Adding https version of website: how best to redirect
-
If I have 4 versions of my site
http://www
http://
https://www
https://What is the best way to redirect without losing seo positions? i have been mainly using http://www but have recently added my ssl so https works also. I heard at Moz Con that I should get the https working.
All of my marketing and ads are going to http://www
301 redirect 3 of them? Which 3? If https is becoming important, should that be my main url? will it hurt my seo to switch?
Thank you so much in advance!
-
I see you added the certificate but you didn’t force https
flow the guide and make sure it all 4 URLs point to the (redirects) to https://www
you can do it in no time with cloudflare then check it with
https://varvy.com/tools/redirects/
hope that helps,
tom
-
I have not already 301'd the site to https. But either url works since I turned on the ssl at my host.
I will check into the Cloudflare.
-
Did you allready 301 the site to https?
if so I would updat the URLs & then follow the instructions
if https is in google index I would fix it with a search & replace or CloudFlare (the 1 thing on the list is this url https://raventools.com/blog/free-ssl-http2/ use it if it’s something you want to have do the work
-
So you recommend just going forward with the https switch even though I have not done all the things on the checklist?
-
If it’s hand coded use a text editor & search for http replac with https if using Dreamweaver it has a full site wide search and replace.
-
Definitely don’t panic and you’re not in trouble. What I would do for his run a search and replace on the URL‘s if you’re running a non CMS site find a search & replace CLI or script that works with the code you’re site was made with if you’re hosting company is managing the site ask them for help
run the search & replace to fix the URL‘s
one way is to just add CloudFlare.com for free and use the felxable cert
if your on a CMS like wordpress you can use a plugin like better search & replace
-
I may have made a mess for myself. I turned on the ssl a couple of weeks ago (2-3) but didn't do the other things first. Should i remove the ssl from my site until I go through the checklist? I am starting to panic, hoping i have not gotten myself into big trouble.
My internal links, ads, canonical urls all still use http.
-
Thank you
-
See
Aleyda Solis The HTTP to HTTPs Migration Checklist in Google Docs to Share, Copy & Download & the SEMrush guide
- https://www.aleydasolis.com/en/search-engine-optimization/http-https-migration-checklist-google-docs/
- https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XB26X_wFoBBlQEqecj7HB79hQ7DTLIPo97SS5irwsK8/edit#gid=1975121463
- https://www.semrush.com/blog/http-to-https-a-complete-guide-to-securing-your-website-semrushchat/
Hope this helps,
Tom
-
Honestly, the way you set up a 301 is much more dependent on the server like Apache and Nginx then it is on a CMS
if you are looking for one I would recommend using WordPress or Drupal for a CMS If you're thinking of switching WordPress is much more user-friendly slightly quicker and many many more developers are available to help with it.
Tom
-
Also James telling somebody to add HSTS with preload is extremely dangerous unless they know without a doubt that their redirects are set up properly it will keep them in the browser improperly for up to six months your advice is to simply add H STS with preload and it was abundantly clear that this person knew that the four URLs were what was to choose from. I included the completed 2 to 5-page references for a complete package.
"After a period of time - and rankings seem ok . - you can implement oscp stapling and some server wide HSTS. and submit to teh preload directory. "
For the record do not employ HSTS with preload until you have determined that all your subdomains if you have any, are going to have HSTS in addition that all your redirects are completely perfect and the way you want them. I would check using a tool called screaming frog Seo spider or my personal favorite deepcrawl.com
**Your rankings could be just fine and it would not necessarily show that you have a redirect chain permanently embedded for six months in your set up in less you check it first. **
"OCSP stapling is an alternative approach to the original Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) for determining whether an SSL certificate is valid or not. It does this by allowing the web server to query the OCSP responder (a certificate authority’s server dat listens for OCSP requests) and then caches the response__. This allows the web server to check the validity of its certificates and eliminates the need for the client to contact the certificate authority"
OCSP can and should be implemented at the time of employing the SSL certificate
Tom
-
James,
I don't want to be rude saying this but it sounds like you're telling me the basics of search engine optimization redirects and telling me I did not include it in my response?
