Google indexing https sites by default now, where's the Moz blog about it!
-
Hello and good morning / happy Friday!
Last night an article from of all places " Venture Beat " titled " Google Search starts indexing and letting users stream Android apps without matching web content " was sent to me, as I read this I got a bit giddy. Since we had just implemented a full sitewide https cert rather than a cart only ssl.
I then quickly searched for other sources to see if this was indeed true, and the writing on the walls seems to indicate so.
Google - Google Webmaster Blog! - http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.in/2015/12/indexing-https-pages-by-default.html
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-to-prioritize-the-indexing-of-https-pages/147179/
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/google-indexing-https-by-default,30781.html
https://hacked.com/google-will-begin-indexing-httpsencrypted-pages-default/
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-app-indexing-documentation-updated-21345.html
I found it a bit ironic to read about this on mostly unsecured sites.
I wanted to hear about the 8 keypoint rules that google will factor in when ranking / indexing https pages from now on, and see what you all felt about this.
Google will now begin to index HTTPS equivalents of HTTP web pages, even when the former don’t have any links to them. However, Google will only index an HTTPS URL if it follows these conditions:
- It doesn’t contain insecure dependencies.
- It isn’t blocked from crawling by robots.txt.
- It doesn’t redirect users to or through an insecure HTTP page.
- It doesn’t have a rel="canonical" link to the HTTP page.
- It doesn’t contain a noindex robots meta tag.
- It doesn’t have on-host outlinks to HTTP URLs.
- The sitemaps lists the HTTPS URL, or doesn’t list the HTTP version of the URL.
- The server has a valid TLS certificate.
One rule that confuses me a bit is :
- **It doesn’t redirect users to or through an insecure HTTP page. **
Does this mean if you just moved over to https from http your site won't pick up the https boost? Since most sites in general have http redirects to https?
Thank you!
-
Can you please make a concrete example of a key-word for that you do not rank nicely. Please also specify the thing which in your opinion need to appear nicely inside the serch and the object for the blog of nextgenapk .
-
Thanks for your response, Peter! As I said, I could be totally wrong - glad I asked this question
Cheers!
-
-
_"Or you can leave but change their links to pass some URL shortener - bit.ly or t.co until they comes with HTTPS version." _
looking at it from technical standpoint, these shortners are also not https (when crawling. Would they not have the same effect as other non https links?
Sorry, I could be going totally wrong about this and this question doesnt make sense at all.
-
Touche, good sir, these are certainly some great ways to go about this. Especially number 3.
Thanks!
Wonder how long we got until http2 implementation...
-
Or you can leave but change their links to pass some URL shortener - bit.ly or t.co until they comes with HTTPS version.
Or you can also make some page as "partners" where you can link only HTTP external sites.
Or you can also make internal page redirector to HTTP site. Like HTTPS -> HTTPS (inside redirector and dummy page) -> HTTP. On this case redirector won't be indexed and that's why it's dummy.
And this is just three ideas that i think for one minute. Probably mine favorite is #3. But it's IMHO.
-
So if my manufacturers don't have https sites, I should remove the links to them since it's going to hinder indexing?
Thanks for the http redirecting to https response.
-
Some sites comes with redirectors or "beacons" for detecting user presence. Example i'm on site X page A and there i click on link to go on page B. But due marketing department this pass via HTTP redirector or pure HTTP (and there 301 redirect to HTTPS). Then this page B can be not indexed.
This mean that once you set sitewide 301 redirect to encrypted connection you must make few more steps:
- you must check all resources to pass via this encrypted channel. Images, CSS, JS - just anything.
- you must check canonical to be set to HTTPS
- you must check that link between pages to be also HTTPS
- you must see any 3rd party tools for encrypted connection. Can be analytics software or "tracking pixels" or heat maps or ads.
- you must check if outgoing links from your site can be via other sites with encryption. Can be Wikipedia, Moz, Google. Since everything there is already encrypted you will skip frustrating HTTPS -> HTTP -> HTTPS jump too.
So then your site can be indexed in HTTPS. It's tricky procedure with many traps.
