Redirecting traffic to https
-
Hey!
i was wondering, should i force all traffic to https address? i know that overall a better secured website will rank better since it earns more trust from users which means less bounce rate and the list of benefits is endless..
but should i FORCE ALL traffic to a https? or maybe only force a http to https? or not at all? -
WOW.. i never even thought about it.. i made sure to make changes in google analytics to track HTTPS only. anything else i should do for a better more accurate data?
-
Yes, you should do it to avoid loss of attribution and many more advantages of HTTPS over Http, as Logan says below.
-
Hi Sharon,
Your site should be entirely one or the other - and since it sounds like you've already got an SSL, I'd go with HTTPS. If you have traffic bouncing back and forth between HTTP and HTTPS, you're resetting the session in Google Analytics when someone clicks from an HTTPS page to a HTTP page. This creates a ton of dirty data and lost attribution.
-
all above has been done already. it just a matter of if i should or not. but i guess i should
-
Hi Sharon. The basic steps are as follows:
- Purchase an SSL certificate.
- Perform a full back-up of your site in case you need to revert back.
- Configure any hard internal links within your website, from HTTP to HTTPS. This show green lock.
- Redirect any external links you control to HTTPS, such as directory listings.
- Update htaccess applications, such as Apache Web Server, LiteSpeed, NGinx Config and your internet services manager function (such as Windows Web Server), to redirect HTTP traffic to HTTPS.
- Implement 301 redirects on a page-by-page basis.
- Update any links you use in marketing automation tools, such as email links.
- Set up an HTTPS site in Google Search Console and Google Analytics. This is very important too.
I think you don't have any problems whith this steps.
-
Personally, I am redirecting and forcing all users to use https. Https isn't going anywhere and http has no benefits over https, so trying to support both and not doing redirects is just not worth the effort. Keep it simple and just force all users to use https.
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
-
Need advice on redirects
Hi, I have new web addresses for my subpages. None if them have external links. Should I do redirects to the new pages or just leave the old pages in 404 and let google crawl and rank the new page. I am asking because my current pages don’t have a good ranking and I am thinking starting with a clean url is better. Thank you,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoanalytics1 -
Http vs. https - duplicate content
Hi I have recently come across a new issue on our site, where https & http titles are showing as duplicate. I read https://moz.com/community/q/duplicate-content-and-http-and-https however, am wondering as https is now a ranking factor, blocked this can't be a good thing? We aren't in a position to roll out https everywhere, so what would be the best thing to do next? I thought about implementing canonicals? Thank you
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BeckyKey0 -
Implementing Large-Scale Redirects
Hello All, I have a situation with my site where a vendor created a local directory of locations on a sub-domain of my site. This sub-domain has approximately 2000 pages. It is a PR3 and a good backlink profile (not many links. Mostly citations. Not spammed). It get decent traffic but 80% of the traffic is driven by ppc. We have created a new local section on the main page of our website and we are trying to weigh the benefit of redirecting all of those pages on the old sub-domain. We anticipate that this new section will begin to replace the old sub-domain in serps. Additionally, when our deal with the company that manages this sub-domain ends in three months, the pages will no longer exist. Is it worth redirecting the pages (you might need more information to give good insight into that)? Also, if we do implement approx. 2000 redirects, what effect will that have on the main site from an SEO perspective. Is it possible that Google might ignore this large scale redirect effort? Will the value also be limited by the fact the redirect might only be live for a month before the original pages are deleted? Any help/insight with this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ResponseMine0 -
What if a 301 redirect is removed?
Suppose the following scenarios after a 301 redirects from source URL to targent URL is removed. 1. If source URL raises a 404 error, will target URL retained the link juice previously passed from source URL? 2. If source URL starts to show different content than what is showing on target URL, will the previously passed link juice be credited back to the source URL?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Bull1350 -
How do you find all of your 301 redirects?
I would like a full list of 301 redirects that we have on our site. Is there a way to export it? I tried Bing Webmaster tools and the list was incomplete. We use IIS. Any ideas?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | EcommerceSite0 -
How to stop Google crawling after 301 redirect?
I have removed all pages from my old website and set 301 redirect to new website. But, I have verified old website with Google webmaster tools' HTML verification file which enable me to track all data and existence of pages in Google search for my old website. I was assumed that, Google will stop crawling and DE-indexed all pages after 301 redirect. Because, I have set 301 redirect before 3 months. Now, I'm able to see Google bot activity on my website with help of Google webmaster tools. You can find out attachment to know more about it. How can it possible & How Google can crawl removed pages? You can see following image to know more about it. First & Second
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CommercePundit0 -
Is it ok to redirect
Hello my question is presently we holding one .com for our website and i see in analytics some time people typing .es version of our site too.. which is not registered yet. is it ok to buy that .es extension and do a redirect to our .com version ? thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | idreams0 -
How long is it safe to use a 302 redirect?
Hi All, Lets assume there is site A and site B, both sites are live on the internet today as standalone businesses, but they sell very similar products. Site B has built up some link equity and will eventually become the domain for site A due to an organisational re-brand. For the time being however site A will remain, but site B needs to disappear temporarily, but not lose the link equity which has been built up against it. My current thinking is to 302 redirect site B to site A such that users and search bots accessing site B will be redirected to site A whilst leaving the link equity that exists against site B fully intact and allowing us to continue to grow it should we wish to. The question is, does anybody have a view on how long it is safe to use a 302 temporary redirect for? i.e., is 8-10 months to long. Thanks, Ben
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BenRush0