I appreciate you pointing out how you read my comment and definitely appreciate your feedback. But if it came across as me telling them to create infinite redirects I am asking you to please read it again. don't you believe I read the whole post because I'm not talking about the proper protocol?
HTTPS is known as TLS / SSL or Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS)
A lot of the terminology you're using is not relevant to the question because once again I provided with them with the code to actually implement this check it for problems and fix what was broken I don't know exactly why you chose to tell me I did it incorrectly but if you would like to outline exactly how I did this incorrectly I would be more than happy to read it as I always open to constructive conservativism
"http://www
http_://_
https://www
https://What is the best way to redirect without losing SEO positions?"
**My answer was a use www. with HTTPS **
**You need to redirect you're an entire site to whatever canonical your considering use the www. it might be smart to just add the HTTPS://www. and continue with the www. **
Set you're preferred domain (www or non-www) as I do not have their URL I cannot look at rather or not they have a 301 redirects chained as you seem to be implying? But don't worry I took care of it at the end I said please check all this with this tool https://varvy.com/tools/redirects/ that would show any redirects that were forming a redirect chain.
James, I apologize if it was hard for you to follow I thoroughly believe that I gave them everything that they needed to complete the project and I am always here to answer questions.
If you are asked by anybody that present you with four URLs which one they should go with and how they should go about redirecting it I would hope it you would not write what you had written to me.
I am also the only one who gave third-party references and tools to accomplish this task.
I wish you the very best,
Tom
-
It does not matter if you have a CMS or not
You need to redirect your entire site to whatever canonical you want considering use the www. it might be smart to just add the HTTPS and continue with the www. or
Set you're preferred domain (www or non-www)
USE:
https://www.aleydasolis.com/htaccess-redirects-generator/ to make the code needed or use the code below to force HTTPS
HTTP to HTTPS
If your web server is running Apache, you can easily redirect all of your HTTP traffic to HTTPS by adding the following code to your
.htaccess
is the recommended method for redirecting a site running on Apache.<code class=" language-php">RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]</code>
<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} !^443$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]</ifmodule>If your web server is running Nginx, you can easily redirect all of you're HTTP traffic to HTTPS by adding the following code to you're Nginx config file. This is the recommended method for redirecting servers running on Nginx
<code class=" language-php">server { listen 80; server_name domain.com www.domain.com; return 301 https://domain.com$request_uri; }</code>
Set you're preferred domain (www or non-www)
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/44231
No-WWW
<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.example.com$
RewriteRule (.*) https://example.com/$1 [R=301,L]</ifmodule>WWW
<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example.com$
RewriteRule (.*) https://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]</ifmodule>one of the best guides on how to add HTTPS
https://www.keycdn.com/blog/http-to-https/
https://kinsta.com/knowledgebase/redirect-http-to-https/
https://www.sslshopper.com/apache-redirect-http-to-https.html
The following will differ from platform to platform. In this example, we will show you how to update your URL. We recommend using a free tool from Interconnect IT called “Database search and replace script in php.” You could run update queries yourself, but there are a lot of tables and metadata fields you will probably miss unless you have an exact list.
We recommend doing dis on a dev server and moving it back, or at least backing up you're database first to be safe as this script does grab your local database credentials. Simply drop their program into the root of your site via FTP. Then browse to it in your browser. (We named our folder “search-replace-db”)
You can tan insert what you want to replace. Make sure you enter all of the formats you have mixed and matched over the years such as:
-
http://mydomain.com
tohttps://mydomain.com
-
http://www.mydomain.com
tohttps://www.mydomain.com
Check it with
Redirect mapper | A tool that checks redirects from different versions of ...
