Http to https:Risky?
-
I recently paid to have my site changed to https but at last minute did not publish it as I got nervous about it! I asked several experienced SEO people and they suggested that as my business is very small, I have a very small budget and it is 100% reliant on search engine hits, that I might take a 10 - 30% hit on ranking and it would take a long time to regain where I was. And that is the best case scenario if we do everything correctly. Apparently even with being very careful, it is easy to make errors which could have some unfortunate consequences.
Any opinions?? Is it worth it?
-
You are going to definitely need HTTPS on your site browsers are already making websites that do not have https look insecure I would change over ASAP.
If you perform it correctly with the proper 301 redirects and update Google search console you will not suffer for more than a week max I have never seen ranking a drop personally out of over 20 sites but I have heard of some it is extremely unlikely that it will occur now.
A how to checklist** is at the top if you. follow that you will be okay.**
- http://www.aleydasolis.com/en/search-engine-optimization/http-https-migration-checklist-google-docs/
- http://www.aleydasolis.com/htaccess-redirects-generator/https-vs-http/
- https://www.semrush.com/blog/https-just-a-google-ranking-signal/
Everyone here is ready to help if you have any questions.
I hope this is of help all the best,
Tom
-
Llanero,
It is going to be required. So you may want to implement it. If people are coming to your site but getting a browser security warning, you are gonna drop as well. At least going through the transition now will make sure your ready for the future.
I have done a few http: conversions and I have not identified and traffic drops.
Thanks,
Don
-
Google identifies several reasons to switch to HTTPS in their website migration guide: There are other benefits, though, including the Google ranking boost.
Google even have their own guide, “Securing Your Website With HTTPS,” which I encourage everyone to read, along with this article. https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6073543
In my case, I just simple made the redirection 301, then I added the property on search console the http and https version and set the https on search console as a main view
- Obviusly I submitted the new sitemap
But this guide will show you a detailed step by step to follow
http://searchengineland.com/http-https-seos-guide-securing-website-246940
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
-
Non-wildcard SSL risky for SEO?
I have a potential client who doesn't seem to be using wildcard SSLs in a multi-site scenario (over 40 sites) - what I'm wondering is the scope of Google's inspection of a site's SSL in this case: https://www.domain.com (good to go) https://domain.com (certificate error) Will Googlebot/Google possibly consider the entire TLD insecure? Could the secured, www-version of the site end up with the "Site is not secure" message in the SERPs as well? Could this invisibly affect the client's rankings? PS: Yes, I know that the right thing to do is go wildcard, but I need an answer to this before recommending a large purchase to them.
Web Design | | scottclark0 -
Will HTTPS Effect SERPS Depending on Different Page Content?
I know that HTTPS can have a positive influence on SERPS. Does anyone have any thoughts or evidence of this effect being different depending on the page content? For example, I would think that for e-commerce sites HTPS is a must, and I guess the change in rankings would be more significant. But what about other situations, AMP pages for example? Of if you run Adsense, or Affiliate links? Or if your page contains a form?
Web Design | | GrouchyKids1 -
Https pages indexed but all web pages are http - please can you offer some help?
Dear Moz Community, Please could you see what you think and offer some definite steps or advice.. I contacted the host provider and his initial thought was that WordPress was causing the https problem ?: eg when an https version of a page is called, things like videos and media don't always show up. A SSL certificate that is attached to a website, can allow pages to load over https. The host said that there is no active configured SSL it's just waiting as part of the hosting package just in case, but I found that the SSL certificate is still showing up during a crawl.It's important to eliminate the https problem before external backlinks link to any of the unwanted https pages that are currently indexed. Luckily I haven't started any intense backlinking work yet, and any links I have posted in search land have all been http version.I checked a few more url's to see if it’s necessary to create a permanent redirect from https to http. For example, I tried requesting domain.co.uk using the https:// and the https:// page loaded instead of redirecting automatically to http prefix version. I know that if I am automatically redirected to the http:// version of the page, then that is the way it should be. Search engines and visitors will stay on the http version of the site and not get lost anywhere in https. This also helps to eliminate duplicate content and to preserve link juice. What are your thoughts regarding that?As I understand it, most server configurations should redirect by default when https isn’t configured, and from my experience I’ve seen cases where pages requested via https return the default server page, a 404 error, or duplicate content. So I'm confused as to where to take this.One suggestion would be to disable all https since there is no need to have any traces to SSL when the site is even crawled ?. I don't want to enable https in the htaccess only to then create a https to http rewrite rule; https shouldn't even be a crawlable function of the site at all.RewriteEngine OnRewriteCond %{HTTPS} offor to disable the SSL completely for now until it becomes a necessity for the website.I would really welcome your thoughts as I'm really stuck as to what to do for the best, short term and long term.Kind Regards
Web Design | | SEOguy10 -
Help, site traffic has dropped significantly since we changed from http to https
Heya, so I am just in charge of the content on the site, and the SEO content, not the actual back-end stuff. A little under 2 weeks ago we switched to https, and our site traffic has been down a lot ever since. When I SERP check our keywords, they don't seem to have dropped in rankings pages. Here is what I got when I asked our dev guy if 301 redirects were put in: I did not add any redirects so all of the content is accessible on both unless individual links get hardcoded one way or the other. The only thing in place is a Cloudflare plugin which rewrites links in cached pages to match the way its accessed, so if for example you access a page over https you don’t get the version cached with a bunch of http links since that will throw up mixed content warnings in the browser. Other than that WP mostly generates all its links to match whatever protocol you are accessing the current page with. We can make specific pages redirect one way or the other in the future if we want to though... As a startup, site traffic is a metric we track to gouge progress, and so I really need to get to the bottom of if it was the change from http to https that has causes the drop, and if so, what can we do about it? Also, in case it is relevant: the bounce rate is now sky high (ave. 15% to 64% this last week!) Any help is very welcome! Site: https://mobileday.com Thank you!
Web Design | | MobileDay1 -
HTTPS redirecting to subdomain; do I need to 301 to HTTP first?
Hello there, quick question on HTTPS downgrade to HTTP. Originally, full site was HTTPS. Redesign eliminated need for secure layer. Site currently has https 301'd to sub.domain.com. Ideally, site would live at domain.com, but with the old site having been indexed https, the security warning triggers when you visit, hence the 301 to a subdomain. Thinking possible solutions here are to a) add back in secure layer or b) 301 all old https pages to new http pages. Have I overlooked something? With (a), I will see no SEO impact, correct? With (b), can I expect impact similar to a relaunch? Have seen a lot of chatter that there is some impact in switching http to https, but not much the other way. Any help much appreciated!
Web Design | | alimo0 -
What is the code to 301 http to www in htaccess file on unix server
i want to 301 my http home page to www on a linux server and all my other redirects are set up similar to this in my htaccess file: redirect 301 /example-page.html http://www.example-page.html how do I 301 redirect: http://example.com to http://www.example.com I've tried all kinds of code recommended for an htaccess file on a linux server and nothing seems to work. Thanks for the help mozzers! Ron
Web Design | | Ron100 -
Is it OK to 301 Redirect http://homepage.com to http://blog.homepage.com?
I don't have a homepage built yet, and I suspect that my blog will be my primary SEO draw in the long term, so I'd like to do a 301 redirect (for the techies, I'm doing it in Django with http.HttpResponsePermanentRedirect ) I just wanted to confirm that this wouldn't cause any problems as Google gets used to my page (it's only been up for a few days) Thanks! -matt
Web Design | | 49wetnoodles0