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
-
404s in Google Search Console and javascript
The end of April, we made the switch from http to https and I was prepared for a surge in crawl errors while Google sorted out our site. However, I wasn't prepared for the surge in impossibly incorrect URLs and partial URLs that I've seen since then. I have learned that as Googlebot grows up, he'she's now attempting to read more javascript and will occasionally try to parse out and "read" a URL in a string of javascript code where no URL is actually present. So, I've "marked as fixed" hundreds of bits like /TRo39,
Algorithm Updates | | LizMicik
category/cig
etc., etc.... But they are also returning hundreds of otherwise correct URLs with a .html extension when our CMS system generates URLs with a .uts extension like this: https://www.thompsoncigar.com/thumbnail/CIGARS/90-RATED-CIGARS/FULL-CIGARS/9012/c/9007/pc/8335.html
when it should be:
https://www.thompsoncigar.com/thumbnail/CIGARS/90-RATED-CIGARS/FULL-CIGARS/9012/c/9007/pc/8335.uts Worst of all, when I look at them in GSC and check the "linked from" tab it shows they are linked from themselves, so I can't backtrack and find a common source of the error. Is anyone else experiencing this? Got any suggestions on how to stop it from happening in the future? Last month it was 50 URLs, this month 150, so I can't keep creating redirects and hoping it goes away. Thanks for any and all suggestions!
Liz Micik0 -
Is Having Content 'Above The Fold' Still Relevant for Website Design and SEO
Hey there, So I have a client who recently 're-skinned' their website and now there is little to no content above the fold. Likewise, I've noticed that since the transition to this new front-end design there has been a drop in rankings for a number of keywords related to one of the topics we are targeting. Is there any correlation here? Is having content 'above the fold' still a relevant factor in determining a websites' searchability? I appreciate you reading and look forward to hearing from all of you. Have a great day!
Algorithm Updates | | maxcarnage0 -
Two months - No Articles or Post Published in our blog. Moz shows less organic traffic.
Two months - No Articles or Post Published in our blog. Moz shows less organic traffic. i know i could not write - i was sick. organic search and keyword also. total pageviews dropped. DA increased by +3 and then -1 in last update. What should i do.
Algorithm Updates | | Esaky0 -
What Is The Deal Between Indeed and Google?
Anyone notice the love affair of Indeed and Google lately? Indeed is cannibalizing the top 30 SERPs for job related keywords. Seeing keywords where Indeed has 10-15 of the organic listings in the top 30. Compete.com is showing a +8% increase in search volume between in April and May. But it seems as if they really started to cannibalize the SERPS since the Penguin update at end of May. Any one else noticing this?
Algorithm Updates | | joncrowe0 -
Why is my client's website, ranking higher for serps on bing and yahoo for competitive keywords
My client is in the competitive Private jet charter space. Why is my client's website, ranking higher for serps on bing and yahoo for competitive keywords phrases? like Private jet charter as an example. http://www.jetcharter.com/
Algorithm Updates | | AndrewSEO0 -
What determines rankings in a site: search?
When I perform a "site:" search on my domains (without specifying a keyword) the top ranked results seem to be a mixture of sensible top-level index pages plus some very random articles. Is there any significance to what Google ranks highly in a site: search? There is some really unrepresentative content returned on page 1, including articles that get virtually no traffic. Is this seriously what Google considers our best or most typical content?
Algorithm Updates | | Dennis-529610 -
Google Cached Pages
I made some on-site changes to a site last week, in particular their page titles. This was all done on the same day at the same time. Now, one of those pages, got re-indexed on August 8th and has my updated changes, which also helped with my ranking. The other page I made changes to still shows a cached version from July 27th, which is before I made the changes. Why wouldn't google have an updated page from August 8th for both pages, not just one?
Algorithm Updates | | MichaelWeisbaum0 -
Best Way to Determine Age of Site
What's the best way to determine the age of a site? Where by it's beginning I mean when it went through the Google Sandbox and has been a functioning site every since. Thanks!
Algorithm Updates | | BobGW0