The tips I can give you are: add rel="canonical" tags to all the http:// versions of your site pointing to the https:// version. Once you get an SSL certificate, make sure to claim all 4 variations of your URL (http://, http://www., https://, https://www.) in webmaster tools and designate which is canonical (this will just make sure the Googlebot knows which is canonical, you'll still want to add the tag to your site pages). Finally, make sure that if you do decide to switch to HTTPS:// (which I highly recommend - some people, myself included, now instinctively use https:// over http:// and if someone points a link at https:// when you aren't using it, Chrome will display a yellow warning interstitial and a red X over the https:// in the address bar), get an SHA-2 certificate, rather than SHA-1, as Google is sunsetting it in the next year. To the comment on page load speed - Https:// slows page load down, but generally not by a substantial amount (also, there are plenty of other ways to address page load time that can offset the hit, and if you've already done all that, the page load hit won't hurt you, since you're in better shape than everyone else). Also, while Google's incorporation of https:// as a signal so far has not seemed to impact results much, it's a near certainty that, based on Google's current behavior, it will become less of a signal and more of a necessity, and as more websites adopt it, the less the slight page load hit will matter. Websites are essentially required to adopt it sometime in their lifecycle, as growth makes security much more of a concern.
Further reading on SHA-1 and SHA-2:
https://konklone.com/post/why-google-is-hurrying-the-web-to-kill-sha-1
http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com/2014/09/gradually-sunsetting-sha-1.html
-
We know that:
- Site Speed is a Google ranking signal
- https is now a ranking signal also
2a) https slows down a site - Is it worth going https?
-
Yeah Microsoft, for some reason, likes to make things a little more complex than it needs to be. Here are a couple of links I found that might help:
http://www.iis.net/configreference/system.webserver/httpredirect
http://forums.iis.net/t/1190228.aspx?Specific+url+301+redirection
-
We are using an IIS 7.5 server so I am looking into the best way to do 301 redirects in that. Seems like it would be much easier on a Linux based system.
-
Pay particular attention to load speed. HTTPS encrypts everything and sends it to the client browser where it is then decrypted. If certain pages are loading much slower or if you are using the same images/resources on multiple pages you will want to look at caching various resources.
As Highland mentioned, you'll want to make sure the code is using relative URLs and not hard coded "http" URLs because that will not only impact load time but it may give the visitor an undesirable experience if the site is all messed up. If you are on linux make sure that your .htaccess file does a 301 from http requests to https for obvious reasons.
I hope that helps!
-
I am using HTTP Watch right now and that seems to give a pretty good list of all my HTTP requests. Any other things to look for? I have been researching as much as I can find and want to make sure I get this all right on the first run.
-
The main thing you'll want to make sure is that all your JavaScript libraries and images are loading from HTTPS and not HTTP. If you don't, the browser may not load those resources or may show your site as not secured. The default Analytics code will do this for you, but make sure your other libraries are doing so. A great tool for finding any you've missed is Firebug, a Firefox addon. You open it up, load your website and on the Net tab you can see the URL of every resource loaded and even break them down by type (image, JS, etc).
Analytics itself is not affected by HTTPS. Your metrics will continue to load just fine.
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
-
Google Analytics Numbers Are Weird
Hi, I'm having a strange problem from past one month. My website gets about 10k pageviews a month with an average bounce rate of 50%. Lately, I observed a strange thing. The avg time on page of visitors from selected countries is less than 1 second and the bounce rate is zero!! How is this possible? This is happening from past one month and it would be really helpful if you guys could tell me what exactly is happening?? Ive attached a screenshot for better understanding. website url : https://www.specbee.com/ fIAXXgF 3zQuBAN
Reporting & Analytics | | ganesh10 -
Email traffic tracking in Google Analytics
Hello! I have a question about how to assure email traffic is properly tracked in GA > Acquisition > All Traffic > Channels. **First, some background... ** Our company (Wisconsin's largest group dental practice) is about to revamp the way we try to re-capture patients who don't have a future appointment set with us. Part of that process will include emails. Those emails will point back to our website to request an appointment. Now to the question... Is there anything special we should do to assure that links coming to the website and the resulting appointment request goal conversions track appropriately and appear under "Email" in the Default Channel Group of Analytics > Acquisition > All Traffic > Channels area of GA? For example, should we use Campaign URL Builder to establish UTM links? Thanks in advance for any feedback. Erik
Reporting & Analytics | | SmileMoreSEO0 -
How to Configure & Tracking Images in Google Analytic?
Hello Experts, Can anyone tell me for my eCommerce site how to configure images tracking in google analytic? And where can I see the image traffic in google analytic? Not sure I am asking correct question but confuse about image traffic. Thanks! Wrights!
Reporting & Analytics | | wright3350 -
What does 'Safari (in-app)' mean in Google Analytics browser traffic?
Hi, can anyone explain what 'Safari (in-app)' refers to in my browser sources? Also, it has a very high bounce rate - any ideas why?
Reporting & Analytics | | b4cab1 -
Google Analytics Events that lead to Goals (conversions)
Hello! I'm in the process of setting up Events in Google Analytics to track the performance of banner ads on our site. While that will take care of the action performed by the visitor (i.e. the click on the banner), it doesn't tell me if the visitor ultimately completed the form where the banner ad directs them (which is set up as one of out site's Goals). Once the Event is in place, will I be able to track the Goal conversions that it leads to? It's nice that Events will tell me which banner drove someone to the form, but if I'm not able to see if that Event led to a Goal conversion it seems like something will be missing. So, is this something that's already available within Goals or Events reporting, or is there an additional step I need to take? Thanks in advance for your feedback! Erik
Reporting & Analytics | | SmileMoreSEO0 -
Where do I find Google Analytics link tracking for outbound links?
We implemented this script in source, where would I find the outbound link tracking; in Events?
Reporting & Analytics | | KnutDSvendsen0 -
Cookie tracking in Google Analytics
Hi How do I remove the "/?__utma=...." at the end of my URLs?We have a site http://www.jetonline.co.za/, if you click on one of the menu navigation links i.e. "fashion". A long "/?__utma=...." url appears. I understand this is for tracking as we have separate domains for each page but is there a way to remove this dynamic url and keep it hidden from users?Thanks in advance
Reporting & Analytics | | NeilPursey0 -
Google Analytics - multiple counters
Hey there Mozzers! One of our customers wants to seperate one Google Analytics account into multiple accounts. The website is divided in three parts: Main: www.website.nl Sub1: www.website.nl/sub1 Sub2: http://www.website.nl/sub2 And they would like 4 different reports under one account. R1: Total count R2: Website.nl (without Sub 1 & Sub2) R3: Sub1 R4: Sub2 I know multiple counters will get in conflict with each other, so I have to implement some filters. E.g: We can configure a filter for R3 on "astmakids" in URL. My question is: is there a safe way to implement multiple Analytics filters on one website? And how will R3 see visitors that come from the root domain astmafonds.nl? Are they referrals? Thanks a lot in advance!! Partouter
Reporting & Analytics | | Partouter0