How do you disallow HTTPS?
-
I currently have a site (startuploans.org) that runs everything as http, recently we decided to start an online application to process loan apps. Now, for one certain section we configured ssl to work (https://www.startuploans.org/secure/).
If I go to the HTTPS url for any of my other pages they show up...I was going to just 301 everything from https but because it is in a subdirectiory I can't...
Also, canonical URL's won't work either because it's a totally different system and the pages are generated in an odd manor.
It's really just 1 page that needs to be disallowed..
Is there any way to disallow all HTTPS requests from robots.txt while keeping all the HTTP requests working as normal?
-
Hi Rick,
Your first thought was correct. If you apply the noindex meta tag to every page in the secure part of the site, then all of those pages will be de-indexed and you will have no duplicate content problem.
For Wordpress, you just need to install a plugin that allows you to edit and apply page elements and meta tags. My preference is Yoast SEO. If you do a plugin search from your dashboard you will find it.
Hope that helps,
Sha
-
Perfect. This is the answer I was looking for...I will just use the meta tag globally in HTTPS....BUT...what about the fact that my entire site is duplicated in HTTPS?
It's all good for the /secure/ part, but what about my Wordpress install...how do I handle that? Maybe my best option is to just load 2 different robots.txt files...
-
Hi Rick,
If you wish to use the robots.txt method to disallow all or part of your site's https protocol, you simply need to load two separate robots.txt files.
The http and https protocols are basically viewed by bots as if they were two completely separate root domains (which I guess you already know as you have mentioned the fact that port 443 is used for the secure protocol).
Google's advice is that to use this method, you should have a separate robots.txt file for each protocol with code as follows:
For your http protocol (http://www.startuploans.org/robots.txt
User-agent: *
Allow: /For the https protocol (https://www.startuploans.org/robots.txt
User-agent: *
Disallow: /However, blocking crawlers with robots.txt is not the most reliable method for excluding pages from Search engines. The reason for this is that the page will continue to be indexed if it happens to be found via a link from another page. Basically, the robots.txt is the sign on the front door that says "Please stay out of our house", but it is never seen by the people who enter via the rear exit or climb in a window!
The most reliable method of excluding pages is to add the noindex meta tag as suggested by MagentoWebDeveloper and Alan.When a bot encounters the noindex meta tag it will send a signal to the search engine to de-index the page and there is no further problem.
I would generally use noindex, follow rather than noindex, nofollow as the nofollow tag will stop the flow of link value through your site. In most cases, as long as the noindex is in place, there is no reason to be worried about the links on the pages being followed.
You should NEVER use both methods at the same time.
Hope that helps,
Sha
-
I agree. Best practices dictate that the proper answer is to block the entire folder from indexing.
-
Why not just NO INDEX / NO FOLLOW the page? What is the reason behind this? Do you want Google not to index your https page? Duplicate content? All checkouts have https.
-
I should have added that -the code above goes in the htaccess...that code would deliver two different robots.txt files based on if it's port 443 (secure) or the normal robots.txt file if it's any other port (normal).
Is there any easier way? I feel like one misstep on this and I could block bots from my site.
-
Nope...thanks though
Code is no problem for us...it's just a technical question. Here is what I want:
I want to restrict robots from the HTTPS version (secure) of my site while leaving the HTTP version (unsecure) perfectly normal and accessible by bots.
Basically what I am asking is..is this the best way (below)? Is there a simpler way...to my knowledge robots.txt doesn't support protocols so doing something like disallow:https://......yada yada won't work.
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} ^443$
RewriteRule ^robots.txt$ robots_ssl.txt [L] -
Hello Rick,
First caveat is I am not sure what you want to accomplish: You want it so that once the app is done, the person is no longer in https:// ?? If that is it, then while I am not sure I will be able to help, I want to clarify the issue.
Currently, you have one page that is https: and that is your loan app page with url of https://startuploans.org/secure/site/step1 (I did not get a step two on my test, but the next page was https://startuploans.org/secure/step3.) You want a person to finish the app, and then not be in https when they return to the site?
I am not a coder per se, but I am wondering if y ou change the target on the menu link to the secure pages to open in a new window there would be no option to go back. once finished, page 3 have an option to close to secure my information. Then, they are left at the page they were on before going to application.
