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
-
Redirects Advice Please
Hi All, I have been approached by someone to look at their website who has seen a rank drop over the last week of around 15 places. On a quick look at their website I have seen what I am imaging could be the culprit as I imagine it will be creating a re-direct loop. However, i am not 100% with these things so would like some others opinions.com They have a wordpress website. There home page lets say https://theirsite.com/ They have an internal page built for a search term https://www.theirsite.com/keyword In wordpress they have set that page in settings to be the homepage. However, I looked on their server and via htaccess they have a 301 redirect from https://www.theirsite.com/keyword to https://www.theirsite.com/ So the questions are: 1. Could this be creating a loop? 2. The redirect was placed around a week before the rank drop. Could this possibly be the cause of the drop? 3. I am assuming that removing the 301 from htaccess is recommended? Thanks in advance for any advice
Technical SEO | | DaleZon0 -
Redirecting pages from a website to another
Hello Moz community, I’ve got a question and hope you can help! I’ve been working to improve my website’s ranking for the keywords “singing lessons London”. My current website url is http://www.sonic-crew-london.com and the page dedicated to the singing lessons is http://www.sonic-crew-london.com/booking/singinglessons.php I’ve recently bought the url http://www.singing-lessons-london.com which I hope will help to climb Google’s ranks a bit more easily for my chosen keywords. I thought I could redirect the old singing page to the new url. Is that something you would recommend me to do? Is there any specific procedure I should follow to make sure the transition runs smoothly? Any help really appreciated! Many thanks
Technical SEO | | SonicCrewLondon0 -
Best Practice on 301 Redirect - Images
We have two sites that sell the same products. We have decided to retire one of the sites as we'd like to focus on one property. I know best practice is to redirect apples to apples, which in our case is easily done since the sites sold the same thing. www.SiteABC.com/ProductA can be redirected to www.SiteXYZ.com/ProductA. My question is how far does that thinking go regarding images? Each product has a main product page, of course, and then up to 6 images in some cases. Is it necessary to redirect www.SiteABC.com/ProductA-Image1.jpg to www.SiteXYZ.com/ProductA-Image1.jpg? Or can they all be redirected to just the product page?
Technical SEO | | Natitude0 -
Canonicalization on my website
I am kind of new to all this but I would like to understand canonicalization. I have a website which when you arrive on it is www.mysite.com but once inside and flicking back to the homepage it reverts to www.mysite.com/index.html. Should I be doing something re canonicalization? If so what? Will the link juice be diluted by having two home page versions? Thanks
Technical SEO | | FCAbroad0 -
Website Redirects
Background information: We have a website (devicelock.com) which is currently our corporate website. The company use to operate under (ntutility.com) which is now being redirected to devicelock.com via a DNS Forward - 302 Redirect. The IT admin (a founder of the company) is reluctant to change it to a 301. The current flow is ntutility.com redirects to protect-me.com then redirects again to devicelock.com. When i search up Devicelock on google, it shows up as ntutlity.com. There is no devicelock.com homepage on google search. Question: Are there any negative implications about this? Is this hurting our SEO in any way? When i do link building, will this have any negative affects? Will my links for devicelock be attributed to devicelock.com?
Technical SEO | | Devicelock0 -
Apache redirects
Hey all I'm handling some redirects and am fuzzy with Apache server stuff. I'm redirecting dynamic URLs and the only thing that's changing is the new domain. I have implemented this in the server file (thus far unsuccessfully): RewriteEngine on
Technical SEO | | jamesm5i
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^.oldsite.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.)$ http://www.newsite.com/$ [L,R=301] Any ideas on what I can change to make it work? For those who are more familiar I know I'm missing something simple. Thanks as always!0 -
301 Redirect Domain or 301 Redirect Domain + Interior Pages
Hello - My company acquired another company in our industry and our IT team immediately set up the acquired companies domain name as a an alias to our site. This created a duplicate version of our website under another domain name and Google started ranking interior pages from the aliased acquired site for several top keywords that were previously held by our real site. Should we 301 redirect just the top level domain name of the acquired site to the real site or 301 redirect the top level domain name and the interior pages on the acquired site to help ensure that our real domain will take back the rankings it once had? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | Room2140 -
301 redirects and OSE
We run a blog/video real estate site (yochicago.com) as one of the venues for sponsored content for our clients looking for off-page SEO and inbound links. I'm working with a client who we've linked to a handful of times in the last few weeks, but I'm not seeing any external links from our site on PRO/OSE. Come to find that our writer has been linking to http://clientsite.com, instead of http://www.clientsite.com, which is the canonical site. I wouldn't have thought that this would make a difference, and about an hour of web research seems to confirm that it shouldn't make a difference, save for losing a little bit of SEO credit. What am I missing? Any input would be appreciated.
Technical SEO | | mikescotty0