Redirecting traffic to https

[SharonEKG]

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?

[SharonEKG]

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?

[martinxm]

Yes, you should do it to avoid loss of attribution and many more advantages of HTTPS over Http, as Logan says below.

[LoganRay]

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.

[SharonEKG]

all above has been done already. it just a matter of if i should or not. but i guess i should

[martinxm]

Hi Sharon. The basic steps are as follows:

1. Purchase an SSL certificate.
2. Perform a full back-up of your site in case you need to revert back.
3. Configure any hard internal links within your website, from HTTP to HTTPS. This show green lock.
4. Redirect any external links you control to HTTPS, such as directory listings.
5. 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.
6. Implement 301 redirects on a page-by-page basis.
7. Update any links you use in marketing automation tools, such as email links.
8. 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.

[ThomasHarvey]

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.