<cite class="_Rm">https://varvy.com/tools/redirects/</cite>
Hope this helps,
Tom
-
-
Thanks James. I don't have a CMS. My pages are all hand coded html pages. (would dearly love to switch to a cms in the future since i have over 100 pages). Does your advice change in anyway?
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
-
Best way to create robots.txt for my website
How I can create robots.txt file for my website guitarcontrol.com ? It is having login and Guitar lessons.
Technical SEO | | zoe.wilson170 -
Bigcommerce only allows us to have https for our store only, not the other pages on our site, so we have a mix of https and http, how is this hurting us and what's the best way to fix?
So we aren't interested in paying a thousand dollars a month just to have https when we feel it's the only selling point of that package, so we have https for our store and the rest of the site blogs and all are http. I'm wondering if this would count as duplicate content or give us some other unforeseen penalty due to the half way approach of https being implemented. If this is hurting us, what would you recommend as a solution?
Technical SEO | | Deacyde0 -
Mobile website question
Hi Mozzers, A website I manage has a mobile friendly version of their main website and a /m version as well. I was wondering if anyone had any experience in the best way of handling this? Should we just get rid of the /m version and tag the mobile friendly version? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | KarlBantleman0 -
301 Redirect Best Practices
Hi SEOs, Question about ranking/redirects. If I have a particular page that is already ranking for a couple KWs in top SERPs, but know there are higher volume KWs I can optimize for should I just leave it as is or change the URL key and redirect for the time being until Google re-indexes. Example:
Technical SEO | | IceIcebaby
current URL: www.example.com/action/best-movies
new URL: www.example.com/action/best-action-movies
(the current would be ranking for "best action moves" whereas the new would include the actual "best action movies" KW) Let me know if I can clarify, thank you!0 -
Slug redirect
Hi All, I'm facing a small yet big problem on one of my sites that I'll try to explain: I have a site with thousands of URL's, all with an odd link structure, like index.php/modules?=name=Video , etc I want to build a proper link structure and for that I'll have to replace that links. My question is: 1. Will I have any relevant SEO problem to do 301 redirects from the old links to the new?
Technical SEO | | nunob.staredition
2. Should I do it all at the same time or do it by parts?
3. What options do I have to avoid give not found errors / redirects for the old links? Thanks for the help.0 -
301 redirect to new website
We are migrating to a new website that will be using entirely new URLs under the same domain as the old website. The old website is a custom PHP script and the new website uses Drupal. I know that I should use individual 301 redirects to the corresponding new pages. My question is just how to set up the hundreds of 301 redirects from the old website to the new one? Here is the process I've come up with. Please let me know if there is an easier and better way for this. Before actually changing to the new website: download an advanced report with all pages on this domain from OSE. Find corresponding pages on the new website Make the hundreds of 301 redirect lines in an .htaccess file with the following code: redirect 301 /oldurl.html http://domain.com/the-full-url Thanks in advance for your help!
Technical SEO | | qbeeker0 -
Should I promote each section of my website
Hi, i have a magazine website and i have been heavily promoting the main page of the site thinking that all the work i am doing for the main page which includes links and so on would then pass onto the rest of my site but i have a feeling this is not correct. Can anyone let me know if i should be concentrating on each section of the site and also on my articles should i be promoting these articles or let the search engines pick them up. I already use facebook and twitter to promote new articles but i would like to know if i should be doing more than this
Technical SEO | | ClaireH-1848860 -
How do I resolve Twin domains? redirect website.com to www.website.com?
I am new to this website. Tried to run a campain and got a warning that website.com resolves to www.website.com which hinders SERP by competing for Keyword indexing!. (website is my domain name) Would appreciate help with this. Thanks. S.H. PS: here is the exact wording of error : We have detected that the domain www.yfvaccine.com and the domain yfvaccine.com both respond to web requests and do not redirect. Having two "twin" domains that both resolve forces them to battle for SERP positions, making your SEO efforts less effective. We suggest redirecting one, then entering the other here.
Technical SEO | | sherohass0