Looking to remove SSL because it is causing very slow website download speeds. Does WP have a plugin that redirects SSL urls to non SSL urls?

[RosemaryB]

After some extended debate with our web development team we are considering dropping the SSL from our website because it is adding almost 2 additional seconds to our download speeds.  We know there is a SEO boost from having a SSL but we believe the extended download speeds maybe outweighing the benefit.

However we are concerned about the SEO implications of having no method possible of redirect SSL to non SSL webpages.

Does anybody know of a Wordpress Plugin that can force redirect SSL urls to non SSL urls?

[RosemaryB]

Thanks Dirk.  I know this is a strange situation.  Good article too.

[DirkC]

Hi,

Don't think that there is a plugin for this (most people need it the other way round).If you have access to htaccess you could add a rewrite rule which is redirecting all https request to http - see https://sites.google.com/site/onlyvalidation/page/301-redirect-https-to-http-on-apache-server.

Options +FollowSymlinks 
RewriteEngine on 
RewriteBase /

RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} ^443$ [OR]

RewriteCond %{HTTPS} =on 
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]

The other option would be to check if you can optimise the https to render faster - you could check this article (especially the part on SPDY): https://yoast.com/move-website-https-ssl/

Hope this helps,

Dirk