Now, if none of this was what you wanted, I owe you a beer.
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
-
Redirect to http to https - Pros and Cons
Hi, I know its best practice to redirect a website from http to https, instead of having many entry point to your website. When a website has been running for a long time on http and https, what are the SEO Pros and Cons of implementing a redirect from Http to Https?
Technical SEO | | FreddyKgapza1 -
#1 rankings on both HTTP and HTTPS vs duplicate content
We're planning a full migrate to HTTPS for our website which is accessible today by both **www.**website.com, **http://**www.website.com as well as **https://**www.website.com. After the migrate the website will only be accessible by https requests and every other request (Ex. www or http) will be redirected to the same page but in HTTPS by 301 redirects. We've taken a lot of precautions like fixing all the internal links to HTTPS instead of HTTP etc. My questions is: What happened to your rankings for HTTP after making a full migrate to HTTPS?
Technical SEO | | OliviaStokholm0 -
Will a Robots.txt 'disallow' of a directory, keep Google from seeing 301 redirects for pages/files within the directory?
Hi- I have a client that had thousands of dynamic php pages indexed by Google that shouldn't have been. He has since blocked these php pages via robots.txt disallow. Unfortunately, many of those php pages were linked to by high quality sites mulitiple times (instead of the static urls) before he put up the php 'disallow'. If we create 301 redirects for some of these php URLs that area still showing high value backlinks and send them to the correct static URLs, will Google even see these 301 redirects and pass link value to the proper static URLs? Or will the robots.txt keep Google away and we lose all these high quality backlinks? I guess the same question applies if we use the canonical tag instead of the 301. Will the robots.txt keep Google from seeing the canonical tags on the php pages? Thanks very much, V
Technical SEO | | Voodak0 -
Does anyone know if an increase in 804 HTTPS errors will affect SEO rankings?
We recently moved our whole site over from HTTP to HTTPS and we went from having 106 keywords in the top 3 positions to 80 in just one week. The only thing that I can think of that caused the drop is the HTTPS changes to our site. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Technical SEO | | SimonWorsfold0 -
How to Switch My Site to HTTPS in GWT?
I recently bought an SSL certificate and moved my site over to HTTPS. Now how do I make the change in Google Webmaster Tools?
Technical SEO | | sbrault740 -
302 Redirect from HTTP to HTTPS
Hi Guys One of our client's website is having 586 linking unique domains to http://www.XYZ.com.au (to home page only). They have migrated their site to https://www.XYZ.com.au so all of their site pages are on HTTPS now instead of HTTP. The HTTP version of the home page is 302 redirected to HTTPS therefore we think they are not getting all the link juice of 586 linking domains and would like to recommend to change their 302 to 301. However we have not seen any ranking drop due to this migration and redirect in place. The new HTTPS site/redirect is live from last 2 months now. So not sure its worth recommending 301 or not? Does this mean Google is picking up this 302 redirect as normal and attributing all link value to HTTPS version? Please can anyone share their thoughts on recent Google interpretation of 302 from HTTP to HTTPS? Thanks
Technical SEO | | JamesDixon700 -
Does HTTPS Only make a impact on SEO?
Hi. I run a site that's SSL only. (Using a 301 redirect to redirect traffic from http:// to https://). This might be a stupid question but i can't seem to find any conclusive answers to the question by searching. Does this negatively affect the search engine ranking of the site? Regards,
Technical SEO | | Host1
Eivind1 -
What's the best way to deal with an entire existing site moving from http to https?
I have a client that just switched their entire site from the standard unsecure (http) to secure (https) because of over-zealous compliance issues for protecting personal information in the health care realm. They currently have the server setup to 302 redirect from the http version of a URL to the https version. My first inclination was to have them simply update that to a 301 and be done with it, but I'd prefer not to have to 301 every URL on the site. I know that putting a rel="canonical" tag on every page that refers to the http version of the URL is a best practice (http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=139394), but should I leave the 302 redirects or update them to 301's. Something seems off to me about the search engines visiting an http page, getting 301 redirected to an https page and then being told by the canonical tag that it's actually the URL they were just 301 redirected from.
Technical SEO | | JasonCooper0